Apparently, the genre of lawyer shows on television is not yet dead, as TNT has Mark Paul Gosselaar, formerly of David Feige’s Lowering the Bar, in a title role in Franklin & Bash.  Don’t ask me what I think of the show, as I haven’t seen it, but given the influence pop culture has on public perception of reality, it was worth a quick look.

Gosselaar, who played a public defender with a heart of gold on his last gig, was interviewed about his new role, and offered this insight :

Q) You’ve played lawyers in the past, but I wondered what, if anything, you did to prepare for this role?

A) I got a tan. That’s basically it. You know, I mean, I – you know, I’d had my legal fill when I did Raising the Bar. Thankfully, you know, I was able to go with David Feige, who was the creator of that show, and my character was loosely based on him. You know, I went with him and was an intern at the Bronx Defenders for about a week and sort of got my legal, you know, insight during that week, and for the last two seasons. So no, there wasn’t much that I had to question. But if I did have a question, one of our producers and writers, one of our head writers, Bill Chais we as defense attorney and a lot of the stories that we deal with on the show are from his background. So, if we ever have questions we have people that we can go to, and that’s always important. And well, I think we’re pretty true to – I mean obviously it’s television, you take some liberties, but I think we’re pretty true to staying true to the sort of legal, call it, the legal frame.

Got a tan?  Check.
Interned in the Bronx for a week?  Check.
Had a mentor if he had a question?  Check.

Aside from not being $150,000 in debt (showing that he’s smarter than most new lawyers), he sounds like he’s got all the real lawyer things covered.  With a background like that, it’s easy to stay “pretty true to staying true to the sort of legal, call it, the legal frame,” if only there was some clue what he’s talking about.

With that in mind, the F&B website goes one up on Avvo and the multitude of scam referral sites that offer free legal advice by offering it’s own [not so] Legal Advice.  I gave it a go, asking whether I could go to jail for murder, and within a flash, I was told “not a chance,” which is true since it was a trick question.

While the free legal advice is clearly for fun, and the advice given is kinda funny, it strikes me that somebody, somewhere, is going to be dumb enough to think that they are actually getting legal advice and rely upon it.  The show (website) aren’t at fault for this, as they make it clear that this isn’t real legal advice, as anyone with sufficient brain activity for autonomic reflexes should be capable of realizing that it’s a canned response having absolutely nothing to do with the question (another answer was “yes, but only on weekends, again exactly what I wanted to hear), there is no doubt in my mind that the sound of “whoosh” will be heard as a loyal fan awaits her legal fate.

Over the years, lawyer shows haven’t come much closer to reality then they were when I was a kid.  Cases wrapped up in an hour, with the good guy winning and Perry always able to find that one question to break the liar in the room, week after week.  It was the inspiration for generations of lawyers asking one question too many.

But what occurred to me is that real lawyers have become more like their TV counterparts, with a  post yesterday providing an excellent example.  No longer is it about hard work, but immediate gratification.  No longer are substantive skills valued, but it’s all about appearance.  Glib claims trump truth, and indeed reality is neither recognized nor realized.  They believe their puffery; they don’t see it as puffery. 

Like the TV lawyer, that it’s all about appearance is of no consequence.  If a young lawyer is sufficiently shameless, they can be Clarence Darrow by the time their website hits the screen.  And other young lawyers, with the support of their social media, marketing and tech mentors, buy it.  All it takes is a decent tan to be a star, whether on TV or in the law.

Mark Paul Gosselaar is an actor.  The free legal advice offered on the television show’s website is for entertainment, even if someone is foolish enough not to realize it.  It’s not real.  The same can’t be said for the show put on by young lawyers who believe that creating the appearance of being a successful lawyer is al that’s needed to achieve success. 

They don’t see it as a fraud, but as the future of the law, the tech-savvy approach that threatens old lawyers who labored to become skilled at their work.  Old timers can’t stand the fact that they are doing overnight what took us decades.  Are young lawyers to blame for being able to achieve great accomplishments? 

Of course, they aren’t doing the same thing, but merely creating the appearance of competence by deception.  Calling oneself a huge success, and claiming vast experience in a wealth of areas, is easy.  Being it is another matter, but the digital natives appear incapable of distinguishing between the fiction they create and what us old timers think of as reality.

Nobody would watch a show on the tube about a lawyer researching an issue for hours.  Nobody wants to see a lawyer writing a brief for days, revising and correcting, cutting out unnecessary words and making certain that each sentence expresses exactly what is intended.  It would be horribly boring. 

Lawyer shows on TV can be exciting, humorous, inspirational and thrilling.  Practicing law isn’t nearly as fascinating.  At least not the old way.  I can’t help but wonder what lawyers will look like ten years from now, and whether there will be any distinction between characters on television the lawyers who play one on the internet.  I can’t help but wonder whether the free legal advice given by Franklin and Bash will be any worse than that given by today’s tech savvy wonders.  Will it at least be as funny?

But as I’m told, old lawyers just don’t get it, and we’re threatened by baby lawyers who turn themselves into overnight sensations on the internet.  They are the future of the legal profession.  Can a reality show be far behind?