Law And More

Jay Gatsby: Today he'd be praised for "reinventing" himself

In a violent scene from the latest film version of the F. Scott Fitzgerald book "The Great Gatsby," old-money Tom Buchanan vilifies Jay Gatsby for taking on an upper-class persona.  That was a different time, of course. 

Now, with so much economic, social, and cultural upheaval, Gatsby would be interviewed on CNBC for how he created wealth, through crafting his mystique.  Some of it would be viewed, though not overly harshly, as unethical, but shrugged off.  Our era is increasingly amoral.  What's key is not getting nail for anything illegal.

Another difference, of course, is that new money is no longer treated as crass.  New money creates jobs, provides funding for political campaigns, and attempts to wipe out diseases like malaria.

Steve Cohen: Is he Jay Gatsby?

In this era consumed with professional success, not existential questions, Jay Gatsby commands the attention Shakespeare's character of Hamlet once did.  The new take on that character is the film "The Great Gatsby" which opens on May 10th here in Connecticut. 

Meanwhile VANITY FAIR joins the conga line of brandname media, ranging from BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK to THE NEW YORK TIMES, focusing on who may be the new Gatsby - that is, wildly successful hedge fund head Steve Cohen.  In a feature story by Bryan Burrough and Bethany McLean (not online yet), Cohen is depicted as a wicked smart ambitious outlier the establishment resisted letting in.  So, as the classic pattern goes, he showed them.  He pays outrageous amounts for art, his primary house in Greenwich, CT, and his vacation home in the Hamptons.

But, like Gatsby, Cohen could come to a nasty end.  He has been on U.S. Attorney Preet Baharara's watch list for years.  A number of his former employees have already been dragged in by federal law enforcement. 

On the other hand, unlike Gatsby, Cohen could go on to enjoy the lifestyle he created out of seeming hurt and resentment. 

"Amour" - A plea for legalizing assisted suicide

"Amour" is a classic love story with a tragic ending.  A sophisticated couple in France who are in their 80s have the intense kind of love which shuts out others, even their own daughter.  It's a beautiful process to observe.

Then the wife Anne has a stroke, followed by another one.  She wants to die. Eventually that seems the only solution for her agony.  If assisted suicide were legal, then the husband Georges could have arranged that.  But it isn't in France. 

When he "murders" Anne with a pillow, he then writes his suicide note and does the deed.  Georges could have and should have lived.  With assisted suicide he would have been legally off the hook. Sure he would have grieved but his wife would have been sedately delivered from the regression to a helpless child.

Daniel Day-Lewis' Lincoln: Trial lawyer's instincts for putting on a show

The Abraham Lincoln Daniel Day-Lewis created for us was a cunning animal with a trial lawyer's instincts for putting on a show.  It was no surprise that the actor won an Oscar for the role.

Audiences went away from the film "Lincoln" wondering who exactly Lincoln was as a person.  Throughout the movie he was always in the role he needed to be to get what he wanted.  And like brilliant successful lawyers he felt no need to explain to anyone why he was speaking from the script he was. 

That enigmatic quality likely frightened both his followers and his enemies into going along with his agenda.   When human beings can't read other human beings they tend to be intimidated.

Millennial JDs: Be like Jon Favreau, become a political speechwriter

So much of the juicy and high-paying parts of law are embedded in oral delivery.  In fact, those theatrical performances are what initially attract the verbal to study law. 

However, practicing law isn't what it used to be.  So, flexible JDs might consider leveraging their skills in oral communications to writing speeches for politicos.  It's exciting.  It's covered by the media.  And it can lead just about anywhere.

The president's well-known Millennial speechwriter Jon Favreau is leaving the White House this March 1.  He could be headed to Hollywood to pen screenplays.

Political speechwriting and even the buttoned-down corporate kind is now a sandbox only Millennials can play in.  Speakers don't trust those of us over 30 because we might just let an uncool term or phrase get in.  Speakers would sound foolish.  The media would replay the anachronistic language. 

So, you Millennials have the game all to yourself.  Volunteer to pen whatever for a local, state, or national politico and an wannabe politico.  Eventually you will have the skills, portfolio, and contacts to get in where you want to.

