Abstract
Zealousness: Learning Lawyering Skills from Classic Films. Kelly Lynn Anders. Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2012. 236 pp. $28.00 pbk.I am a journalist and a lawyer by training, and a film buff by avocation. As a teacher of media law and ethics courses at a journalism school, I love use clips of classic movies illustrate important principles, so books that can help me do this are welcome.Kelly Lynn Anders's book, Zealousness: Learning Lawyering Skills from Classic Films, is, somewhat surprisingly, one of those books. Anders is currently director of communications and diversity at Creighton University School of Law, but before she earned her law degree at Pepperdine University, she was a film reviewer for the Omaha World-Herald. Drawing on this expertise, Anders has selected movies illustrate twenty-six that every lawyer should have. All of the chosen films were produced prior adoption of the modern film rating system in 1968 but after the imposition of the Motion Picture Production Code in the mid-1930s. As Anders points out in the Introduction, this means the movies lack the nudity, profanity, and graphic violence found in many modern films, making them suitable for viewing by a variety of classroom audiences.Utilizing an alphabetized list of the skills (Anders also wrote The Organized Lawyer, which may be indicative of a penchant for keeping things neatly in their places), each of the book's chapters consists of a description of the respective skill (literally from Advocacy Zealousness), a pithy synopsis of the relevant film, including some interesting bits of trivia, ten Film Discussion Questions, and five Exercises for Improvement. For example, the skill of Compassion is described as a trait that elevates a lawyer's service to a higher level, and is illustrated by the will- ingness of lawyer Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) defend an African-American man accused of raping a white woman in 1930s Alabama in the film, To Kill a Mockingbird. Film Discussion Questions invite the reader reflect on how Finch shows compassion the defendant and his family, and the Exercises for Improvement include a direction watch television news programs and note how interviewers react guests' responses.So you may be wondering, What does all this have do with journalism or mass communications? The answer is that many of the skills Anders advocates for lawyers-Investigation, Marketing, Persuasion, and even X-Ray Vision- are also useful skills for a reporter or public relations practitioner have. And although an attorney or judge is usually the central figure in the films Anders has selected, journalists or publicists often play prominent, if secondary, roles. …
Published Version
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