Sunday, May 11, 2014

Analyzing the Fictional Lawyers of Spring Legal Mystery Reading

A week long jury trial that has turned into a trial longer than a week has taken me away from blogging for a few days. I expect life to allow me more blogging time by the middle of the week.

Also keeping me away from the blog was a trip to Alberta last weekend to attend the graduation banquet from law school for our younger son, Michael. We spent the weekend in Banff where the banquet was held. Spring in the Rockies has been as late as Saskatchewan. It snowed most of the weekend in the mountains. The banquet was a wonderful event. (A year ago Michael provided a guest post review on One-L by Scott Turow which is a barely fictionalized account of Turow’s 1st year law experience at Harvard.)

In my last post I set out the primary 13 lawyers in the 7 legal mysteries I read during what I had thought would be spring.

Out of the group there were 2 prosecutors, 6 defence counsel, 4 civil litigators and 1 articling student (in Canada law school graduates must spent a year of apprenticeship called articling before they can gain admission to the bar).

While not intentional I wonder if I, unconsciously as a defence counsel in the criminal cases in which I am involved, looked to books featuring lawyers defending those accused of crimes. I certainly relate better to defence lawyers than prosecutors.

Out of the 4 lawyers in civil cases 3 of them represented plaintiffs. Only 1 lawyer, David Sloane in The Jury Master, acted for defendants. My practice also includes civil court cases. Where the parties are individuals I represent both plaintiffs and defendants. When the cases involve large corporations or governments I will be on the plaintiffs side of the courtroom.

The books do a good job of showing that the personalities of lawyers are reflected in their court personas.

Brian Pomeroy and John Brovak in Kill All the Lawyers by William Deverell are larger than life characters whose private lives are filled with crises. In court they are the classic Hollywood lawyers relishing the dramatic moment.

Steve Solomon, featured in Paul Levine’s Solomon & Lord series, is flamboyant and funny in and out of court. While Solomon is over the top in his fictional courtroom humour there is wit in real life courtrooms. In the tension of a court case all involved may find humour. Often it is not as funny when repeated as it is the humour of the unexpected moment rather than a planned joke.

Rarely on T.V. or in the movies do we see a quietly effective lawyer guiding his or her client’s case through the legal system. They do appear in books where their subtler skills can be better expressed.

Jonathan Klein in Defending Jacob by William Landay is a defence counsel who does not dazzle with verbal pyrotechnics. At the same time he will be the lawyer to find the case for a legal argument that can provide victory.

Godfrey Higgs, the defence counsel in Who Killed Sir Harry by Eric Minns, is the fictional and real life name of the lawyer who successfully defended Sir Alfred de Marigny in 1943 in the Bahamas. Higgs, unlike Steve Solomon winging it in the courtroom, carefully built up the information to allow him to impeach the credibility of a supposed Miami fingerprint expert in the Bahamian murder trial.

Victoria Lord dresses conservatively and prepares obsessively. She functions well in court cases which proceed essentially to the lawyer’s plan. She does find it harder to adjust her strategy in the middle of the trial.

What I regret in my spring legal mystery reading is that only 2 of the 13 fictional lawyers were women and none of the 7 authors was a woman. Should I embark on another spring legal mystery reading season in 2015 I will look for female authors and fictional lawyers.

10 comments:

  1. As I said before, Bill, I find your take on lawyers for the obvious reason - true experience. It would be great to read/hear about more female lawyers too.

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    1. Moira: Thanks for the kind words. With Canadian law schools having a majority of women we shall see if legal mysteries reflect how many women are becoming lawyers.

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  2. Bill, thanks for this analysis of the various fictional lawyers. In context, what kind of criminal cases do you take up as a defence counsel and what is your courtroom experience like? More questions come to mind but I think I'll leave it that for now.

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    1. Prashant: Thanks for the comment. I represent accused across the spectrum of criminal offences. I have a general practice in criminal and in civil law. It is hard to describe courtroom experience without getting into specifics I do not consider appropriate for a blog.

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    2. Thank you, Bill. As far as the courtroom goes, the Indian film industry often glamourises and exaggerates trial scenes which is nothing like what one "witnesses" in real courts in India, or anywhere else I think.

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    3. Prashant: Thanks for the comment. I think it would be interesting to watch an Indian film involving court but they do not sound that interesting. It has been a long day. I just got back from court. The jury reached its decision at 10:00 tonight.

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  3. Bill - What an interesting and thoughtful analysis! I'm not at all surprised that you find yourself drawn to attorneys who do the kind of work you do. I think we all like to feel a kinship with the characters we read, at least at times. What I find really interesting is just how diverse the lawyers you've mentioned are. And of course, those are just some examples. Fascinating! And congratulations to you both and to Michael - how exciting!

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    1. Margot: Thanks for the generous words. I also like to read legal biographies. Some have experiences comparable to my own. Others are far different.

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  4. First, congratulations to Michael and thanks for the interesting post! I just read the first Yrsa Sigurðardóttir novel, but the female lawyer at the center of the book was sort of an odd investigative consultant instead of a practicing lawyer: it was a good read, but it didn't really feel like a legal novel. I can't think of any other female lawyer books I'd recommend at the moment because I read lots of police procedurals instead.

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    1. Rebecca: Thanks for the kind words. I have also read Yrsa's first mystery. I could not call it a legal mystery. I expanded my definition of legal mysteries to include mysteries featuring lawyers and did not require a trial.

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