Story of Law as Show Business

• Author: Adam Newhouse
• Pages: 13-22

13

CHAPTER 2

Story of Law as Show

Business

Tom Cruise. His spectacular portrayal of an up-and-coming lawyer

from the pages of Grisham’s gripping novel56 dazzles audiences. Yet no

one calls on him for legal counsel or services—he is an actor, a show

businessman.

Alas, our professional public story at the time of the Great Reces-

sion came to resemble a scramble for box-office prizes, with form sup-

pressing substance of legal practice and with lawyers and their firms

preening themselves for the next legal beauty show, hoping to score

points with a public craving the thrill of yet another legal circus act.

What mattered was media publicity, and what better way to

attract it than by staging a better financial performance than the next

person? Clients became mere audiences to celebrity-status-seeking

legal showpeople. The depth of the legal craft gave way to a veneer of

law practice.

If at first the story entertained the public, in time it became repug-

nant, alienating clients and the business community.

Before examining the story in detail, let’s see how it fits within its

wider historical setting.

Days of the Demure Lawyer—Lawyers

inParadise

There is much more in a profession than a traditionally dignified

calling. The term refers to a group of men pursuing a learned art as

a common calling in the spirit of a public service—no less a public

service because it may incidentally be a means of livelihood. Pursuit of

the learned art in the spirit of a public service is the primary purpose.

56. References to the 1993 film The Firm directed by Sydney Pollack and the 1991 book

of the same title by John Grisham.

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