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Ropes & Gray lawyer roasts Netflix hit show’s portrayal of City law life

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“I couldn’t help but laugh over much how they got wrong on the practice of corporate law”

A Ropes & Gray associate has taken to LinkedIn to sift through the inaccuracies of life as a corporate lawyer in the Netflix series Partner Track.

The show follows the young City lawyer Ingrid Yun’s attempts to get ahead in the race to become a partner at an elite New York City law firm.

Georgina Suzuki, an IP Transactions Associate who is based in Silicon Valley, wrote: “for fun I thought I would help set the record straight (sorry to disappoint all you potential law school students who aspire to a glamorous lawyer life)”.

In the comments she explains:

“I just wish TV were more reflective of reality. It shapes people’s views and decisions whether to pursue certain careers. A lot of people drop out of law school because it wasn’t what they imagined. You can say certain aspects of a tv show capture the “spirit” of the profession despite inaccuracies, but accuracy helps.”

For those who haven’t watched season one yet: WARNING, SPOILERS ALERT (though only very minor ones)! Suzuki’s post highlights eight City law myths that come out from Partner Track.

She notes the worrying levels of commercial awareness and legal knowledge displayed by lawyers on the show: “A sixth year M&A associate is shown falling asleep listening to a podcast about material adverse changes. Unfortunately, you are in trouble if you don’t know what a MAC/MAE is by then.”

Although many City law firms do have some cool perks, maybe don’t get too carried away with a romanticised image of enjoying ensuite offices, private plane trips and City skylines.

Suzuki vents: “As a senior M&A associate, you don’t just casually peruse documents on your stomach in your office gazing at the Manhattan skyline. You gotta work on your SPA markup, alone in front of your large dual screen monitor and cold pizza, while badgering specialist teams to send in their portions of the diligence memo.”

She also remains “incredulous that partners have massive private bathrooms attached to each of their offices” and stresses that “senior associates brief partners on red flags. But that generally doesn’t happen on private planes to Paris. There is email for that.”

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16 Comments

Corporate lawyer

aaaaaaaaaaaand cringe

(33)(1)

Formally confused of Chancery Lane

Yeah, I’ve always had lingering doubts about whether Grey’s Anatomy, LA Law, Boston Legal, Ally McBeal, the Lincoln Lawyer, the West Wing and CSI really showed the work of doctors, lawyers, politicians and coppers as it really is.

So thanks to Georgina for helping me decide whether these shows are drama or documentary. 👍

(122)(1)

I too

I, too could not decipher whether suits was basically a work of accurate description of working in a US law firm. Who knew?

(54)(1)

Old fart

People are not this good looking in law firms #Fax

(59)(2)

Litigator

Don’t they just download templates and fill them in?

(32)(4)

DWF bantz

“As a senior M&A associate, you don’t just casually peruse documents on your stomach in your office gazing at the Manhattan skyline. You gotta work on your SPA markup, alone in front of your large dual screen monitor and cold pizza, while badgering specialist teams to send in their portions of the diligence memo.”

We actually do that at DWF – the difference being, it is from a sweatshop office overlooking Greggs, with yesterday’s dominos pizza. And… we all do PI – our website lies, there is no commercial work here #bantz for all.

(41)(1)

L&W/K&E

Is Ropes even an elite US firm?

(8)(10)

Response to L&W/K&E

Who cares?

(20)(1)

Sore loser

Touch a nerve?

(1)(8)

Busty informer

In London, hell no.

(5)(4)

Boston Legal Suits

Yes.

(0)(0)

RTPLaw1

Perry Mason inspired my choice to become a lawyer. There was probably no less realistic TV show ever made. Nevertheless, I enjoyed 45+ years of legal practice. Smart people know the difference between entertainment and real life. (I suspect that Top Gun: Maverick isn’t true to life either.)

(11)(0)

Al

My Cousin Vinny is pretty spot on; and actually anticipated the decision in Daubert re who can be an expert.

(4)(0)

Lol

Lol a sore loser over what? 🤣 I clearly said who cares

(4)(1)

YOU LIVE ONLY ONCE

I love this
I wasn’t looking for the right and wrong just loved the love story line.
Waiting for the return…..

(0)(0)

Kevin

My dream is to have a private bathroom attached to an office. Heck, just an office would be nice.

(0)(0)

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