Well, I must admit, I have been waiting for this show to come on for quite some time, so it was with great excitement that I watched the second episode of The Law Firm. Would I end up disappointed, or would it reach the high bar that I have set for it? Keep reading for my answer!
This week, we are treated to recap that I didn’t really catch in the chaos that was my television room, however, Michael and Barrett were apparently the all stars last week, and so they choose the teams this week. Barrett chooses Olivier, Elizabeth, Anika and Deep. Michael chose Keith, Aileen, Chris and Regina. Regina, being picked last has also fulfilled the role of the reality TV character that isn’t here to make friends. (Which generally is something that people without friends say).
Roy Brown introduces us to the various cases that they will be representing. The first one is a court case, Graves vs. Hicks. Hicks is the defendant and Graves is the plaintiff in a case where Hicks posted a “Wanted poster” for Mohammed al-Graves with a picture of Graves with a beer. Graves claims that it was in poor taste, and so he wants money.
The second case is an arbitration case between a Dominatrix, and a
crazy man computer guy named Jason. Apparently Jason took down the Dominatrix’s website, and she wants money back from him for taking it down. Olivier gets excited about the dominatrix case, as he says he’s had experience with a dominatrix. This is the first time I’ve “met” Olivier, but I wish that she would have whipped him to death… the rest of the show only served to confirm that.
To start off the cases, Barrett and Michael choose who will be serving on which of the two cases. Deep, Anika, and Elizabeth will be defending for the Graves vs. Hicks wanted poster trial, while Keith, Aileen and Michael will be on the side of the plaintiff. For the dominatrix case, Barrett has decided to work for Olivier on the side of the dominatrix, while Chris and Regina will be working for the crazy computer geek.
Michael thinks Deep is inexperienced, and will be easy to beat, while Olivier is feeling similar sentiments towards Regina. Will they be correct in their assumptions? Only time will tell!
Deep and his team start off by meeting the defendant Ron Hicks, who tells the lawyers that someone showed him the picture of Brad Graves and they said he looked like a redneck terrorist, so he decided to make a wanted sign. At the same time, Aileen and team is meeting with the Graves, and we are treated to answers from both of the men. Brad said that he wouldn’t call Ron a friend, whereas Ron considered Brad a friend, and even loaned him money. Brad states that he has been staying out of the limelight in the town to avoid any backlash that might hit him as an “accused terrorist”. I’m just surprised he didn’t get bricks thrown through his window. This guy seemed so hard-done by. :cry Deep likes Ron, and Elizabeth thinks that the whole suit is frivolous, and should be an easy win. The other team seems to agree, and is worried about the case, because, as Keith said, Brad didn’t seem to be all that upset over what happened when they talked with him.
With the arbitration case on the dominatrix’s website, Chris and Regina meet with Jason, the computer geek, who claimed that the website was poorly done, and that he had exclusive rights to change it to a more professional look. Chris worries about Jason, that he may not be able to relax enough. Speaking of a more professional look, the dominatrix takes Barrett and Olivier through her “house” to see all her “toys”. After the tour, the dominatrix states that Jason owned nothing, and that he took the site down when she was out of town.
As Anika prepares to cross-examine Brad Graves, she mentions to her team that she can try to paint him as a militant, so that it makes sense that there would be a wanted poster with his name on it. The team discourages this, for reasons that I’m sure are obvious to anyone and their guinea pig, except for Anika. More on this coming up. Michael has come up with the winning strategy in his mind. To argue the best opening statement? No. To master the cross-examination? No. To give the perfect closing argument? No. The secret is to annoy the other team. So he goes in to see Deep’s team, and asks them for the poster, which they don’t have. Deep is extremely aggravated at Michael, and calls him a pompous jerk, so it appears Michael’s plan may be working.
Michael and Keith decide to visit one of the witnesses for the defense, who strangely enough, is the aunt of the plaintiff. She tells Michael and Keith that her nephew is only doing this for the money, and nothing else. Things aren’t looking good for Michael and Keith, and looks like they’re going to have to find a big loophole since it seems so obvious that the whole thing is just a money ploy.
In the dominatrix case, we get to see a video deposition of Isabella, who was involved with the dominatrix somehow. She claimed that James was not a partner, but that there was an e-mail. I’ll admit that I didn’t catch everything that happened during this segment. If my VCR was working and I was able to tape it, I would rewatch it to see what was going on… but all I have is my notes and my memory. Olivier seemed quite obnoxious through the whole deposition, and Chris is worried about the deposition not being useful to them.
