Besides ‘Animal House,’ What Pop Culture References Inspire You?

Question of the Week

Besides ‘Animal House,’ What Pop Culture References Inspire You?

Posted Mar 20, 2008, 10:01 am CDT
By Molly McDonough

We learned this week that criminal defense attorney Mickey Sherman, author of the new book How Can You Defend Those People?, finds inspiration from the cult-classic Animal House.

Sherman, it seems, learned from those '78 Delta House frat boys how to deflect guilt by blaming the system.

This made us wonder...

What popular culture references do you find inspiring?

Answer in the comments below.

Read last week's near-dud of a question and answers about law firm support of blogs.

Our Favorite Answer From Last Week:

Posted by Law Firm Associate Blogger: I write a law blog as a marketing tool, and because I’m interested in the area of law. The reaction from the law firm partners has been generally positive. My direct superior has been enthusiastic and supportive. However, there is some confusion among the partners about what a blog is, and there was a misguided suggestion by one partner that the firm might appropriate my blog for official law firm use.

Also, it’s been made clear to me that blogging should be done on my own time. What’s less clear is what “my own time” means. We are required to do a certain number of non-billable marketing hours in addition to the billables, so I would hope that blogging counts as marketing.

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Posted by Loraine M. DiSalvo - 1 month, 3 weeks, 5 days, 12 hours, 58 minutes ago

Taxman, by the Beatles. I’m a tax lawyer, and I feel like I’m helping my clients defend themselves against the Taxman.
Posted by D Matern - 1 month, 3 weeks, 5 days, 11 hours, 27 minutes ago

The Movie “Pay it Forward.”
Posted by Merlinus Monroe - 1 month, 3 weeks, 5 days, 11 hours, 22 minutes ago

The reason why I decided to go to law school in the first place, and my constant inspiration as an attorney, is the movie “The Devi’s Advocate” with Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino. For me, the ongoing lesson is that I *can* do many things, but I have to weight them with what I believe is the “right* thing. It only strengthens my arguments when I can successfully find the *right* element in a matter, and bring my client within that window. The high moral ground cannot be disputed.
Posted by Janeen Lambert - 1 month, 3 weeks, 5 days, 10 hours, 38 minutes ago

This may sound trite, but I found the movie “Legally Blonde”, staring Reese Witherspoon, to be inspirational. Before that movie, I had always seen lawschool as a place for uptight, super-competitive men. I am a very girlly, fun-loving woman, and had always assumed that lawschool wasn’t for people like me. While I didn’t decide to go to lawschool because of the movie, it made me feel more confident that I could excell in the lawschool environment.
Posted by Joseph H. Cassell - 1 month, 3 weeks, 5 days, 10 hours, 36 minutes ago

"Easy Rider” which from a cultural and legal standpoint demonstrated individual and institutional corruption of our society. How far have we progressed?
Posted by Scott Ealy - 1 month, 3 weeks, 5 days, 10 hours, 22 minutes ago

I can’t stand Rush Limbaugh, but I almost use his oft-repeated phrase “Words Mean Things” when I address jurors. The phrase helps to emphasize to jurors that they are not to let the government slide on anything, and that the government must meet its burden on each and every element of a charged crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
Posted by steve latimer - 1 month, 3 weeks, 5 days, 9 hours, 31 minutes ago

"To Kill A Mockingbird.” I think that Atticus epitomizes everything that a lawyer should be. He took an unpopular cause at great risk to his career, and probably his life. When the gallery stood up to salute him after the verdict, even though the client was found guilty, there could be no higher praise for a lawyer.
Posted by Jeff Litwak - 1 month, 3 weeks, 5 days, 9 hours, 26 minutes ago

Two quips from the The Godafther series: Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer,” and Marlon Brando’s, “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” There are so many ways these are appropriate to the practice of law.
Posted by Bob Cumbow - 1 month, 3 weeks, 5 days, 7 hours, 23 minutes ago

Quotes from “The Princess Bride.” Everyone knows them and loves them; people respond well to them, and like something that makes them smile.
Posted by Lynn Carmichael - 1 month, 3 weeks, 5 days, 6 hours, 56 minutes ago

