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Is Law synonymous to Theatre?

Question:

I was recently in a play with a lawyer who runs a small office with only one or two other attorneys. He is a criminal attorney. He told me that being in the courtroom should be treated as a performance. He said that the more you treat as such, the better chance you have of keeping the jurors awake and engaged. He was certain that his acting experience helped him tremendously in the courtroom. Ray – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I am a theatre major, philosophy minor. I am attending Law school next year with the focus on Civil Rights. I always hear, "Well, being a lawyer is just like being an actor." I’m not sure how to respond to this comment. Chris

Response:

That is an excellent point, and one in which I’m convinced that the initial question in this thread tried to address.  I just gave my newly graduated and now fully licensed friend from law school the same advice, saying that his courtroom appearances are very much like a performance, and gave him a list of some great acting books to read on the subject of technique.  The same strength of concentration applies whether studying script or briefs, the same amount of time in preparation and research, the same exhibitionism in convincing a room full of jurors as to their client’s innocence or guilt, the same rush when a great job is accomplished or an excellent point.  Yep, it’s performing all right, even if the outcome determines one’s future, or provides entertainment. — Opus (: http://members.home.net/coble/OpusGraphics -Websets and Graphics http://drewcarey.acmecity.com/kate/43 -Blade Pro Presets "Well my dad has only had 4 bypasses, and he eats all the steak he wants."– Hank Hill

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I hope that’s not why you divorced her. She may not have been following your ethics, but she was following a principle- same as the ACLU. Marriage Counselor – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – PS….. I divorced a woman (lawyer) whom I deeply loved, who was as liberal as yours truly, but who represented, in a class action suit, one of the medical corporations who produced a product that did cause damage to many…. she knew it, but defended the "corp"  becuase they deserved a good defence. Break a leg, Bill — THE ACTING STUDIO http://gvtg.com/theactingstudio

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I am a theatre major, philosophy minor. I am attending Law school next year with the focus on Civil Rights. I always hear, "Well, being a lawyer is just like being an actor." I’m not sure how to respond to this comment. Chris

No…. acting and lawyering are not directly related, but I’m not suprised that a professor or two might make that insipid analogy. Theatre and film have loved court-room drama for decades.   <GRIN I once hired a district court judge in a production of INQUEST…. I had seen his "courtly" style and figured he could play the role of the judge.  He was god-awful… couldn’t do in art what he does in real life. Decades ago, I used to coach lawyers for aspects of voice/speech, dialect correction, and public speaking skills.   In the mid-80s, the Colorado Litigation Society hired me to coach lawyers not just for communication skills, but to bring in trained actors ($150 a pop) to role-play with lawyers in an intensive training program focused on questioning witnesses (for the prosecution and for the defense) during trial.   Lawyers do need the skills of actors, but I’ve given up on all of you. I no longer coach lawyers (excepting those who want to quit lawyering and become full-time actors.) Personal choice. Lawyers make certain ethical and professional choices, that include representing clients who are marginally innocent or guilty.  I prefer to work with clients who have strong missions and ethics.   PS….. I divorced a woman (lawyer) whom I deeply loved, who was as liberal as yours truly, but who represented, in a class action suit, one of the medical corporations who produced a product that did cause damage to many…. she knew it, but defended the "corp"  becuase they deserved a good defence.   Break a leg, Bill — THE ACTING STUDIO http://gvtg.com/theactingstudio

Response:

Yes! You do a lot of acting when you may not truthfully believe in your clients justifications. You only have what they have( your client) told you or showed you to base your debate/argument. It takes a lot of acting to support somebody/something that in your heart you feel is not right.  Like I’ve said before in most situations "Money talks & Bulls–t walks" . We can only hope that integrity would play a higher role in our courts. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be the case. An actor’s actions are imaginary and for the moment. A lawyer’s are real and repercussions can last a lifetime.

