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Paralegals & Legal Secretaries

: Practical Paralegalism

Margaret Cho Plays "Necessary" Legal Assistant

By Lynne DeVenny

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With so many shows about lawyers on television, you'd think there'd be a few more recognizable paralegal and legal assistant characters - but if you can name five, you know your popular culture much better than I do. (I had to cheat and Google - which isn't really cheating is it? Unless it's Scrabble or crossword puzzles? Not that I would know...Anyhoo, check out this post at Globe University's Paralegal Programs Blog for the identity of a whopping three and a half television paralegals).

So I was very excited to see comedienne and actress Margaret Cho's Q&A with the Manila Bulletin. In the new sitcom Drop Dead Diva, Cho plays a legal assistant to a dead model reincarnated as "size 16" (why the reporter calls this "obese" is fuel for a whole separate post) lawyer.

As for her role, Margaret described it to be ?necessary? in Jane?s life. And she loves that her character is very supportive and loving and who has this feminist ideal that women can do it together!

Television finally got it. Paralegals and legal assistants are necessary in lawyers' lives, and in the real world, spend as many hours as the lawyers (sometimes more) getting those cases ready for high profile trials (the ones that take nine minutes on TV).

But my favorite legal support staff member to date, even though she's not a paralegal or a legal assistant, is Alan Shore's secretary for a short period on Boston Legal - Catherine Piper, as played by Betty White.

On one occasion, Piper provides a much needed ego check for Alan when she bluntly advises him, "Most people aren?t able to see that beneath your slick and sensitive exterior, deep down you really are douche bag. I get that, Alan. You?d have no misunderstanding with me."

I guess Piper's quote is too long to make a good coffee mug...

Full post as published by Practical Paralegalism on December 06, 2009 (boomark / email).