Real Lawyer Reacts to Suits, Law & Order, and L.A. Law // LegalEagle

Who doesn’t love Law & Order? Who hasn’t binged watched 10 episodes in a row on TNT? I know I have and I know I will again. This week i’m taking a look at Law & Order, Suits, and LA Law.

And don’t worry, this review of Suits is just a small taste of a full episode i’m devoting to Suits in the future. So if you need more of a fix on Harvey and Mike, you’ll get it soon!

New episodes weekly! Subscribe here:

★ A Few of My Favorite Things★
(clicking the links really helps out the channel)

--------------------------------------------------

I get asked a lot about whether being a practicing attorney is like being a lawyer on TV. Like most people, I love watching legal movies and courtroom dramas. It's one of the reasons I decided to become a lawyer. But sometimes they make me want to pull my hair out because they are ridiculous.

Today I'm taking a break from teaching law students how to kick ass in law school to take on lawyers in the movies. While all legal movies take dramatic license to make things more interesting (nobody wants to see hundreds of hours of brief writing), many of them have a grain of truth.

This is part of a continuing series of "Lawyer Reacts" videos. Got a legal movie or TV show you'd like me to critique? Let me know in the comments!

========================================================
========================================================

★ Got law school questions? Ask in the comments!
★ Tweet at us on Twitter @LegalEagleDJ

[nolanstewart]

What's more lawyer than convincing your parents that law and order is educational? I'll wait.

[b.v.]

Having Tourrettes Syndrome, I started crying for that man (even though he is an actor). I totally know those frustrations and has caused me a lot of hurt in my life.

[ayt]

"If you walk into the well unannounced you are going to get tackled by the bailiff." 😂 I would love to see that happening on a TV show now

[seb]

i love how nobody tries to copyright claim him cause HE’S A GODDAMN LAWYER

[samsibbens]

"I told them that since I wanted to become a lawyer then TV shows like law and order were educational"

^ real lawyer right there.

[BKPrice]

Now I so very badly want to see a legal TV show depicting a lawyer entering the zone between the judge and the witness without permission and getting brutally tackled by a bailiff.

[demogoblin]

"So you can crush law school."


Sure, I'm not binge watching these and procrastinating from my very unrelated cyber-security degree. I'm in law school.

[bplup]

"Why would someone be hungry for work if they are a college graduate?"

[Pained laughter intensifies]

[joesteeple]

I can't make it through an episode of Jeopardy without shouting answers at the screen. I wonder if he ever shouts "Objection!" at episodes of L+O.

[josephlacerra]

While I am neither a lawyer nor a person aspiring to law school, I find your videos most enjoyable and enlightening. I especially like when you evaluate movies (I don't watch TV.) Thanks!

[oniontheonion]

I'd love for him to react to that one scene in Criminal Minds where the members of the FBI were held in court and Hotch basically roasts the lawyer (not sure of the specific terms of what the other guy was, sorry) based on the color of his socks and the vibration of his phone.

[mikelewis]

I object to something that wasn't really the point of what you were talking about. I have Tourette Syndrome. I just wanted to snipe the whole "I can't control it" thing. I actually kind of like what he said here. I really like that he clarified "not for any length of time". Most people think Tourette's is straight-up uncontrollable, but that's not strictly accurate.

I can only speak from my experience. I'm sure there are other people who have a stronger case than mine, but I found that I can actually control it. It's not like a muscle spasm like you might get when your muscles are cramping. It's more like you just get these really strong urges to move or vocalize in a certain way. If you focus in on resisting those urges, you can actually succeed in suppressing them. You can't necessarily do anything to make the urges go away, but you can learn to resist indulging the urge.

But that's why it's really great that he clarified "not for any length of time, " because the difficulty with resisting the urges is that it can take a lot of focus and attention. For some people with really strong urges, that requires a level of concentration that precludes all other activities. It's simply not possible to function as a human being while maintaining that level of concentration for any length of time.

Having Tourette's basically means that you have to feel out every new situation, every new professional/social context. You have to do a sort of cost/benefit analysis and think about what the allowable tolerance is for your ticks in the current situation and figure out how to function. It can be really hard, especially for young kids, especially in new situations. That's why it's great to have people in your life who understand what you're going through and give you the freedom not to control it. For myself, I've been able to find a sweet spot where, in most situations, I can suppress my ticks to a point where I seem mostly normal. It probably helps that I work from home, lol. But I know there are others where the need to function in a given situation takes too much attention away from controlling their ticks that they simply can't do both.

In that case, "I can't control it" is probably a fine short-hand, but what it really means is, "Yeah, I can control it, but it's not worth it right now." Expecting people with Tourette's to completely restrain their ticks around you (if you're aware of their condition) is basically telling them you want them to make your desires the center of their attention and they must completely shut everything else down so as not to bother you.

Edit: I posted this immediately following the comment "I can't control it, not for any length of time." I then went on to watch what came after. Just wanted to note that his case is an extreme example. Not everyone swears like that. Some people swear. Some just make rapid movements. For me, it was my arms.

Regarding the drugs, I can't speak to that. They wanted to put me on Ritalin when they first diagnosed me. I think my parents declined because I don't remember taking a lot of drugs. Looking back, Ritalin was a really bad script. It's been known to cause Tourette's. I don't know of any of the drugs the other attorney mentioned. I've no experience with them, so I can't comment. By God's grace, I was able to learn to cope with my condition without the use of drugs, and the primary thing that helped was people who supported me instead of making me feel like I was somehow wrong to be struggling with this.

[creepypastapudding]

I would like to see him tackle the end court scene from Legally Blonde

[scruffythejanitor]

Do the Star Trek episode where Q puts the the Enterprise crew on trial for humanity.

[austinwoods]

19:15 Woah so many hearsay issues. You need to ask the Judge's permission to enter the well. Spot on. Also, it's just proper respect. Don't approach a witness or hand something to a judge without asking first. If they're friendly, let them set the boundaries but follow them. Excellent advice all around. Especially breaking down the other side's momentum should they ever build some up.

[grapepopglaceon]

Each time he retells the story of him as a ten-year-old convincing his parents to let him watch Law & Order, it makes me smile to think about. It's adorable and wholesome, and I love it.

[notoriousrzp]

Objection: Just because I love watching these videos, I don’t need personal injury lawyer ads now popping up. I’m fine. Plus I’d hire this hunk.

[LegalEagle]

If I do another review of Law & Order, is there a specific episode you'd like me to react to? (I know there are a million seasons!)

[mikkilen]

"That's a recipe for being found in contempt or pissing off the judge, and you don't wanna do either of those things."

Judging by the judge's face, the latter has been accomplished and the former is on its way.

[pytys]

OBJECTION! You said at the end those were some of your "favorite" lawyer TV shows, yet in another video you said you never finished an episode of Suits. Perjury!