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At one point in Legally Blonde, Elle is told not to go to law school because law school is for those who are "ugly, serious and boring."

 

 

 

 

In the real world, first-year law students do not represent murder defendants


Feature article

Legally Blonde: It's a Crime
by Paul R Joseph

I went to see Legally Blonde as an assignment and specifically to write about it for Picturing Justice. Currently, I am teaching torts to first-year law students. Does this movie have any messages that I want my law students to receive? Would I recommend it to them, I wondered?

Of course, I understand that Legally Blonde is a comedy. Perhaps, in its clumsy, obvious way, it aspired to parody. It isn't a documentary about the law. I am just as willing to find serious and helpful legal messages in an Ally McBeal as in a Law and Order. Unfortunately, I didn't find any in this painful-to-watch movie.

In a previous incarnation, Cyndi Lauper told us that "girls just want to have fun." Legally Blonde agrees wholeheartedly while sulkily noting that if they absolutely, positively have to, then and only then, a girl will be smart.

For Legally Blonde to have any credibility, we must accept the central premise that Elle (played endearingly as always by Reese Witherspoon) is really "smart" all along. Unfortunately, the evidence of this is scant. A 4.0 average in fashion merchandising and a 143 practice LSAT score do not make a strong case, but the real problem is that it is not credible that anyone as intelligent as we are supposed to believe Elle is would be content with the vapid, meaningless life she has lived for so long.

Oh, I forgot, her LSAT score was actually 179. Elle studied for a week and raised it to near-perfect level. That's the other bogus message in this movie, and in so much of popular culture these days, that one can slouch along doing nothing and then, with a little intensive work and a lot of perky attitude, succeed in anything and everything. No, this is not a message that I want my students to get-if they do, they are liable to do themselves irreparable harm-and to flunk out.

At one point in Legally Blonde, Elle is told not to go to law school because law school is for those who are "ugly, serious and boring." The movie seems to agree. The students are stuck-up and the faculty is nasty (and worse). What's really offensive, however, is that they all seem so-well, dumb. In this crowd, no wonder Elle can rise to the top.

In the real world, first-year law students do not represent murder defendants. Students who have never taken criminal law, evidence or trial practice are simply not qualified to do it. But that doesn't stop Elle and in the world of Legally Blonde neither legal knowledge nor experience is needed, because she's "smart." Even once she gets "serious," she doesn't study much, but it's okay because she's really "smart" after all. Memo to students-even if you are smart, without knowledge and effort you are not likely to be competent.

Legally Blonde tells us that a lawyer should form a bond of trust with her or his client. Undoubtedly true. But that bond, without an understanding of the law and without training in the skills of lawyering, is unlikely to lead to a successful result.

Avoid this movie like the plague. It's the "smart" thing to do.

Posted: August 30, 2001

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