And it’s time to finally see the terrorism case! Elizabeth states that she feels great about the case, but will she continue to feel great about it? Aileen starts by calling Brad Graves to the stand. She reads the poster to him, and asks for his reaction. Michael states that he thinks that Aileen is tough. Next up is Anika, who you may remember was the one who wanted to paint the plaintiff as a militant when her team shot her down. Well, apparently she hadn’t given up, and so she brought up the fact that he owns a huge knife that could be violent. We see Elizabeth and Deep’s faces sink as they hear this cross-examination.
Once we’ve seen the first bit of the terrorism case, it’s time to see the dominatrix in action. No, I don’t mean
that! It’s time for the case, which could be a good one, because Regina desperately wants to beat Olivier. The dominatrix starts off by explaining her costumes to the judge. The more in-depth she goes about costumes and such, the more interested he seems to get, until he is drooling like a Pavlovian dog at the sound of a tone. Judge Horndog wants to see some pictures, so that he can fully understand what she is talking about.
In the court case, Hicks states that he had tried to find jobs for Graves, and that he tried to make his language as ridiculous as possible, so that no one would be offended. Aileen noticed that Elizabeth didn’t really point out the fact that the wanted poster has the word “EAT ME” as an acrostic, as a way of showing how humorous the joke was. Aileen managed to do much better in her cross-examination, to the point where Keith says that she could have had him confess to the JFK assassination. When Deep calls Rebecca, Brad’s aunt, to the stand, he begins to ask a string of about seven questions, and Keith manages to object to every single one of them, and the judge sustains each of them. Keith seems to be doing quite well, as he threw Deep off completely, and they don’t seem to get anything out of their witness.
Meanwhile, Chris and Regina are still worried about Jason in the dominatrix case. When he is asked if he knows a Sabrina Somethingorother (the dominatrix) he claims that he doesn’t know her, but that he knows of someone who has a character named Sabrina. Olivier asks if he is on medication, and I say that if he’s not, then he should be. With all the stupid answers and the weird facial expression, this guy is higher than anything. Either that or Sabrina has a whip under the table.
Michael does the closing argument for the terrorism case, and he brings home that the joke is not funny, and completely inappropriate, while Deep finally says what we all have been dying to hear – EAT ME. He explains that no reasonable person could possibly think that a sign that say EAT ME on it could be a serious wanted poster. Michael, who you may recall said Deep was inexperienced earlier on, now says that he is impressed with Deep’s closing argument.
Judge Horndog is now ready to make a ruling in the dominatrix case. He can’t see a contractual agreement, and so he finds against the dominatrix. Olivier is not impressed with this ruling, and believes that the judge screwed it up, and so to show his displeasure, he does something that I have seen many a time when I was in seventh grade. He storms out of the room shouting “It’s Bull-caca”. Caca, of course is not what he really said, but what he really said is not ART friendly. Barrett is sitting next to an empty seat after Olivier storms out, and she looks extremely embarassed. She thanks the judge and walks out. Olivier is still livid, Barrett thinks Olivier’s cursing will not go over well with Roy Black, and Chris says that Olivier was not respectable at all.
Judge Katz, for the terrorism case, is offended by the poster, and he charges Hicks with $5000 and a heartfelt apology (or 2000 more dollars). Hicks makes the apology, and Graves goes out for a big liquor run. Deep expresses his disappointment to us by saying that he is devastated, and that it’s the first case that he has ever lost. He hopes that Roy Blue saw his closing argument, because he feels like he did quite well. Barrett tells us that Olivier was bad, and will probably incur the wrath of Roy Green.
So it’s time to hear what Roy really thinks. He asks Olivier “How COULD you?” to which Olivier responds “I don’t know”. Regina tells Roy that she would fire Olivier for his completely inappropriate conduct. Then Roy addresses Anika, and tells her off for trying to get across to the judge that he really was a dangerous man, and that maybe the poster wasn’t quite so far off after all. Anika says she was trying to cover all her bases, but Roy tells her she just confused the judge. Roy tells Elizabeth that she screwed up by not using the phrase “EAT ME” more often. She didn’t show the humor of the poster enough.
It appears that Roy has made his decision as to whom he will dismiss. He first dismisses Anika, because she was the most responsible for losing the case, based on the mixed messages she was sending. He also fires Elizabeth, because it was inexcusable that she hadn’t made a strong enough case for her client, and Olivier gets away with only a strong warning to never do it again.
E-mail me
At dfleming2@yahoo.com
To tell
Me if you too can never remember Roy’s last name, or if you know what
E should stand for in this acrostic