Law Firms in Fiction - in Television

In Television

Fictional law firms that serve as the backdrop for television shows tend to be portrayed in a more sympathetic light. Asimow wrote that it is "striking how much more favorably law firms are portrayed on dramatic television series than in film". This is reflected in the earliest television series depicting a law firm, The Defenders which revolved around the father and son firm of Preston & Preston. Other sympathetic portrayals are found in L.A. Law, Ally McBeal, and The Practice, and Will & Grace (which is not centered on a law firm, but prominently depicts one in several episodes as a title character's place of employment). Each of these shows depict a mid-size firm, rather than an office of a very large firm, and each depicts attorneys employed by the firm as having very different legal specialties and temperaments. These positive portrayals, however, do not extend to larger firms.

Many television programs having law firms at their core have been written or created by David E. Kelley, himself a Boston University School of Law graduate who had worked for a Boston law firm. Kelley was a writer for L.A. Law, and created Ally McBeal, The Practice, and Boston Legal, and also scripted the film, From the Hip, a legal thriller that centered some ascerbic attention on the machinations of the lead character's law firm.