Eli Stone
There's a new TV show, called Eli Stone. It is about a lawyer who is either a kind of prophet who is guided by God, or a man with an inherited brain aneurysm that makes him think he is guided by God. Nevermind, either way, he is strongly pushed to do the right thing.
The first episode has him working in a law firm, confronting the choice of pleasing his father in law/senior partner by representing a vaccine manufacturer, or representing one of the families harmed by the vaccine. The main argument for representing the family is that he hears George Michael's song "Faith" all the time. At first, I didn't get why that song. I mean, it isn't really about God or doing the right thing. But I just listened to it again and it is more appropriate than I thought at first. The song is about a man who has a sexy woman in his life who is with him but doesn't love him. As much as he loves the shallow, sexual parts of the relationship, he is going to break up with her, because he owes it to himself to have faith that a woman will come into his life who loves him in addition to the shallow stuff. This is a pretty good metaphor for a lawyer in a big firm, I think. One who has all his physical needs taken care of, but who isn't emotionally satisfied by his work. And he has to risk losing his job, which takes care of his material interests very well, to find something that is more emotionally and spiritually satisfying.
Ironic (or maybe not, depending on your view of the profession) side note: Eli only manages to do the "ethical" thing when violating a MAJOR ethics rule. Like, he could be severely sanctioned, along with his law firm, for doing the "right" thing. Good times.
The first episode has him working in a law firm, confronting the choice of pleasing his father in law/senior partner by representing a vaccine manufacturer, or representing one of the families harmed by the vaccine. The main argument for representing the family is that he hears George Michael's song "Faith" all the time. At first, I didn't get why that song. I mean, it isn't really about God or doing the right thing. But I just listened to it again and it is more appropriate than I thought at first. The song is about a man who has a sexy woman in his life who is with him but doesn't love him. As much as he loves the shallow, sexual parts of the relationship, he is going to break up with her, because he owes it to himself to have faith that a woman will come into his life who loves him in addition to the shallow stuff. This is a pretty good metaphor for a lawyer in a big firm, I think. One who has all his physical needs taken care of, but who isn't emotionally satisfied by his work. And he has to risk losing his job, which takes care of his material interests very well, to find something that is more emotionally and spiritually satisfying.
Ironic (or maybe not, depending on your view of the profession) side note: Eli only manages to do the "ethical" thing when violating a MAJOR ethics rule. Like, he could be severely sanctioned, along with his law firm, for doing the "right" thing. Good times.