InvestigationThe representations of the lawyer in court serials – especially American ones – often inspire students who are destined for this career.
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“Vocations in series” (3/6). ” Think carefully. Everything after this moment will determine not only your career but also your life. You can spend it in an office drafting contracts and hitting on chubby lawyers, before you finally put a gun in your mouth, or you can join my firm and become someone you really love. “ A false dilemma but a true Faustian pact that Annalize Keating, a brilliant criminal lawyer, offers to one of her law students, Wes Gibbins, in the first season of Murder (six seasons, 90 episodes), a forensic series released in 2014 in the United States on the ABC network.
Suffice to say that the young man freshly arrived at Middleton University, by the grace of a free place on the waiting list, immediately accepts the proposal of his teacher. How not to succumb? Annalize Keating, played by actress Viola Davis, is in the amphitheater what she is in court: a sacred monster. It is part of the great tradition of American defense lawyers, those geniuses of public speaking, for whom the probable matters more than the truth. When the client is acquitted and doubt has triumphed, the victory is even sweeter.
How is a vocation born? What makes you fall over like this? What is striking, when we question law students who dream of being lawyers, is to see to what extent their imagination is colonized by American series. In these works of fiction, the lawyer is a champion of the pleading, often penalist, a fine strategist, surrounded by cunning investigators. He is also plagued by existential, moral and ethical questions. His life is a perpetual arbitration.
Fascination of screenwriters
Ophélia Yove, 25, graduated with a master’s degree in criminal procedure from the University of Saint-Etienne, is preparing for the bar entrance exam in September 2021. Her vocation came to her at the age of 15. At the time, television reigned in the family living room. “The overabundance of series on TF1, The experts, Criminal minds, etc., in the 2010s surely gave me an attraction for legal matters, she confides. The lawyers were always represented there in a theatrical way, they landed and let out an “objection your honor!” to the court. “
During her first year in law, Ophélia quickly understood that in France, there was no « objection » ni ” Your Honor “. She also discovers, with her comrades, the series Murder. Everyone knows her, everyone looks at her. Ophelia, she finds herself “doubles” with the characters of Michaela Pratt (an ultra-ambitious gifted person) and Wes Gibbins (a brilliant impostor). In short, “Two very good jurists”. This is sometimes what a vocation depends on.
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