Lawyers on TV – the jury’s out

It is unusual to see solicitors portrayed in leading roles on television. If solicitors appear at all they are either fabulously rich, or extras with no lines to say while the stars playing the detectives interrogate the suspect (usually it is a star as well).

Currently we have two lawyers who take leading roles on the small screen, Thomas Cromwell, played by the marvellous Mark Rylance in the BBC’s Wolf Hall, and the various lawyers in the French cop drama, Spiral, also on the BBC. To say they are solicitors is stretching the point but stick with me.

In the first, Cromwell is portrayed as a solicitor from a humble background. We learn he was beaten by his father and he did not like conveyancing. Certainly he was a lawyer but in the early 16th century the profession was very different. Then, the word lawyer included anyone who pursued claims or arranged deals; not necessarily with any formal training at all.

Cromwell had married well and became established as a business agent, a role which often strayed into fringe work in the law. He spent his time ‘soliciting’, which meant being an agent or fixer rather than a professional lawyer. Soliciting did not make him rich, so he dabbled in moneylending as well. He took on a number of high-profile legal causes which made his name well known. In 1524, he was elected as a member of Gray’s Inn but again that implies little about his chosen profession.

I was surprised to hear the word conveyance in the show. In fact, according to the dictionary, its first use in a legal context was in 1523 by Fitzherbert in his Book of Surueyeng. He spelt it conueyaunce. Presumably this was before spell-check.

It was spelt conueyaunce. Presumably this was before spell-check.

We should be grateful to Cromwell and his friends. The dissolution of the monasteries put property into the hands of the middle classes and trading classes, leading to conveyancing, which was the mainstay of the profession until recently.

On to Spiral. Bear with me. Yes I know they are not strictly solicitors on the continent but they have fancy gowns and all of the legal profession look like models. They spend time stealing cases off each other, sleeping with everyone and walking into judge’s rooms and discussing the police investigation. Sometimes judges ask for a particular advocate to represent a detainee.

In the story the stars attend police stations. Interrogation seems less hampered by rules than in this country. They also seem to have l’aide juridictionnelle (legal aid), which over the channel, unlike in the UK, is thought of as a good thing.

Personally I thought the opener of Wolf Hall was slow, badly lit and disappointing. Long, thoughtful, silent staring does not really work well on television. But the series is still in its infancy so the jury is out, as you might say, or les jurés n’ont pas encore décidé, as they might say in France.

David Pickup is a partner at Aylesbury-based Pickup & Scott