Defense attorney Perry Mason is cross-examining the prosecution's expert witness. Surprised by the answers Mason is eliciting, the disgruntled district attorney turns to the police chief and asks who recommended the expert. The chief consults with a minion and replies, with a look of chagrin, "Perry Mason."

"Even as a kid, I suspected that in the real world things didn't work that way," said Scott Turow, author of such bestselling novels as "Presumed Innocent" and "The Burden of Proof," which reveal the inner workings of the legal profession.

Turow showed the clip from the "Perry Mason" television series as part of his
Feb. 18 lecture at the Law School. The talk, titled "Where Have You Gone, Perry Mason: The Lawyer's Image," was sponsored by the Knight Journalism Fellows.

It was his desire to present a more realistic portrayal of the legal world that inspired Turow to write "Presumed Innocent," the author explained. The success of that 1987 novel, and the motion picture that followed, helped fuel public interest in the exploits of attorneys

Today, the so-called "legal thriller" is the largest category of fiction published today, said Turow, and courtroom confrontations provide fodder for such television shows as "Ally McBeal" and "The Practice," and for films such as "A Few Good Men."

Real-life courtroom dramas, such as the O.J. Simpson murder trial, have further fanned this flame of fascination with lawyers and the law, said Turow, quipping, "We seem to have the 'Trial of the Century' every few months."

Yet the public's interest in the legal profession is "counterpointed by a hatred of lawyers," notes the author, who is himself a practicing attorney in the Chicago law firm of Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal.

Turow partly attributes this "profound ambivalence" to the mushrooming litigation culture in this country. "The law intrudes on the lives of citizens in manifold ways that it did not 30 years ago," he said.

Given the increase in lawsuits about everything from sexual harassment to medical malpractice to neighborhood squabbles, "in today's America everyone can be a plaintiff," said Turow, and "anyone can be a defendant." In fact, statistics show that "half of all Americans have contact with a lawyer within a five-year period," he noted.

"The litigation environment has impinged on the ordinary life of Americans," he commented. "As a result, people feel that lawyers are tainting their lives."

While the image of lawyers was once epitomized -- at least in fiction -- by the image of Perry Mason, "who was good, virtuous and almost always as innocent as his clients," attorneys are now more often the butt of jokes, said Turow, citing one of his favorites: "How is a lawyer like a rhinocerous? They're both thick-skinned, slow-witted and always ready to charge."

According to Turow, "Americans' hatred of attorneys turned a new corner in 1972-73 with Watergate" when "it became clear that America had been corrupted in its highest places by attorneys." He pointed out that "two-thirds of the people surrounding Nixon were lawyers" and that the Attorney General, the country's highest-ranking legal officer, was jailed for criminal misconduct.

"For most people, it's dissatisfying to find out that the people who have been trained in the law use that training to avoid it," said Turow, noting that the ethics courses taught at most law schools today are a direct result of Watergate.

In the 1990s, "the new reason Americans hate attorneys is money," Turow contended. The increase in legal earnings "has far outpaced inflation," he explained, making lawyers look like "the greedy economic victors."

Yet, he said, "Even though they hate the power and wealth of attorneys, Americans see positive potential for good in the law. ... America still looks to lawyers to tell us who's worth believing in."

This "sense that there's something good in the law" is, in part, the legacy of Perry Mason, noted Turow, concluding, "I can only hope that the faith America has in lawyers is proven not to be just one more fiction."

-- By LuAnn Bishop

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