Managing Partner Katie McCann examines the discrepancy between the representation of lawyers in the mainstream media and reality in Law.com.
Katie’s comments were published in Law.com, 20 October 2022, and can be read here.
In relation to the BBC divorce drama The Split, Katie commented: “I can tell you I don’t walk around in a white Alexander McQueen suit like the main woman!
I think the presentation of the female lawyers is very, very stereotypical. They have fantastic clothes and handbags, and everybody’s got perfect hair in a bob. It’s portraying female lawyers as being full of power and having this armour.
There are a handful of lady divorce lawyers that live up to that sort of stereotype but most of us come nowhere near because you are far too stressed, running around, balancing your own life with those of your clients. It’s an ivory tower sort of view.”
Commenting on the portrayal of litigation in the hit film Marriage Story, Katie said: “I think that caricature of an image at the top does a disservice, because then the divorcing British public do have that nightmarish image in their minds before they go to instruct a lawyer.
If I was an unsuspecting member of the public, I would think, ‘Oh my God. Not only am I going to be lured into litigation, but it’s going to cost me an absolute fortune, and everybody will be fighting around me.”
