The First Thing We Do, Let’s Film All The Lawyers - a blog about lawyers and the movies

That's A Wrap! Law Film Series Concludes (For Now)

We've wrapped our first law film series with the screenings of Anatomy of a Murder, and before we get back to practicing law, we'd like to give our thanks to the Doris Duke Theatre's Film Curator Abbie Algar and her staff for making it a very successful run: the audiences were beyond our expectations, the feedback we've received has been fantastic (including suggestions for future law and lawyer films to be included), and the theatre itself is a superb venue for watching movies.

We had a great Opening Night reception and Hawaii premiere of Crime After Crime, a first-ever Skype discussion with the filmmaker and Director Yoav Potash, and we screened four other films that showcased the good that lawyers can do despite the way our profession is often portrayed in the movies. We will do this again.

Until next year, we will continue to blog about law and the movies, and post our review of legal films from time-to-time (there is no shortage of films that feature law and lawyers, after all), and we're always open to suggestions about what films should be included in future series. 

Ebert And Lawyer Movies: Mostly Thumbs Down

Here's Above the Law's take on Roger Ebert's mediocre reviews of well-loved lawyer movies (one of which was in last year's film series, another of which is slated for this year's). 

Read Roger Ebert and the Law: Coming to a Law School Near You. 

Ebert On "The Castle"

Film critic Roger Ebert, whose death was announced last week, was a huge fan of our favorite eminent domain movie, Australia's The Castle. Not so much a fan in the four-star-auteur-director-Fellini-Malick-Herzog mode, but a fan in the sense that when it came time for programming for his personal film festival and others, he selected it more than once and dubbed it "the funniest film in the history of Ebertfest."

And so life spins along at 3 Highview Crescent in Melbourne, where the Kerrigan home sits surrounded by its built-on rooms, screened-in porch, greyhound kennel, big-dish satellite and carport. For Darryl, it is not so much a house as a shrine to one of the best darn families in the universe, and he proudly points out the plastic Victorian gingerbread trim and the fake chimney to an inspector--who is there, as it turns out, to condemn the property under the laws of eminent domain.

The Kerrigans don't want to move. They've been told that the three most important words in real estate are "location, location, location"--and how could they improve on their home's convenient location, so close to the airport? So close, indeed, that jumbo jets pass within inches of the property line, and the house trembles when they take off.

...

The film develops suspense with a big (or, actually, a very small) courtroom finale. The Kerrigans determine to mount a legal battle against eviction and hire an attorney named Dennis Denuto (Tiriel Mora) to represent them, against his own advice (he specializes in repossessions).

When he approaches the bench, it is to ask the judge, "How am I doing?" or to whisper urgently, "Can you give me an angle?" He gives the case his best shot (Dale informs us he "even learned Roman numerals" for the appeal), but it isn't until a kindly old expert in constitutional law (Charles "Bud" Tingwell) comes on board that they have a prayer.

Read his review here. Our review of The Castle here.

New Legal Documentary "An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story"

Here is the trailer for a documentary which had its world premiere at the recent South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. An Unreal Dream: The Michal Morton Story is about a Texas man wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife 25 years ago, and how he eventually proved his innocence:

In 1986 Michael Morton’s wife Christine is brutally murdered in front of their only child, and Michael is convicted of the crime. Locked away in Texas prisons for a quarter century, he has years to ponder questions of justice and innocence, truth and fate. Though he is virtually invisible to society, a team of dedicated attorneys spends years fighting for the right to test DNA evidence found at the murder scene. Their discoveries ultimately reveal that the price of a wrongful conviction goes well beyond one man’s loss of freedom.

The title of the film is a reference to the statement in United States v. Garrison, 291 F. 646, 649 (S.D.N.Y. 1923) by Judge Learned Hand that "[o]ur procedure has always been haunted by the ghost of the innocent man convicted. It is an unreal dream. What we need to fear is the archaic formalism and the watery sentiment that obstructs, delays, and defeats the prosecution of crime." 

More on the film from the Washington Post.

The Obit For Atticus Finch, Fictional Lawyer

Check this out: John Archibald, a columnist at the Birmingham News writes the obit for fictional lawyer Atticus Finch. 

In Atticus Finch, dead of heart failure at a ripe old age, Archibald writes:

Atticus Finch, lawyer and lawmaker, conscience of a community and soul of a South, died last week after an extended illness.

He was ... ageless.

....

Finch's daughter Jean Louise, a retired schoolteacher who still answers to the childhood nickname of Scout, once asked her dad why he agreed to defend Robinson in the first place. Finch knew he could not win, she said. And he knew that merely taking Robinson's case would cause him and his family grief. Finch responded this way:

"For a number of reasons," he told her. "The main one is, if I didn't I couldn't hold up my head in town, I couldn't represent this county in that legislature, I couldn't even tell you or (your brother) not to do something again."

