Law in Popular Culture

Chevron Can Depose Plaintiffs Attorney Who Acted as ‘Political Operative,’ Judge Rules

Outtakes that the director of the documentary Crude was ordered to produce to Chevron Corp. helped fuel the oil company’s argument that a New York lawyer acting on behalf of Ecuadorian plaintiffs in the environmental case could and should be deposed despite his claims of privilege. Because attorney Steve Donziger…

Oct 25, 2010 9:26 PM CDT

Sex Crimes Prosecutor Grades ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Episodes on Accuracy

A federal sex crimes prosecutor—who also just had her first novel, Law of Attraction published—is systematically taking on the accuracy of this season’s Law & Order: SVU. Don’t get her wrong—it’s not that she doesn’t like these types of shows. “Law & Order was part of what inspired me to…

Oct 21, 2010 4:32 PM CDT

Sotomayor Found Inspiration in ‘12 Angry Men’

Perry Mason wasn’t the only fictional legal character that inspired Justice Sonia Sotomayor. A juror in the film 12 Angry Men was also an inspiration, Sotomayor said Sunday at a film festival sponsored by Fordham University law school. She saw the movie as she was entering college and was inspired…

Oct 18, 2010 1:36 PM CDT

Review: Hilary Swank Shines as Sis Who Got JD to Free Sib, But Movie of True Tale Lacks Fire

Hilary Swank shines and Juliette Lewis is thrilling in a much-anticipated movie about a high-school dropout who went to college and earned a juris doctor degree in a successful effort to overturn her brother’s wrongful murder conviction. But the new film is otherwise duller than it should have been, writes…

Oct 15, 2010 1:07 PM CDT

Reporters Can Tweet & Text Trial Plea, But Can’t Broadcast Audio, Ontario Judge Rules

Journalists will be allowed to tweet and send live-text accounts of an expected guilty plea in a high-profile murder trial of an air force commander, a Canadian judge has ruled. And they will even be allowed to take audio clips of the proceedings concerning Col. Russell Williams, 47, Ontario Superior…

Oct 15, 2010 12:00 PM CDT

At the Movies: Restored Film Shows Nuremberg Trial and Evidence

The definitive 1948 film about the Nuremberg trial of 22 former Nazi political and military leaders, “Nuremberg: Its Lessons for Today”, has finally been given theatrical release in the U.S. This restored version holds true to the original, right down to the scratches and splice lines. But it has added…

Oct 12, 2010 10:58 PM CDT

Meet Marilyn Church, Courtroom Artist Who Depicted Woody Allen and John Gotti

For over 35 years Marilyn Church has sketched the courtroom personas of celebrities such as Woody Allen and well-known criminal defendants including Dapper Don John J. Gotti. And she still finds the work interesting. “It’s people’s lives on the line,” she tells the New York Times. “The lawyers get intense,…

Oct 12, 2010 10:25 PM CDT

Embattled Judge Defends Court Audience Chant, But Apologizes for Calling Staffers ‘Vegetables’

Accused of running her courtroom one day last year in a manner intended to maximize her calendar’s appeal to the producers of a potential Judge Judy-like show, a California jurist has provided a 75-page response justifying and explaining her conduct in response to legal ethics charges. Until the Commission on…

Oct 12, 2010 5:15 PM CDT

What Merger Talks? Some Partners Got News of Brief Akin Gump-Orrick Courtship Online

As a brief courtship between two major law firms ended this week with news that leaders had decided to call off their very preliminary merger discussions, observers—and even partners at the affected firms—are scratching their heads over what happened. At both Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Orrick Herrington…

Oct 7, 2010 10:00 PM CDT

NBC Bombs with Show on Fed-Up Supreme Court Justice

NBC has suspended production on its new show featuring former L.A. Law cast member Jimmy Smits as a U.S. Supreme Court justice who quits to return to private practice. The drama, Outlaw, is suffering from low ratings, TV Guide reports. NBC will air the five shows already taped, and will…

Oct 7, 2010 3:44 PM CDT

Batman May Have Been a Yale Law Grad

Was Batman a Yale Law grad as well as a world-renowned crime fighter? Perhaps. In 1974, the caped crusader was displaying a law diploma granted by “Yale University at Gotham,” according to the Yale Law Library Rare Books Blog. The diploma appears on a wall of Bruce Wayne’s study on…

Oct 5, 2010 2:18 PM CDT

Other Awesome ‘Lawyers’

I enjoyed “The 25 Greatest Fictional Lawyers (Who Are Not Atticus Finch).” However, I respectfully submit that any such list must include Dudley “Booger” Dawson, Esq. Any lawyer and true admirer of the art of oration has studied Booger, Esq.’s courtroom cross-examination of Stanley Gable in Revenge of the Nerds…

Oct 1, 2010 9:10 AM CDT

‘Scary Yelling’ Lawyer on Apprentice Show Quits Asst. Brooklyn DA Day Job

A woman who took a two-month leave of absence from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office to film episodes on The Apprentice with Donald Trump is quitting her $50,000-a-year day job. But Mahsa Saeidi-Azcuy says she is doing so because her new-found celebrity is making it difficult for her to prosecute…

Sep 30, 2010 9:15 PM CDT

Beware of Fact-Specific E-Mail Discussion, Says ABA Ethics Opinion re Law Firm Websites

Guidance for lawyers advertising on the Internet is offered by a new ethics opinion announced by the American Bar Association in a press release today. The ethics opinion (PDF), which was issued by the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, points to a number of potential website pitfalls.…

Sep 29, 2010 7:53 PM CDT

Israeli’s Pork Cookbook Creates Controversy

In a country where religious law against consuming pork is also municipal law in a number of communities, a retired Israeli cardiologist’s self-published pork cookbook is creating controversy. Although the author doesn’t follow dietary law, a number of other Jewish citizens consider it an affront to their shared nationalism, reports…

Sep 29, 2010 2:00 PM CDT