The Gazette 1996

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JUNE 1996

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GAZETTE

Tales of Hoffman Today's Lawyers on TV

The glamour of life as a lawyer as depicted in 'Murder One', together with earlier series such as 'LA Law' and 'Law & Order', is particularly striking. Television tends to glamorize all that it touches. No doubt the great majority of Ireland. However, that fact is certainly not suggested to television viewers, whether American or Irish, of these programmes. While it may be presumed that no viewer in Ireland is so utterly naive as to think the life of lawyers as projected in such U.S. TV series closely resembles that of lawyers in Ireland, there must be a real possibility that at some conscious or unconscious level images are reinforced in Ireland of a legal career being almost invariably well remunerated and exciting. If this thesis is correct, then it may contribute to the almost irrational desire of so many young people in this country to become solicitors or barristers, thereby flying in the face of evidence that poorly remunerated and very mundane work is all j that will ultimately be available for a great 1 many of them. If it is true, on the other hand, that even an ; American TV drama series about lawyers can, at some level, influence public perceptions of the legal profession in | Ireland, then there could be worse images than that of the fearsome, though folli- cally-challenged, Ted Hoffman. Wealthy and glamorous he and the other lawyers in 'Murder One' certainly are. The strict ethi- cal code and total commitment to justice for his client of the Ted Hoffman character, however, may reinforce an I image of the integrity of Irish lawyers which can never receive too much emphasis. j When the killer of 'Goldilocks', Jennifer Costello, was finally brought to justice, of a kind, it was clear that the key figure in ensuring that justice was done was defence lawyer Ted Hoffman. At least that part of the TV lawyer's image is one which we can welcome. Way to go Ted. legal work is very mundane and unglamorous in America as it is in

Who killed 'Goldilocks'? Which of her many lovers brutally strangled underage beauty Jennifer Costello ? Was it the self- indulgent, cocaine-addicted TV and movie star Neil Avadonl Or was it suave but sinister multimillionaire Richard Crossl These were among the questions posed, for Irish lawyers among other viewers, during the twenty two episodes of Steve Bochco's hit series 'Murder One'. The series recently seemed to be on our TV screens almost every night of the week as it was shown simultaneously by RTE 1, BBC 2 and Sky 1. Bochco had reproduced in a legal drama the huge success he enjoyed with his police series 'NYPD Blue' and the classic 'Hill Street Blues'. First Richard Cross is charged with the murder but successfully defended by Los I Angeles' top defence lawyer Ted Hoffman. Next Neil Avadon is defended by the formidable Hoffman - he of the brilliant legal mind, fierce devotion to justice and Theo Kojak hairstyle. 'Murder One' is a very long way from Perry Mason and even farther from 'Rumpole of the Bailey'. It is in fact much closer to the real-life trial last year in the same Los Angeles courthouse of another celebrity defendant, a certain Mr. Simpson. Indeed, aspects of 'Murder One' such as the psychology of the tortuous | jury selection process, the plot twists of j the trial and the all-pervasive media frenzy are all the more credible in the light of the Simpson case. The dividing line between reality and fiction, insofar as one appears to exist in such cases, became even more blurred with Ted Hoffman being interviewed about the Jennifer Costello case on CNN 's Í 'Larry King Show' with Larry King being played by, well, Larry Kingl In the Simpson case also, Marsha Clark, Johnnie Cochran and F. Lee Bailey became celebrities in their own rights. How different, we may think as Irish Lawyers, from the home life of our own dear profession. Not for us the drama, 1 money, lifestyle and glamour of 'Murder One'. I mean, I ask you. How frequently 1 does it happen in Ireland that the DPP in

Daniel Benzali as Murder One's brilliant defence lawyer Ted Hoffman. the course of a trial makes application to a judge to recuse herself on the basis that she had once slept with counsel for the defence? And why is it always criminal law which forms the backdrop for legal drama on ! TV? Why doesn't RTE make a true-to-life ! series about a conveyancing or probate I practitioner? Why is murder as a dramatic theme always preferred to the transfer of unregistered land or the administration of intestate estates? After all, the 1970s thriller 'Body Heat', with William Hurt and Kathleen Turner, contained a key plot twist based on the rule against perpetuities. On the other hand, it must be admitted that overall 'Body Heat' was very much more concerned with murder than with the finer points of succession law. More seriously, however, it is possible that the screening of American lawyer TV series may have a real effect on the lives of ! lawyers in Ireland? Two of the most unshakeably persistent myths about the lives of Irish lawyers are that we all make lots of money and that the work we are engaged in is glamorous. The wealth of the i American legal profession is probably | accurately depicted in American TV ! series. American lawyers are very much richer on average than their counterparts in | Ireland, even having made all necessary adjustments for the different standards of wealth of the two countries.

Ken Murphy

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