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Action & Thriller Movie Reviews

The Lincoln Lawyer – Now, That Lawyer Has Style

I am usually not a big fan of crime movies that involves lawyers.  I don’t even watch CSI on TV.  Lately, or rather for the longest history in time, TK and Cynthia are pretty much in sync when it comes down to the choice of movie.  So when they picked “The Lincoln Lawyer”, I tugged along.

Matthew McConaughey plays a criminal defense attorney who drives a Lincoln with a number plate NTGUILTY.  Does he believe that his clients are innocent?  Does he merely go through the justice process and make sure that his clients get the best of it?  Or does he negotiate settlement for his presumed innocence clients thinking that most probably, that is what they deserve?  In the movie, Matthew is well networked with either side of the law and that seems to have made him one effective lawyer.  Even a cool one.  The story is pretty straightforward, a good one no doubt.  While I do not practice law – and I often wonder what if I do – this movie got me thinking about work in general.

At work, I facilitate a process.  Internal “clients” would come to me with work requests and we have to work together, package the ideas up, and present them to the management team as business cases.  If these cases are not being shot down, it is a green light to move ahead to the next stage.  Some cases go into KIV mode.  Others get thrown out of the window.  Not all the approved cases get everything they have asked for.  At times, we have to settle for less.  And hence, I do rounds and rounds of negotiations on behalf on my internal “clients”.  Having good networks from all sorts of sources aids the process, of course.  I have colleagues who more often than not form their opinions on these requests that affect their actions.  This is not wrong, I suppose, although in our job scope, we are not here to judge the cases.  We push these cases through a process that presents them in the best possible light.  I, for one, am trying very hard to be impartial to whether some of these ideas deserve a hearing or what they ask for.  Sure, looking back, there are cases whereby I wish I had not given away hope before they have a chance to go through the proper process.  But I am only human, still learning my way.  In that sense, I can relate to some aspects of “The Lincoln Lawyer”.