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Enjoying Suits While Suspending Belief
How can a lawyer love this show?
“That Looks Like Meghan Markle,” my husband said casually as he walked by the television. It was the actress a long time ago, before kids. Maybe before my time as an attorney because there were story lines around failing marijuana drug tests and attorneys looked through physical books for legal research on the show.
I was surprised that there was a second season because the premise of it all is completely unbelievable. It starts off with a “genius” kid that looks to be my son’s age (19) stumbling into a law firm recruiting session where he meets with one associate that hires him as an attorney. Instead of advising the genius to take the New York bar exam, the hiring associate directs the kid to visit Harvard Law School to pretend that he went there. It’s preposturous because you don’t have to go to law school to be licensed. And first-year associates are usually recruited out of those that clerked at the firm during law school. Competition is fierce for law clerk positions and it’s strange that there are no law clerks at the fictional big law firm on the show.
It also defies belief that a New York City law firm would allow one associate to hire a college dropout as a first-year associate. Law firms usually have interview panels and HR departments which ensure that practicing attorneys are…