Perry Mason always came out on top, but “L.A. Law” bested Mason as the number-one pick among lawyers for the “25 Greatest Legal TV Shows” in the August issue of ABA Journal. “Perry Mason,” the highly influential series from 1957-1966, came in second, followed by “The Defenders,” another seminal legal program that shaped future programs and their subject matter. “Law & Order,” now in its 19th season came in fourth, and “The Practice” was the judges’ fifth pick. For a complete list of the top 25, see www.abajournal.com/magazine.
The “jury” was composed of 12 experts, nine lawyers, two academics and a TV critic, all who write or teach about the convergence of popular culture and the law. They were asked to rate and rank their favorites among scores of programs that focused on law and lawyers in recent decades. The list excluded daytime judge shows and reality TV programs.
Pop culture matters
“It’s hard to underestimate the impact of popular culture on our society,” said Edward Adams, editor and publisher of ABA Journal. “Television has provided us with a steady diet of legal shows that have had a huge impact on the public’s impression of what lawyers do. Some of this information is accurate; some is sensationalized; and some of it is flat-out wrong. But all of it contributes to the expectations of citizens when they walk into a lawyer’s office, sit on a jury, or just run into a neighborhood lawyer at a backyard barbeque.”
The August issue of the ABA Journal is a follow-up to the August 2008 examination of iconic legal films. “While movies are certainly memorable, television literally inhabits our living rooms,” said Adams. “Week after week – sometimes for decades with particular shows – it shapes the public’s impression of the legal profession, for good and for ill.”
Many of these programs have been studied by legal scholars and used by law professors to teach certain aspects of the law, or courtroom procedure, or the finer points of legal ethics.
The ABA Journal covers the trends, people and finances of the legal profession. The flagship publication of the American Bar Association is sent to every ABA member and reaches more than half of the 1.1 million lawyers in this country each month. In addition, its Web site, www.ABAJournal.com is updated every business day with 25 to 50 breaking legal news stories, features, a directory of more than 1,800 legal blogs, and an archive of the full text of the magazine going back through 2004.
With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, and provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.
[Full disclosure: I was one of the "jury" asked to come up with the list. It was great fun.] Read more about this feature in the upcoming issue of the ABA Journal here.
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