Firm -- Lawyers Doing the Essay

There is "…Corrosion, especially during the last two decades, of the ideal of the lawyer-statesman, an ideal that joins the narrowly prudential character of private counsel with the broader virtues of public services" (Klinkenborg, 32). The operative philosophy that "…money will always be a vastly more far-reaching form of power than the command of ideas" explains the "enormous growth" of the number of lawyers in America in recent years, Klinkenborg asserts. The reader is "…invited, encouraged, to share McDeere's salacious glee as the perquisites of his new profession are heaped upon him," Klinkenborg writes (36).

McDeere receives "…an eel-skin attache, a BMW [in the film it's a Mercedes], a new wardrobe, a low-interest mortgage, [and] the annulment of student loans," Klinkenborg writes (36). All of this "titillation" is part of the legal "culture" (36) the writer continues, and it is part of the "corporate lawyer's surrender to the ethic of bare-knuckled capitalism" (32). But in the case of McDeere, should he have been suspicious of the aggressive way in which his suitors at Bendini, Lambert & Locke recruited him? Was it sufficiently unusual for McDeere to be offered $80,000 (and all those perks) in 1991 that he should have questioned the veracity of his prospective employers? Responding to an emailed question for this research paper, (July 10, 2009), UCLA Law Professor Asimow replied:

"I don't think a new attorney would be suspicious of a high offer he receives, especially if he did well at law school in the areas the firm specializes in. Historically, top law students from top law schools get very handsome offers and are highly sought after by firms."

Conclusion

In his essay, "Bad Lawyers In The Movies," Professor Asimow (2000) writes that notwithstanding the public's distaste for attorneys (an ABA poll in 1999 showed only 14% of U.S. citizens are "extremely or very confident of lawyers") he believes "lawyers are getting a bad rap" (Asimow, 10). Of course Asimow is an attorney, and teaches law, which may explain why he believes "most lawyers are decent" and "are pretty ethical most of the time." Still, there is an abundance of skepticism in the U.S. And movies like The Firm just add fuel to the fire.

Works Cited

American Bar Association. (2009). Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Retrieved July 10,

2009, from http://www.abanet.org.

Asimow, Michael (2000). Bad Lawyers in the Movies. Michael Asimow's Scholarly Papers.

UCLA School of Law. Retrieved July 9, 2009, from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=48152.

Asimow, Michael. (2001). Embodiment of Evil: Law Firms in the Movies. Michael Asimow's Scholarly Papers. UCLA School of Law. Retrieved July 9, 2009,

from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=48152.

DePree, Chauncey M., and Jude, Rebecca K. (1994). What are reasonable fees and expenses for legal services? The CPA Journal,….....