SISTERS IN LAW
POPULAR CULTURE FEATURING WOMEN ATTORNEYS
SELECTED RESOURCES FOR RESEARCH
Please note: I update these pages when I can, frequently without the assistance of a research assistant. If you think material here is helpful, please let me know.
If you know of material that should be included here and is not, please also let me know. Don't just criticize me in print or elsewhere for failing to include it. Frankly. IMHO, that's just unfair.
Last updated 02/06/2013
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Last updated
02/06/13
New for summer 2009: Lifetime's original legal comedy/drama series: Drop Dead Diva. Premiering July 12 at 9 p.m., 8 Central time, it stars Brooke Elliott as attorney Jane Bingum and Margaret Cho as her assistant, Teri.
"A woman's place is in the House--and the Senate."
Joanie Caucus is a fictional character, but she isn't in a novel or a film, or a tv series. She's a character in the comic strip "Doonesbury," and she earned her law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1977. Of course.
This section includes mainstream novels and genre fiction (mysteries, romance, romantic suspense, thrillers). As you read and watch, ponder these questions: why are the women in these novels and shows so often district attorneys or public defenders, or disaffected sole practictioners? Why can't they find the right guy (except in romance novels and light comedies)? Do these novels, films and tv series reflect real life? Is Ally McBeal the Real Deal? [In addition, here's a list of women lawyer novels from the Monroe County Public Library, Monroe County, Indiana].
Some titles provided by Kris Ramsdell.
Women Lawyers in Film and Television
Books and Articles on Specific Television Shows and Films
Specific Fictional Attorneys and Their Creators
FILMS FEATURING WOMEN ATTORNEYS. This section includes both feature films and documentaries, including those intended for vocational guidance and historical use.
TELEVISION SHOWS FEATURING WOMEN ATTORNEYS
Please send suggestions for additions to Christine A. Corcos.
Michael Kahn's webpage is available at www.mysterypages.com/MSkahn.html. He is a St. Louis-based trial lawyer.
An interview with Carolyn Wheat is available at www.lit-arts.com/sinc_chap1/spot0398.shtml. Wheat is an attorney and one of the founding members of Sisters in Crime.
Lia Matera's home page is available at www.scruz.net/~lmatera/liamatera.html.
Lisa Scottoline graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1981, clerked and practiced as a trial lawyer before turning to writing.
See also general websites such as Law-Related Fun Stuff, Wisconsin Bibliographies: Women Mystery Writers, Lawyer Briefs, The Mysterious Home Page: Themes, Lawyers and Film, Friends of the Court: Lawyers and Judges
Websites devoted to romance and romantic suspense fiction include About Romance Fiction and Romantic Suspense http://www.romancefiction.about.com/arts/romancefiction/mbody.htm; the Romance Novel Database at http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~sooty/romance/romance.html; Romance Novel Studies at http://acs.eku.edu/~inrfox/romancemain.htm; Resources on Romantic Fiction and the Law at http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/romance.html
Mystery readers can find further information at Mystery Readers ‘ Corner: The Softer Side of Murder at http://www.autopen.com/Mystery.shtml.
Women Lawyers in Film and Television
Books and Articles on Specific Television Shows and Films
Other Lists of Women Lawyers in Popular Culture
FILMS FEATURING WOMEN ATTORNEYS
TELEVISION SERIES FEATURING WOMEN ATTORNEYS
VOCATIONAL FILMS AND DOCUMENTARIES
Please note: I update these pages when I can, frequently without the assistance of a research assistant. If you think material here is helpful, please let me know.
If you know of material that should be included and is missing, please also let me know. Don't just criticize me in print or elsewhere for failing to include it. Frankly. IMHO, that's just unfair.
Specific Fictional Attorneys and Their Creators
Coffman, Carrie S., Gingerbread Women: Stereotypical Female Attorneys in the Novels of John Grisham, 8 Southern California Review of Law and Women's Studies 73 (1998)
Edwards, Martin, Legal Mysteries, 140 New L.J. 1734 (December 7, 1990). On the writing of Sarah Caudwell, whose sleuth is the androgynous Hilary Tamar.
Isaac, Frederic, Investigator of Mean Rooms: A Profile of Julie Smith, 15 Clues 1 (Spring/Summer 1991). Julie Smith's female lawyer detective is San Francisco based Rebecca Schwartz.
McRae, Susan, The Law "Powers" Her Writing Style, L. A. Daily J., December 8, 1994, at 1. Discussion of the writing of Mimi Lavenda Latt.
Morton, James, Queen of Crime, 140 New Law Journal 1537 (1990).On Frances Fyfield and her female lawyer sleuth, Helen West.
Taylor, Art, Blood Kin and Bloody Kin: Villainy and Family in the Works of Margaret Maron, 27 Armchair Detective 20 (Winter 1994). A study of the author of the Judge Deborah Knott novels. Also see:
Taylor, Art, Sister-in-Crime: An Interview with Margaret Maron, 2 N. Car. Lit. Rev. 61 (Spring 1994).
Wise, Daniel, How a Lawyer for the State Made "Yuppie" a Common Word, 194 New York Law Journal 1 (September 20, 1985). On lawyer Marisa Piesman and her novels.
General Works on Women Lawyers in Literature and Popular Culture
Dixon, Marian, In Portia's Footsteps: Women Lawyers In Literature, 24 University of Western Australia Law Review 68 (July 1994).
A Timeline of Women's Legal History
Women's Legal History Bibliography Project (Stanford University)
Off the Subject (But Interesting)
Marfua Tokhtakhodjaeva, Traditional Stereotypes and Women’s Problems over the Period of Transition
C. A. Corcos
Last updated 02/06/2013
