Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Yale Law Journal

Abstract

The name tells the story. L.A. Law. One part "L.A.," one part "Law." And that is its strength and its risk. If it were only "L.A.," it would be flash without substance (a West Coast Dallas), probably gone by now. If it were only "Law," it would be something else entirely, a panel debate about the Constitution, or Scott on Trusts, or The Yale Law Journal. What it would not be is on the cusp of a fourth year of weekly broadcast. What it would not be, what it has accomplished after a shaky start, is the closest a commercial television series has come to respectable presentation of issues of law and legal ethics. And, as every lawyer and law teacher knows, issues of law and legal ethics are issues about ideas. That makes L.A. Law a rare item: a dramatic television series partly about ideas. How has it survived? The answer lies in mindful acknowledgement of both halves of its name and the effort, often successful, to bring its "Law" as close to law as constraints of the medium will abide.

First Page

1607

DOI

https://doi.org/10.2307/796607

Volume

98

Publication Date

1989

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