The new TV show “Fairly Legal” features a young woman mediator working in the San Francisco law firm that is being manged by her stepmother, in the wake of her father’s death. It’s TV, so beautiful locations, offices, and people are no surprise. But I do take issue with the suggestion that the main character, who previously practiced law and now practices only mediation, hates lawyers and the law. That kind of stance does a disservice to real [not fictional] mediators and mediation as a field.
Many mediators come to mediation after a stint, sometimes a long one, as lawyers. They may be keenly aware of the limitations of the judicial system and of a hidebound approach to practicing law. But the mediator who genuinely hates lawyers and law is a rarity.
A young woman who hates her widowed stepmother and boss, an attractive woman barely older than she is? That’s another story altogether.
