Best films about Law, Law School, or Life as a Lawyer? Forum

[icanhaslawschool]

No one's gonna mention Rounders? smh

YES

This dude Mikey getting bailed out by the professor in a big way

[zugzwanger]

Very disappointed when I first watched The Firm it went from a cool movie where badass Cruise goes to a secondary market to make BANK, to like the last hour being him just running away from bad guys. Should have been like 30 min shorter.

[lhanvt13]

Battle royal

[odela]

Not a lawyer film per se, but Sean Penn in "Carlito's Way."

My favorite lawyer film is "The Verdict."

[Nucky]

The Australian version of Rake is on Netflix right now and pretty entertaining.

[PDaddy]

you watch suits right?

i assume being an attorney is just like that

"Best Films..."

But I know your suggestion was tongue-in-cheek anyways.

[PDaddy]

Very disappointed when I first watched The Firm it went from a cool movie where badass Cruise goes to a secondary market to make BANK, to like the last hour being him just running away from bad guys. Should have been like 30 min shorter.

Yeah, but his whole ordeal, as he put it at the end, managed to "make him think about the law", which he managed to finish three years of law school without doing.

In a weird way, it had the same moral as did "A Few Good Men", which goes to say that a real lawyer is always thinking outside of the box and fearlessly applying that knowledge and experience.

Who would have thought to nail the firm's crooked lawyers with an obscure charge like "mail fraud"?

And who would have thought to use Colonel Jessip's massive ego against him the way Caffey did in "A Few Good Men".

I hate to say this, but most attorneys you meet in real life are incompetent wusses who should be selling computers at Best Buy or something. They are scared to fight or take on any cases that aren't sure things. They just suck, and a good percentage of the new lawyers who come out this year are going to suck as well.

[ymmv]

Very disappointed when I first watched The Firm it went from a cool movie where badass Cruise goes to a secondary market to make BANK, to like the last hour being him just running away from bad guys. Should have been like 30 min shorter.

Yeah, but his whole ordeal, as he put it at the end, managed to "make him think about the law", which he managed to finish three years of law school without doing.

In a weird way, it had the same moral as did "A Few Good Men", which goes to say that a real lawyer is always thinking outside of the box and fearlessly applying that knowledge and experience.

Who would have thought to nail the firm's crooked lawyers with an obscure charge like "mail fraud"?

And who would have thought to use Colonel Jessip's massive ego against him the way Caffey did in "A Few Good Men".

I hate to say this, but most attorneys you meet in real life are incompetent wusses who should be selling computers at Best Buy or something. They are scared to fight or take on any cases that aren't sure things. They just suck, and a good percentage of the new lawyers who come out this year are going to suck as well.

Ok I thought you were being entirely sarcastic until that last paragraph.

[bjsesq]

Legally Boned is a meh pr0n movie, but beats a lot of the titles listed here.

[PDaddy]

"John Q": Our corrupt health care system...

[encore1101]

American Psycho

[ymmv]

American Psycho

Wait what. The only lawyer in that film is on screen for maybe two minutes tops.

[PDaddy]

Ok I thought you were being entirely sarcastic until that last paragraph.

No. Most lawyers have no balls, and they lose most of their common sense after 1L for some reason. They lose the rest once they start practicing. That's why they mostly suck at what they do. Wait until you start practicing, and you will see what unbelievably arrogant, idiotic tool bags they are. The funny thing about lawyers is that they don't even like each other. Ask any lawyer. At least half will tell you that they don't even like other lawyers.

[McAvoy]

The Paper Chase is a truly dreadful film. If you can make it through sober, you're a better man than me.

I would recommend it to no one.

[Tanicius]

Very disappointed when I first watched The Firm it went from a cool movie where badass Cruise goes to a secondary market to make BANK, to like the last hour being him just running away from bad guys. Should have been like 30 min shorter.

Yeah, but his whole ordeal, as he put it at the end, managed to "make him think about the law", which he managed to finish three years of law school without doing.

In a weird way, it had the same moral as did "A Few Good Men", which goes to say that a real lawyer is always thinking outside of the box and fearlessly applying that knowledge and experience.

Wut.

Who would have thought to nail the firm's crooked lawyers with an obscure charge like "mail fraud"?

Uh, every Assistant U.S. Attorney. It's like the easiest catch-all criminal law in existence. Oh, you sent a letter through the U.S. mail that talks about your conspiracy to steal a pack of gum out of Walmart tomorrow? Mail fraud, federal crime. You cut a stamp off an envelope and glued it onto your envelope? Mail fraud, felony charge incoming. It's literally the answer to any crime that involves mail. It's almost as uncreative as wire fraud -- like accessing your personal email without express authorization from your employer while you're at work.

And who would have thought to use Colonel Jessip's massive ego against him the way Caffey did in "A Few Good Men".

That scene was like the fakiest fake scene in all of fake courtroom dramas. It's based on a true story but it did not go down that way, and even if it did, no attorney on Earth is capable of correctly predicting that someone's mere antagonistic disposition would lead them to confess to a murder conspiracy on the stand. "Let's get under his skin and see what happens" is, like, every cop cross examination ever, and IRL you aren't allowed to go nearly as far with it as Cruise's character did.

I hate to say this, but most attorneys you meet in real life are incompetent wusses who should be selling computers at Best Buy or something. They are scared to fight or take on any cases that aren't sure things. They just suck, and a good percentage of the new lawyers who come out this year are going to suck as well.

Yeah, true, but unrelated to everything above. The best courtroom lawyers are the restrained ones who know what they can get away with and when. You'll find that preparation and level-headedness overcomes talent and things like "balls" real fast. People who shout at witnesses, flagrantly ignore judge's rulings, and otherwise make fools of themselves don't win a lot of cases; they get shut down and publicly reprimanded by the judge in front of the jury -- or worse, charged with violating ethics rules.

[iamgeorgebush]

tagged

[Abbie Doobie]

The Paper Chase is a truly dreadful film. If you can make it through sober, you're a better man than me.

I would recommend it to no one.

It's a film about 1L, so it makes sense that you feel that way about the film because that's how most people feel about 1L.

[Abbie Doobie]

Also, The Rainmaker

[john2018]

.

[ymmv]

I mean kudos to someone willing to write a thesis on why Tom Cruise is a shitty fake lawyer, I guess. Now let me explain why Will Smith is actually not an effective law enforcement officer and Reese Witherspoon would have failed 1L.

[Nebby]

American Psycho

[ymmv]

American Psycho

Wait what. The only lawyer in that film is on screen for maybe two minutes tops.

[Nebby]

American Psycho

Wait what. The only lawyer in that film is on screen for maybe two minutes tops.

[Thinking]: "Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh, my God. It even has a watermark."

[A. Nony Mouse]

I mean kudos to someone willing to write a thesis on why Tom Cruise is a shitty fake lawyer, I guess. Now let me explain why Will Smith is actually not an effective law enforcement officer and Reese Witherspoon would have failed 1L.

Except no one in this thread has claimed that those two characters are role models for real lawyers.

[Tanicius]

I mean kudos to someone willing to write a thesis on why Tom Cruise is a shitty fake lawyer, I guess. Now let me explain why Will Smith is actually not an effective law enforcement officer and Reese Witherspoon would have failed 1L.

Except no one in this thread has claimed that those two characters are role models for real lawyers.

This guy has my back.