Obviously, my guy was Victor Sifuentes. A hard charging former public defender who was able to make money in the private sector and look like Jimmy Smits? Yes, sign me up. Michael Kuzak was a little too much of a solider boy and Arnie Becker was a d-bag, and don’t even get me started on Jonathan Rollins. But when Victor Sifuentes came on board, I had my avatar.
I am part of the “L.A. Law Generation,” of law students. Nobody (rational) went to law school because of L.A. Law, or any television show or movie, but I was one of those people who was heavily influenced by the idea that the private practice of law could be lucrative, sexy, and cool. You knew it was “fake.” You knew it was just television. But I’m not going to lie, walking into my Biglaw office for the first time, my mind immediately started playing the familiar saxaphone riff that started off the show:
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Steven Bochco, the creator and writer of L.A. Law and a host of other groundbreaking television shows, passed away this weekend. He was 74.
Others will write about how Bochco revolutionized television. But L.A. Law had a demonstrable impact on the popular understanding of lawyers. Before Bochco, lawyers were either one dimensional “upstanding pillars of the community,” or grubby sophists looking to scam their clients and bend the truth. If you had morals, but didn’t want to be Perry Mason or Atticus Finch, the law was not for you. Bochco is as responsible as anybody for changing that perception. Hell, the “Hollywood lawyer,” wasn’t even a thing until Bochco invented it.
And his legal cultural influence extends beyond L.A. Law. Bochco mentored David E. Kelley. Kelley was a young writer on L.A. Law, but went onto create Ally McBeal (natch) and The Practice (my personal pick for best legal drama) and Boston Legal (which is Ally McBeal meets The Practice meets James Spader and Captain Kirk).
Of course, popularizing the lucrative practice of law is not without its drawbacks. You know how when Disney does a movie with a dog, everybody rushes out to buy that breed of dog, and many of those dogs end up abandoned or sad because their owners didn’t think through what having that kind of dog would really be like? A similar thing can happen when people bum-rush the LSAT because lawyers seem interesting and “not broke,” only you can’t just abandon an expensive law degree when it turns out to be not everything you thought it was. Rational people don’t commit to an entire career based on a television show, but the world is full of irrational people. “Family law” is not all about doing the divorces of the rich and famous. If I had a dollar for every 0L said they were interested in “entertainment law,” I could afford Arnie Becker’s wardrobe.
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But it’s not the fault of the artist if people make stupid inferences from their art. Steven Bochco mattered to the legal profession. He probably inspired as many new lawyers as a true legal giant like Thurgood Marshall, even if many of us won’t admit it. May he rest in peace.
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.