The Estrin Report: Oh, Hollywood, Oh Hollywood.....

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As founder and President of Litigation Management & Training Services, Inc., Patricia S. Eyres, Esq., speaks internationally, consults with organizations on developing and enforcing effective policies, and trains managers to lead within legal limits.

Oh, Hollywood, Oh Hollywood.....

A new show on Fox TV starring Julianna Margulies is one of the few shows prominently featuring legal assistants as part of the legal team. The show, Canterbury's Law, has been sent to reviewers for prescreening.

Described as a "dark legal drama", the show stars Margulies as a convincing lawyer whose only true solace is her work. (I'm sure this doesn't sound like anyone we know.) Still, she lives under a black cloud that threatens to burst at any moment and overwhelm the show. Beneath that cloud, though, lives a cutting-edge character who blends a rough-and-tumble style outside the courtroom with a polished but assertive femininity once the trial begins.

Finally, shows are seeing the light and adding paralegals as part of the firm's regular cast. I remember years (and years) ago attending a Los Angeles Paralegal Association seminar where the technical advisor for the show, L.A. Law was a keynote speaker. When asked from someone in the audience why the show had no paralegals, he responded, "Because they have no love life." Well, that much was true for me at the time. However, I never forgot how the public must have perceived the life of a paralegal: dull, drab and drudgery.

Fast forward to,ok, years (and many gray hairs) later where paralegals are not only part of the TV ensemble but we have the Hollywood Reporter describing the paralegal team as "Others in the Canterbury office are legal assistants Chester Grant (Keith Robinson), a straight arrow, and spunky Molly McConnell (Trieste Kelly Dunn)".

Ahhhh, Hollywood. You do me proud.

Mar 11, 2008 | Permalink

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Comments

First time at this blog, so I don't know if you've posted this, but on the show "The Riches," the Traveler who is impersonating a lawyer relies heavily on a paralegal in his group who regularly saves him. He's very worried because she's supposed to be leaving for law school soon and he doesn't know what he'll do after she leaves.

Posted by:newbie | Apr 04, 2008 at 01:14 PM

I saw the show and unfortunatly, those you are identifing as paralegals are baby attorneys waiting for bar results....

Posted by:andi | Mar 12, 2008 at 08:34 AM