Shape up, Alicia.
CBS’s “The Good Wife” seems to be getting more cavalier with its ethics breaches, a disappointing trend. Showing the ethical fudging that undoubtedly goes on behind the scenes at major law firms (on occasion) is appropriate; treating major violations with a shrug is not. I know it is tempting for the show to assume it has the intelligent legal TV show championship sewed up, since “the Defenders” is a joke and “Harry’s Law” is a disgrace, but it’s standards have been high, and it is dispiriting to see them flag with such missteps such as…
- Prosecutorial misconduct casually brushed off as nothing. When Alicia asks why a videotape is so much clearer than the one the prosecutor’s office turned over as evidence, she is told that what she received before was a copy of a copy of a copy–“just to mess with you.” That’s discovery abuse and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, always serious, doubly serious when perpetrated by the state. Prosecutor misconduct is a real problem for the legal system; Alicia shouldn’t just accept it. In fact, she has a mandatory ethical obligation under Rule 8.3 to report the misconduct to the Bar.
- Non-legal assistant dishonesty. When she asks evil firm investigator Blake how he came by the video, Blake says, “You don’t want to know.” That’s the ball game: Alicia has to fire him on the spot. Whatever he does is attributed to her (Rule 5.3), and he has put her on notice that what he is engaged in is either illegal or dishonest, a violation—for Alicia—of Rule 8.4. But worst of all is…
- What I call “The Hollywood Lawyer Fallacy.” Lawyers have to communicate settlement offers to their client; they cannot, must not and dare not accept or reject an offer without doing that. This is so frequently misrepresented on TV and in movies that most Americans don’t know that it is required, allowing unethical lawyers to deceive them. I hate it when I see this. The all-time worst example: “A Civil Action,” where lawyer John Travolta turns down a multi-million dollar offer from Robert Duvall, playing the attorney for a big corportion, after Duvall makes an inexcusable speech about how they, as two lawyers, can settle the matter between them, as if their clients don’t exist. I walked out of the movie. Now they are doing it on “The Good Wife.” True, this was a little different, because the firm was suing the District Attorney’s office, and the D.A. turned down the Alicia’s firm’s settlement demand. But the D.A. wasn’t the client: the city was. He had to go and relay the offer, in all likelihood, to the City Council and the mayor, who are authorized to speak for the city. He didn’t… a Rule 1.2 violation and a cardinal sin for him.
And also for “The Good Wife.”
Ethics Alarms 
Slightly related: Have you walked out of many movies? I’ve only walked out on one, and since then, I resolved never to do it again. And I have sat through some absolutely wretched movies because of this.
By the way, I stayed in the lobby until I cooled off, and came back
I have walked out of the following films: “JFK,” “The Lincoln Conspiracy”, “The Silent Scream”, “The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz”, and the original “Dawn of the Dead.”
(looks up The Silent Scream)
There are four films called that, but I assume you mean the one by Bernard Nathanson. I actually saw a clip of a different movie he made called “Eclipse of Reason” when I was flipping through the TV and saw a warning that said “This movie is very disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.” I forget exactly how it was said, but it stayed up for a solid 3 minutes. When I saw what they were doing, I turned the video off and listened to the sound.
I found that title by looking up a phrase I recalled from the movie, and got linked to someone’s blog. They say, “Watch Eclipse of Reason.” and link to Youtube. I haven’t the heart to actually click on it and see if it’s actually on Youtube. I have to assume it was removed.
I don’t know if this counts as “rushing to Jack’s defense”, but in fairness to the record I have to add that Jack walked out of “Dawn of the Dead” not because he wanted to, but because I wanted to. I’m not good with blood-and-gore movies (yes, I know my options are going down by the year) and it was making me sick. An ethics plus: the box office gave all three of us our money back when they asked why we were leaving, and we hadn’t even asked for it.
I stayed through all of “Tangled”, though, and would again.
Tangled was awesome. In January, when I was looking to see if I wanted to see any movies, I honestly figured if I’d see something, I’d see Tangled again, THIS time not in super-crappy 3D.
Yes, I’d say the Tangled thread is just about as far off-topic as it would be possible to get.
I’m sorry, I just really liked that movie.
I finally saw the movie, Tom, and you had the right idea. The re-make, however, was wonderful, and I’m sure you would have walked out of that, too.
I haven’t walked out that I remember, but I nearly upchucked at Adam Sandler’s supposed comedy, “Eight Crazy Nights”.
My son loved it.