Justice, Television

Adam Schiff, Whose Real Name Was Steven Hill, Died Today

Steven Hill nailed the feeling of a lawyer as a functionary in society.

By  
on

Steven HillI met Robert Morgenthau, longtime District Attorney for Manhattan, once, before I was in law school. My only frame of reference for his job was that he was the “real life Adam Schiff,” the D.A. on Law & Order. Morgenthau lived up to my television idea of him.

That impression was on purpose. From Variety:

The Schiff character was reportedly based in part on the former real-life, long-serving New York D.A., Robert Morgenthau. Schiff was formerly quite liberal in his youth, mostly replaced now with a political pragmatism that sees him fear angering one political constituency or another and thus frequently suggesting a plea bargain to appease all sides.

In his portrayal of Schiff, Steven Hill nailed the feeling of a lawyer as a functionary in society. It’s not about the personal crusade for justice (embodied by Sam Waterston’s “Jack McCoy”). It’s not about a search for truth (embodied the rotating cast of second chairs). Hill’s Schiff viewed his office as just one of the many civil services that kept the city running. Hill could have played the head of ConEd, or the Director of Sanitation in the same way. Even though Schiff was more embroiled in the political realities of the city more than any other character, his view of law was almost apolitical. He’s there to keep the politics out of the courtroom, so all the lawyers can do their jobs.

If it seems like I’m talking about television characters as if they were real people, well, 456 episodes — most of which I’ve seen at least twice — will addle a brain. Most people who end up being lawyers were first inspired to the idea by either a real life lawyer they met, or a fake one they saw on T.V. For me, Jack was my guy, Schiff was the guy I wanted to work for.

Then he left and Nora Lewin made me question whether being liberal was actually a good thing. Luckily Arthur Branch came along and reminded me that, yes, it was.

R.I.P., Steven Hill. Thanks for the memories, Adam.

Sponsored

Steven Hill, D.A. Adam Schiff on ‘Law & Order,’ Dies at 94 [Variety]

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter. Law & Order ADA rankings: Claire Kincaid, Abbie Carmichael, Paul Robinette, Connie Rubirosa, Jamie Ross (Yeah, I put Jamie this low, come at me bro), Serena Southerlyn, and Alexandra Borgia.

Sponsored

Topics

, , , ,