Real Lawyer Reacts to Damages (Episode 1)

Glenn Close! Rose Byrne! Damages!

A law school graduate turns down a big firm job to become the protégée of a successful high-stakes litigator. Damages! Together they try to take down billionaire, Arthur Frobisher. Damages! What are they seeking? Damages!

Stay until the end for my Legal Realism Grade!

★ A Few of My Favorite Things★
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
3:52 - The differences between burdens of proof
7:51 - Why real lawyers don’t hire private detectives
10:34 - Why you should take a $100m settlement and avoid trial, even if you could ultimately get $1 billion
14:49 - Y’all gonna get disbarred
15:44 - NEVER MESS WITH SOMEONE’S DOG
16:40 - I start to lose it
17:28 - The Grade.

I get asked a lot about whether being a practicing attorney is like being a lawyer on TV. 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 crush law school to take on lawyers in the movies and on TV. While all legal movies and shows 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 Reaction" videos. Got a legal movie or TV show you'd like me to critique? Let me know in the comments!

All clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes. See Hosseinzadeh v. Klein, 276 F.Supp.3d 34 (S.D.N.Y. 2017); Equals Three, LLC v. Jukin Media, Inc., 139 F. Supp. 3d 1094 (C.D. Cal. 2015).

Typical legal disclaimer from a lawyer (occupational hazard): This is not legal advice, nor can I give you legal advice. Sorry! Everything here is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Nothing here should be construed to form an attorney client relationship. Also, some of the links in this post may be affiliate links, meaning, at no cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. But if you click, it really helps me make more of these videos!

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[arvidfalk]

"Killing a witness’s dog is a disbarrable offense.” Good to know. These are the sorts of lessons we come here to learn…

[Andrew_Young]

Do the movie "Philadelphia"! I know I'm probably the only person who requests this, but it's the only movie I've seen where a lawyer actually asks the judge to go into the well. And there's a lot of things that *seem* realistic and it's based on two real cases and I want to know how realistic it actually is. Plus, Tom Hanks! AND Denzel Washington!

[whoiswillo]

There is a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode called "Measure of a Man" that is about a legal case in Starfleet about the rights of sentient beings that I would be interested to hear your thoughts on. While it is not the U.S. Justice System it is clearly based on those values. It has a lot of aspects of legal arguments that I would be interested to hear you explore, even if it doesn't quite fit the U.S. legal system.

[supersizesenpai]

LegalEagle: You should really shower up first after you murder someone Me: you should really charge people for these nuggets of legal advice. LMFAO

[jakemott]

I'm not even interested in practicing law at all; I'm a psychology major planning on being a therapist. Despite that, these videos are my favorite on YouTube.

[SRFriso]

13:18 Objection: lawyer turns into a movie critic, operating outside of area of expertise. Even though he is completely right.

[crabbieappleton]

It's thoughtful that the "Quiet" sign is shin-high. As if they knew exactly how the camera would fix on her discovering the scene.
And, yes, John Wick would like to agree that you don't mess with the dog.

[kypegram]

You should react to the IT crowd episode Reynholm vs. Reynholm

[notsae]

"You should really shower after you've murdered someone; the blood is a dead give away." Being said by an actual lawyer in a deadpan tone had me hysterical! Is that the kind of advice you'd give a client? "Make sure you don't have any obvious signs that you're guilty on you."? Hahahaha! Delightful!

[Crested_Hadrosaur]

Objection: Liquor law in New York sounds like a fascinating subject. You didn't lay sufficient ground work as to why you cut it from your video!

[WitchApprentice]

Damages is one of my favorite shows ever, but when I saw the first episode even as a non-lawyer I thought it was weird that Patty was going through all this convoluted scheming just to get a witness to testify. I was glad though that Patty had an ulterior motive for hiring Ellen, even if that ulterior motive was implausible, rather than the silly and cliched idea that Patty was just so intrigued that she turned down the interview that she had to meet her.

[averageytber]

Fun fact: Patty's character is loosely-based on David Chase and her dynamic with Ellen is inspired by showrunner, Todd A. Kessler's experience of writing on The Sopranos.

[tantran]

I think for a show like Damages, the pilot doesn't reveal much. Though it is emphasised throughout the series that Patty's objective was not justice for the 'little guys' but to win at all costs and to enjoy the thrill of doing whatever it takes to win, her methods and thinkings are still insane, compared to IRL people. The situations and details in the shows were definitely designed to heighten dramas for a TV show, more so than a realistic depiction.

[applepear]

YOU KNOW THE LAWYER THAT WORKED THE MONSANTO CASE?!?!? That is awesome!

[daniel.bushell]

I wish to claim damages for the damage inflicted onto my finger from clicking on this video so quickly.

[invisiblehand]

Holy crap that pitch for skillshare was so smooth I didn't even realize it was a pitch until I saw the full screen skillshare logo! All I was thinking was "Wow! that sounds like a really good way to learn about wine!"

[zoeb.]

WOAH that ad at the end was so well placed I didn’t realize it was an ad until 20 seconds in!

[andrewhussey]

lol the bit where Close said "you know what I like about you?" and you blurt out "no! There's nothing redeemable about her character!" almost made me spit pop on my screen...

[tobynelson]

>she seems like a blank slate, that everybody just projects what they want onto

lol this is all quiet people. If you listen to someone talk about politics and don't say anything they'll assume you agree with them.

[kingwasd]

I'd love to see you do episode twelve of the first Psych season. It's a great episode taking place mostly in a courtroom. It also is the first place I heard the term "legal eagle"