I don’t often qualify an expert witness so I always remember Joe Pesci qualifying Marissa Tomei ( she got her Oscar) as an expert in “My Cousin Vinnie”. It was perfect. Also I am reminded that no matter how inept you think some people see you, you can prevail for your clients.
Posted by Marc H. - 1 month, 3 weeks, 5 days, 6 hours, 40 minutes ago

In the Quentin Tarantino movie “Reservoir Dogs,” Tim Roth played an undercover cop that was infiltrating a gang of professional thieves. He was rehearsing his cover story in a bathroom in one scene, and he looks in the mirror and says something like “Remember… they believe everything you say… because you’re super-cool.”

I tell myself that before every oral argument I do.
Posted by Janet Gusdorff - 1 month, 3 weeks, 5 days, 6 hours, 25 minutes ago

The Shawshank Redemption always reminds me how strong the human spirit is, and how, while surroundings change some people, others simply change their surroundings. Like Andy Dufresne, I believe in the power of hope and vision, and despite evidence that our legal system is broken, try each day to chip away the apathy and acceptance that fills so many of its participants.
Posted by Rebecca Jacobs - 1 month, 3 weeks, 5 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes ago

Here is another reference to “My Cousin Vinnie,” which is my favorite lawyer movie. When considering cross-examinations, I think back to Vinnie’s cross of the gentleman who was cooking grits on his stove, where Vinnie was able to incorporate his recently-developed knowledge of how long it takes to cook grits to make an important point during the examination.
Posted by MommyEsq - 1 month, 3 weeks, 5 days, 5 hours, 26 minutes ago

I have to second the Legally Blonde reference. I used to come home after a hard day at law school, watch the movie, and laugh at how easy those Harvard law classes were depicted to be. Like a professor would ask a direct question, allow students to raise their hands, receive a quick response, and keep going with a lecture! Somehow it made me feel better.
Posted by That Lawyer Dude - 1 month, 3 weeks, 3 days, 18 hours, 28 minutes ago

The Godfather Movies have all the words one needs to know on how to live life as a lawyer. Of my favorites:

“Never ask me about my Business"- the need to keep confidences even from family.

“I never wanted this for you"- what many a lawyer says to his child, upon learning that the child wants to be the lawyers partner (Not one I use, but I have heard it enough.)

“Do you spend time with your family? Good. Because a man that doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man."- The importance of family

Only don’t tell me you’re innocent. Because it insults my intelligence and makes me very angry.- cross examination questions. Additude is everything.

Leave the gun, take the cannoli- a lawyer has to have his priorities straight. You gotta be able to eat, before you can be ready to fight.
Posted by peter hildebrand - 1 month, 3 weeks, 3 days, 8 hours, 18 minutes ago

"Show me the money” from the Tom Cruise movie because it is so true that you have to understand how the money flows to effectively negotiate and settle cases.
Posted by Estera - 1 month, 3 weeks, 2 days, 9 hours, 42 minutes ago

Warren Zevon’s “send lawyers, guns, and money.” The idea that lawyers are as powerful as guns and money is one step toward a world that resolves disputes without violence.
Posted by Nick - 1 month, 2 weeks, 5 days, 16 minutes ago

My favorite is not a lawyer movie, but a football movie, Any Given Sunday, where Al Pacino gives us everything we need for inspiration:

Life is just a game of inches.
So is football.
Because in either game
life or football
the margin for error is so small.
I mean
one half step too late or to early
you don’t quite make it.
One half second too slow or too fast
and you don’t quite catch it.
The inches we need are everywhere around us.
They are in ever break of the game
every minute, every second.

On this team, we fight for that inch
On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us
to pieces for that inch.
We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch.
Cause we know
when we add up all those inches
that’s going to make the fucking difference
between WINNING and LOSING
between LIVING and DYING.

I’ll tell you this
in any fight
it is the guy who is willing to die
who is going to win that inch.
And I know
if I am going to have any life anymore
it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch
because that is what LIVING is.
The six inches in front of your face.

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