Because to Finch, honor always trumped outcome. Duty forever out-dueled security, comfort, clout or convenience.

It's a neat piece. Read the whole thing here. 

Less Interesting Legal Movie: Bankruptcy Judge Dredd

One of our entries in the ABA Journal's recent "take a legal movie and change a word to make it less interesting" contest has been selected as a winner!  Yes, we know that technically, "Judge Dredd" was not a "legal" film...or was it?

See here for other four selections in the ABA Journal's contest. Our favorites among the non-selected: "Under Submission at Nuremberg" (Judgement at Nuremberg) and "The Limited Liability Law Partnership" (The Firm).  

Courtroom Movies: Hollywood's Most Hackneyed Genre

Via Bloomberg Law, a video focusing on one of the  more cliche elements in legal films.

ABA's Law Movie Challenge: Take A Title, Make It Less Interesting

Good one, ABA Journal: in honor of the upcoming Academy Awards, the Journal posts this challenge - take the title of a legal movie and make it less interesting. 

For example, "My Neighbor Vinnie," "To Catch a Mockingbird." The entries in the comments are off to a good start: "Under Submission at Nuremberg," "Six Annoyed Men." You get the drift.

If you are Twitter person, use #LessInterestingLawMovies.

ABA Getting Into Law Films, Too

The ABA Journal reports "Midyear attendees enjoy some laughs, and a little off-the-record CLE, at ABA Night at the Movies." James Silkenat, President-Elect of the ABA screened My Cousin Vinny at the recent Midyear meeting in Dallas:

"I was looking for a way to bring attendees and their families something to do other than the typical meeting rounds of receptions and dinners, and the idea of a movie and popcorn came up," said Silkenat, a partner at Sullivan & Worcester in New York City.

So Silkenat began asking colleagues for suggestions, and referred back to a list of the 25 Greatest Legal Movies published in the ABA Journal in 2008, and chose the comedy My Cousin Vinny, which stars Joe Pesci as a rough-around-the-edges lawyer from New York who is called down to a small Southern town to help his cousin and friend--the immortal "two yutes"--beat a murder rap.

In addition to being hilarious, said Silkenat, the film "really has great trial court scenes that every lawyer has responded to."

A few of the 50 or so lawyers and guests who gathered in a ballroom at the Hilton Anatole Hotel were eager to see My Cousin Vinny for the first time.

"I've been a lawyer since 1975, but I've never seen it," said Glenn Lau-Kee, a member of Kee & Lau-Kee in New York City.

"We're actually completing his legal education," said David M. Schraver, a partner at Nixon Peabody in Albany who is president-elect of the New York State Bar Association. Schraver, who was joined by current New York Bar President Seymour W. James Jr. of The Legal Aid Society in Albany, noted that clips from My Cousin Vinny are often shown at CLE programs in New York--which is not the only state where that happens.

Vinny is a perennial top-contender when lawyers are asked about their favorite legal movies, and we're strongly considering putting it on our list for this year's film series in September.

It sounds like Mr. Silkenat is a fellow film afficionado, since the story reports "he plans to repeat ABA Night at the Movies in August when the ABA holds its Annual Meeting [in] San Francisco." Great news.

"The Castle" Now Streaming On Netflix

"The Castle," the comic tale of Darryl Kerrigan and his efforts to protect the family home at "3 Highwview Crescent, Coolaroo" from "compulsory acquisition" (Australia's version of eminent domain), has made it to Netflix's streaming service.

This is Miramax's U.S. edit which contains a few differences from the original (several noncritical scenes trimmed, cultural references translated, and minor changes to the soundtrack), but nothing that will detract from enjoyment of the film and its story, and it's still a must-see. Here's our review.

We screened the Australian version at last year's law film series, so in case you missed it, here's your chance. Highly recommended.

CLE Program - Movie Madness: How Hollywood Depicts the Ethics of Lawyers

Now this is what we call CLE: the Beverly Hills Bar Association and the Southern California Business Litigation Inn of Court are presenting a program worth one hour of CLE credit, Movie Madness: How Hollywood Depicts the Ethics of Lawyers. Here's their description: 

The movies are often not kind to attorneys -- but sometimes lawyers are heroes too. Regardless, there are always ethical pitfalls for lawyers in film. How often do the movies get it right? And is being in the right and doing good always the proper ethical path? Find out when another edition of Movie Madness shows the dilemmas lawyers face.

Thursday, February 7, 2013, at the Beverly Hills Bar Association in (where else) Beverly Hills. More information here.