Suits’ Rachel Zane ranked among TV’s most influential characters
Meghan Markle’s character sent Google searches for ‘paralegal career’ soaring, new research shows
Meghan Markle’s character on legal TV drama Suits inspired a wave of Brits to consider pursuing a career as a paralegal, according to new research.
An analysis based on nationwide Google searches has revealed the jobs held by onscreen characters that impact UK viewers the most.
The research looked at the jobs held by the main characters across over 200 popular TV shows and films, and cross-referenced this with national search data to identify any related rise in interest from viewers inspired by the characters.
Markle portrayed Suits character Rachel Zane, a paralegal whose story arc in the series sees her achieving her dream of attending law school and starting her own law firm.
Search interest in paralegal and law careers spiked after she appeared in the series, with her first appearance in the show’s pilot triggering a 5,300% uptick in Google searches for ‘paralegal’ and ‘paralegal careers’.
By comparison, main character Mike Ross proved significantly less influential with searches for ‘lawyer jobs’ rising by just 6% over the same period.
The most inspirational characters overall were Emily in Paris marketing executive Emily Cooper and stockbroker Jordan Belfort from The Wolf of Wall Street, according to the research undertaken by casino Slotbox.
Of the 200 most popular shows, 3.3% had lawyers as the job role of the main character and the profession was ranked sixth most inspirational profession on TV, behind chefs, secret agents, musicians, journalists and at the top, detectives.
This is not the only attempt to understand the influence of media on career choices. A survey recently found over 50% of law firm workers felt legal TV shows swayed their career choice.
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15 Comments
Anon
Link to the underlying study / results?
Moi
It’s google analytics not a study. You can search yourself.
Wigmore
Cue incoming vitriolic comments on Markle spoon fed straight from the Tabloids…3…2…1…
Akin’s Gump
Being a lawyer has always been unduly glamourised by film and television, it’s funny how being a paralegal is also in that category now!
Barrister
What? Here in Australia we barristers only wear silk underwear and drink Perrier, or French champagne after 12 noon. We start court at 10am so we have time to put on makeup and style our hair, and that’s just the men. Forty degree heat with full robes and a wig just makes us hot, not sweaty. Glamour all the way.
Djed
She was by far the worst main character of the series after season 1.
Anon
Is it true most of the Mac’s funds team has been poached by Ropes ?
anon
Looooooool nope. Couple of drifters to in-house roles but that is it.
Mark
Why would you want to be a paralegal when you could be a solicitor or attorney. Those that want to get into an occupation purely based on what they see on tv deserve the career they find themselves in. With that said I aspire to be the real life Lionel Hutz
Captain Obvious
Hi mark, not sure if you’ve ever worked in a law firm or even seen Suits – you might note that with both, the paralegal(s) in question start their career there as a stepping stone to becoming a lawyer.
Hope that helps x
Baby Bird
Could you please team me how to suck eggs?
Anonymously
Those that are good enough become lawyers without having to be paralegals first
Dan F
Suits and Legally Blonde have both had disastrous consequences for the legal sector
Anonymous
Showing your age with that comment… most people have to start as paralegals these days.
Anon
I want to marry Harry.
Comments are closed.