The US has given us The Good Wife, LA Law and The Devil’s Advocate, while in the UK we’ve had Rumpole and All Rise for Julian Clary.
As the evidence shows, there’s a huge glamour gap between how lawyers are perceived on American TV and here.
If it isn’t Al Pacino making Old Nick irresistible in The Devil’s Advocate, it’s Reece Witherspoon tripping through Harvard in her four-inch-high Jimmy Choos.
But which side of the pond is telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
We asked a couple of established lawyers to put their case.
Michael is a lawyer with a legal firm in rural Perthshire. His workload includes writing wills, handling divorces and managing legal business for local farmers and estate owners.
“Every day is different,” he says. “But what’s most enjoyable about the job is I have clients whose families have been coming to this firm for generations, so there’s a great sense of continuity.
“You don’t see that projected on TV or film and nor do you see all the vital but quite boring amounts of bureaucracy the job involves.
“If you’re coming into the profession because you think it’s going to be Suits or Better Call Saul, prepare yourself for a shock. A lot of it involves handling very small details and the office politics are a lot less exciting too.”
“There can be glamour but it’s not like Tom Cruise’s experience in The Firm,” says Amanda, who was a family lawyer with a large corporate law firm in Glasgow before moving to Manchester and becoming a judge in an English family court.
“We had the smart offices, the huge boardrooms, the high-end clients and we all dressed the part. The corporate side handled take-overs and mergers while I dealt with the personal issues of the MDs and directors involved.
“Meanwhile I have friends who had practices in some of the toughest parts of the city where every day was filled with gritty business and clients whose route into the penal system was through a revolving door.
“We may have had expense-account lunches with our clients, but the work my colleagues in criminal law practices were carrying out was just as fascinating and very worthwhile.”
And Amanda’s favourite silver screen lawyer?
“It has to be Atticus Finch. It was through watching To Kill a Mockingbird that I decided to get into law and I don’t think I’m alone.”
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