By Matt Lalande in Articles on June 24, 2018
Sometimes we need to deviate from personal injury legal postings and have a little fun. In today’s post, our writers compare the show Suits vs being a real life Hamilton Personal Injury Lawyer.
Let’s start with Harvey Specter. He’s confident, with a combination of arrogance and charm, inside a really expensive designer suit. He only accepts one verdict: winning. Then there’s Mike Ross. He’s a hit lawyer with one big flaw: he’s not even a “real” TV lawyer; he’s a fraud. What he lacks in degrees and accreditation, he makes up for in compassion and strategy. Harvey and Mike are two of the quick-witted lawyers at the center of the popular legal drama Suits. Harvey Specter is the ultimate closer. Mike Ross is his sidekick. Together, along with the rest of the characters, they have many people wondering if the life of a lawyer as depicted on Suits represents reality.
Good lawyers ARE confident. – To win cases you have to be sharp, know the law and know how to articulate your case. To win clients you have to be able to portray your expertise and assets. In the words of Harvey: “Anyone can do my job. But no one can be me”.
Lawyers are Risk Takers – Despite what other lawyers might say, lawyers are risk takers. Settling a case or trying a jury case takes calculated risk. If you’re going to be a litigator, you needs to be a risk taker.
Good Lawyers are Ambitious and Competitive – Law firm politics combined with the stressful and competitive race to make partner will ring true for many real-life lawyers. But, a lot of lawyers go into law because they have a genuine desire to help people. Law offers a great opportunity to combine altruistic goals with critical thinking and articulation skills.
The Hard Work, Long Hours and Personal Sacrifice are Real – While many lawyers are striving to find the ideal work-life balance, it’s easy to get sucked into the work, especially when you’re in the middle of a big case. The long days, late nights and early mornings are part of the job. Good lawyers are passionate about their career, their clients and the law. Suits does a great job of depicting the tireless hours and personal sacrifices required by young associates, partners and paralegals at a big law firm. When a lawyer is in trial, he/she basically lives at the office.
$5 Million a year? Come on Harvey Specter – In real life, the people making five million a year are not lawyers. They are bank executives, mining company executive, tech startups founders and large scale real estate developers. They are certainly not your everyday lawyers. Not even remotely close.
The Research – Mike Ross spends a lot of time in the library, reading books to research for cases. Actually, today’s lawyers rely heavily on modern methods to fact find and examine prior cases. Technology makes us more efficient. Someone needs to take Mike aside and tell him about the internet. Does Pearson Hardman not subscribe to Westlaw or Quicklaw? This is quite at odds with modern law practice.
The Pace of A Case – Cases are not started and closed in a one-hour show. For obvious reasons, Suits expects viewers to suspend their disbelief on timing. The reality is that some personal injury cases will take months or even years of hard work before a settlement or court date is reached. Closer to years.
The Simplicity of a Case – Real cases are a much, much more complicated.
You Can’t Swear in Chambers nor Should you Interrupt your Opposing Lawyer – Harvey, on numerous occasions, has blatantly used the words “bull-shit” in chambers. Pre-trial Judges would harshly remind us of a duty of civility and respect…real fast.
The Areas of Law Practiced – It’s great that Harvey and Mike are experts in a vast range of legal specialties, sometimes even within the same episode. They seem to be the best in every field from patents, commercial litigation, and criminal law, to personal injury and employment law. They’re also both excellent commercial litigation lawyers. In real life, lawyers can’t be experts in all fields. They need to pick a niche or specialty. In other words, you will utilize the services of Lalande Personal Injury Lawyers for your Hamilton personal injury case, but not for a criminal case.
A Lawyer Does A Lot More Paperwork – Of course, an office full of lawyers in nice suits shuffling papers would not make for exciting television, no matter how good they look. While lawyers experience a lot of adrenaline and excitement in their job as depicted on Suits, we also spend more time finessing paperwork than our television counterparts.
Lalande Personal Injury Lawyers are real lawyers; we don’t play them on tv. If you or a loved one has suffered a life changing injury, or you have been denied long term disability, please feel free to give us a call at 905-333-8888, fill in a contact form or chat with our live operator, 24/7, who will be pleased to set up a free consultation, with no obligation to you or your family. We will be happy talk about your life changing injury, wrongful death, or disability case.
I was a dental hygienist that suffers from really bad scoliosis. My insurance company ignored my doc & cut my benefits off & told me I could do “something”. Matt got me CPP Disability and and LTD settlement – I don’t know what I would have done without him.
My daughter was killed by a drunk driver and it forever changed all of our lives. It seemed that for two years time stopped. This was no an easy journey. Matt let me sit in on the discovery of the driver and boy, he never let up. In the end, our grand-daughter was taken care of and we were compensated for our loss – which we then donated to a cause we believed in.
I call Matt my knight in shining armour. After I was struck by a car while cycling and permanently crippled, he fielded all communications with my especially difficult and downright nasty insurance adjuster. Every step of my care was a battle and I did not have the strength to fight alone.
I lost my leg in a terrible motorcycle accident and Matt help me recover compensation I need because I could not work and the cost of prosthetics and rehab are out of this world. I don’t know what I would have done without him.
My brother ended up paralyzed after a car accident and Lalande did SO MUCH to help get things straight from him getting out of the hospital to all his care for life. We are so grateful for Matt & Heather. I don’t know how my family could have done this without them.
