Another realistic television portrayal of lawyering

Are my endless rants about Studio 60 getting increasingly boring? My guess is yes. But the show annoys me so much, I must press on. (Why I continue to watch is a question I haven't been able to answer. I think because it is already programmed into my DVR and by the middle of the week there is nothing else left that Gobo will watch with me.)

I have been complaining since the first episode that the show's portrayal of professionals is horribly unrealistic. The idea that someone as young as Jordan McDeere could make it to the top of the network heap while having zero respect for her colleagues or superiors was, to me, highly unlikely. But then again, I don't work for a television network, so what do I know?

I do, however, work for a law firm. As a lawyer (when I'm not hanging out in Fraggle Rock, eating Doozer buildings, of course). And this week, Matt and his writing team is interviewed by a young female lawyer in connection with a sexual harassment claim filed against the network, the show, and some of its writers (FYI, the lawyer is played by Kari Matchett, who looked really familiar to me, but after reviewing her IMDB page, I haven't seen her in anything, and it appears her most significant role was in Invasion, a show I never watched). So the network and the show are this attorney's clients. A quick rundown on her treatment of Studio 60's head writer (I'll limit it to the most egregious examples).

Upon meeting him, she immediately questions Matt about how the show's ratings have slipped precipitously over the past four weeks, and questions his decision to have only four writers on his staff. When Matt pushes back, asking her if she would like to run the show, she claims that she is doing this to see what type of witness he will be. Interesting. Perhaps I should put this to use in my work environment. Typically, when we prepare witnesses for depositions, we sit them in a room and discuss the issues of the case with them, and then perhaps we will pretend to be opposing counsel in the case and ask them questions. We don't insult their business decisions in a casual atmosphere, as soon as we have been introduced.

Later, she gives Matt a copy of the plaintiff's complaint to read. However, instead of letting Matt read it, she continually interjects with sarcastic comments about the show--comments that have little, if any, relevance to the subject of her legal defense. Matt shushes her three or four times, but she continues on, undaunted. So I guess the second lesson I learned is to give my client important legal documents to review, but then to ignore his pleas for silence as he peruses them, while I instead continue to sarcastically insult his work.

At the end of the episode, she gives Matt her business card. Which is what any attorney would do after a deposition preparation. After all, she is the attorney who will eventually defend Matt's deposition, and he may have questions. Except when she gives him the card she suggestively tells him to give her a call for "anything." Matt asks her whether she is asking him out, and she says that she was trying to get him to ask her out. So I guess lesson three is that after I have insulted the client and ignored his request to stay quiet so he can concentrate on the legal matter at hand, I should seductively hand him my card and admit I want to date him.

For those of you who have never stepped foot in a law firm, suffered through a deposition or read a complaint, let me be the first to tell you: that's not the way it works. Oh, and as for the rest of the episode, it wasn't all that exciting either. I am looking forward to the cancellation of this show, because then I won't have to make an affirmative decision to drop it from my viewing schedule.