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St. Genesius is the Patroin Saint of Lawyers and Actors

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Hey Chris…congrats on law school.  I am a 2L and have done a bit of theater in the past.  I think the answer to your question may be that the best actors are good because they find some true way to play their characters.  But for your focus, think about what gets them to that stage.   That is where the Law and Acting come into play.  It’s not how much you know, it’s how creative you can be with what you do know.  It’s creativity that allows a winning lawyer to keep winning.  Just like an actor, a lawyer’s arguements have strings of well settled law running through it, though the gaps are filled with his creativity.  That is where the lawyer’s reputation comes.  We of course get ridiculed and actors get the academy award.  But in the end, either profession will complement the other.  Best of luck.

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Do lawyers or lawyer/actors make that comment? I don’t know anything about it but it sounds more like a stereotype than insight. My brother, a theatre director, wanted to go to law school to work on civil rights cases/do good. He got a scholarship but quit after the first week of classes and has gone back to theatre. I think law was probably a lot less like theatre or social work than he thought. It’s some other profession.

I spent a year as a student at the University of Arizona Law School, and I’m afraid movies and television have much overly-glamorized the legal profession. Law school is quite a drudge, with long late hours in the library doing tedious research and tehn more long hours writing it up. Either that or trying to discern just what it is that you’re supposed to learn from today’s list of cases to study. I also have had a few lawyer friends, and they spend a great deal of time in law libraries doing research (at least until they’re doing well enough to pay others to do it). The mobility is fairly, low, with most of your time spent in the office. A very small percentage of a lawyer’s time is spent in court, especially since ideally most cases will be settled before it reaches court, and that means lots of paperwork. If the comment about lawyers being just like actors refers to being in the courtroom it’s way off base. As anyone who has sat on a jury can tell you, it’s a pretty boring process, any of the many "trials of the century" notwithstanding. —     *                Daly City California:                *     *       where San Francisco meets The Peninsula       *     ******* and the San Andreas Fault meets the Sea *******

Response:

Do lawyers or lawyer/actors make that comment? I don’t know anything about it but it sounds more like a stereotype than insight. My brother, a theatre director, wanted to go to law school to work on civil rights cases/do good. He got a scholarship but quit after the first week of classes and has gone back to theatre. I think law was probably a lot less like theatre or social work than he thought. It’s some other profession. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I am a theatre major, philosophy minor. I am attending Law school next year with the focus on Civil Rights. I always hear, "Well, being a lawyer is just like being an actor." I’m not sure how to respond to this comment. Chris

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I am a theatre major, philosophy minor. I am attending Law school next year with the focus on Civil Rights. I always hear, "Well, being a lawyer is just like being an actor." I’m not sure how to respond to this comment. Chris

There is a certain theatricality to being a trial lawyer, a kind of exhibitionism.  I get lawyers in my acting classes all the time, and I agree they too have the itch for the spotlight. Ed Hooks

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I am a theatre major, philosophy minor. I am attending Law school next year with the focus on Civil Rights. I always hear, "Well, being a lawyer is just like being an actor."

That is certainly the case for a trial lawyer for a large firm (or on a team with back-end support).  If you’re a small-practice lawyer, then you’re also the playwright.  Presenting a case before a judge or a jury is about telling a story.  The judge or jury’s biases are related to the audience’s willingness to suspend disbelief.  The important thing about a witness is as with an actor: they must present _emotional_ truth. Star quality can go a long way towards influencing credibility. In a courtroom, as with fiction, credibility is more important than fact:     "Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is      obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t."          – Mark Twain (Following the Equator) Ideally, an attorney’s job and moral responsibility are to arm the truth with credibility.  His ethical responsibility, however, is often to arm lies with credibility. — Daniel

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I am a theatre major, philosophy minor. I am attending Law school next year with the focus on Civil Rights. I always hear, "Well, being a lawyer is just like being an actor." I’m not sure how to respond to this comment. Chris

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