"Les Miserables" - Justice is man-made

Like the writer in the novel and later film "The Human Stain," the force of law and order in the novel and later film "Les Miserables" realizes that everything he had assumed that he had known all his life is just not so.  But instead of seeking enlightenment and redemption as the writer did he commits suicide. 

One message from this film which attracted full houses today at movie theatres and applause afterward is that "justice" really is man-made.  There is no Platonic code out there which legal systems are supposed to capture and interpret.  Through love a petty resentful thief learns to live a life of personal altruism. 

The lawyers in the audience for this film over the holidays might be wondering if their profession takes the letter of the law too seriously.

"Django Unchained" - Example of ethical angst versus broken laws

The Quentin Tarantino film "Django Unchained" presents a brutal example of how a breach of our sense of ethics can eat us alive. 

In the movie, one of the main characters Djano indirectly is the cause of a slave and professional wrestler being eaten alive by dogs.  The bounty hunter who is Djano's companion and mentor offers the owner money to buy the slave.  But Djano, who is carrying out the ruse of being an expert on slave wrestling and a mean one at that, reinforces that persona by preventing the purchase.  The dogs are released. The scene of the carnage keeps flashing back in Djano's consciousness.  No laws had been broken since the slave is the owner's property, to do with it as he chooses.

For litigious Americans, this film provides the pieces of the puzzle of why a violation of our own ethics can haunt us more than our fear of the law.  This movie could be shown in seminaries and ethics courses at universities.

"Lincoln" - Portrait of a leader, with legal training

The genius of the film "Lincoln" is that the writers and the acting by Daniel Day Lewis allowed us to see inside the thinking of a leader during crisis.  The Abraham Lincoln we get is a pragmatist whose training as a lawyer equipped him to frame matters so that they could get done. 

An example of that was the passage of the Amendment to abolish slavery.  That would not have passed the legislature if those voting thought the war would soon be ended.  The reality was that a delegation from the South was standing by to end the war.  Lincoln denied that with a lawyerly "that as far as he knew ..."  As we know, how we know things is highly ambiguous.

By passing up the opportunity to end the war Lincoln then permitted yet another battle which killed thousands to take place.  As a leader he made that decision and took responsibility for it.  This Lincoln was a man who suffered greatly for authorizing what he decided had to be done.  This was another aspect of leadership that we got a peek at.

Bundled with Lincoln's pragmatism was his assessment of becoming a lawyer as a solid profession, which is useful.  His son Robert who is in law school in Boston wants to quit and join the Union army.  The father tells him it's wise to stay in school and finish his law degree. 

Dinesh D'Souza, et al. - Decline of The Party Of The Smugs

The future was at stake. 

A few months ago, theatre goers listened in rapt attention to Dinesh D'Souza narrating the film "2016: Obama's America."  The story line was about how this radical boy president was going to destroy America if re-elected.  Many in the audience cheered.  I thought it was well done but I questioned how the dots had been connected. 

Not long after the media reported D'Souza lost his job as president of a conservative institution of higher learning.  At fault was how he had allegedly comported himself in his marriage.  So much for family values.

Then yesterday, Americans, who had been so chastised by the GOP for wrong values, re-elected the radical boy president.  Smug Karl Rove lost it.  Smug supporters of Romney went on a witch hunt to find out who "caused" the loss.  Smug members of the Tea Party have vanished from sight.  Where will we ever find Bristol Palin?

Will these times go down in history as the Decline of the Party of The Smugs.

"Le fils de l'autre" - In the U.S. both sets of parents would sue

At a hospital in the Middle East a Jewish woman and one from Palestine both give birth to male infants.  A scud attack is going on so the babies are put in a safe location in the hospital.  Almost 18 years later the two mothers find out that they were given the wrong infant.  That was picked up when the boy who assumed he was Jewish was being screened for national service.

That's the plot line of the foreign film "Le fils de l'autre."  Of course, since the Jews and the Arabs are enemies, this discovery is shattering.  Then everyone adjusts, even the fathers who took it the hardest.  Nice theme that we are all really one human race.

However, if this film had been set in the U.S. the families would have been advised to sue the hospital.  And they would have probably done just that.  There would have been a large settlement.  The hospital's public relations department would have issued a press release on how fail-safe procedures were introduced so that such an error would never happen again.  Therefore, the film wouldn't have had such an inspirational resolution.