Starring for you? Laptop, WIFI, Action!

I was thinking about women in law and an issue related to technology that was specific to women lawyers. She has read many articles that lean toward lawyers, but could be written about all women: working mothers, managing work-life balance, networking opportunities, support resources, etc. I’m managing a career and a family and I know the juggling act as well as any woman. I know I couldn’t have done what I have without technology. Technology has allowed me to be in contact with home when I was traveling and with the office when I was at home; to do more with less time and reach more people more efficiently. My oldest daughter was born in 1991 and I had a laptop; it was about the size of my current desk, but I could check my email from home. It was cutting-edge technology! Look where we are almost twenty years later.

So I started to wonder if they ever really portrayed a modern female lawyer in a movie or TV series. Oh sure, there are movies and series where the lawyers are protagonists, but I couldn’t remember the use of technology as an integral part of the character’s day-to-day activities, despite the fact that technology has become a necessary tool for everyone lawyers today.

I can think of several scenarios involving lawyers and computer technology that could become scenes from a movie, a TV series, or even a reality show. Here are some of the possibilities:

1. The lawyer juggles her rebellious children and answers emails on her blackberry while shopping or attending parent-teacher conferences or watching a football game.

2. The daily drama of a lawyer who telecommutes to balance work and family. The drama comes at her from all sides: the old-school lawyer who thinks work can only be done from the office; the non-working moms who think their grocery store cookie delivery for the fourth-grade bake sale is a false break; Her husband feels left out as she works all hours, even sleeping on her Blackberry in case of a call or email from that client out of the country.

3. View cameras in your home to monitor babysitter and child activity through your iPhone while taking a statement.

4. Struggling with how to efficiently produce (or not produce) inappropriate electronic data. (This could involve several hot scenes!)

5. Constant fight with IT staff, because they confuse your business passwords with your personal passwords, leading to denial of access to your email, documents, etc.

6. Your electronic data review for a multitude of cases: corrupt government episode, serial killer episode, ponzi scheme episode, bank collapse episode, employment discrimination episode, national security episode, while multitasking and also check your children’s book reports, science projects and current article. (Imagine the confusion they could cause if they intertwined!)

7. The stories and drama of several hired attorneys who are helping with the review of a mega electronic document, while dealing with the school bully who is coercing lunch money from your third grader.

8. Episode about engaging a tech-savvy jury, even though the courtroom was built and outfitted in 1960.

9. Trial scenes using high-tech courtroom technology, but the PC fails, no backup is in place; embarrassing moments when, even though you know how to use the latest courtroom technology, you’re not cooperating; night sessions in the war room fighting with the computer to get everything ready.

10. The daily struggles of someone who juggles so much and relies so heavily on technology, can communicate the most complex legal issues in court, but can’t understand a word IT tells them.

Maybe Hollywood hasn’t developed these stories because they don’t think it’s getting the ratings. Or maybe they don’t see the need to weave these technological details into their lawyer personas. Whether we like it or not, these technological details are intertwined in the real lives of lawyers. In general, we find these tools useful. But maybe after living it every day, we really don’t want to use our precious downtime watching what we do all day, every day after all.