7 Famous Movie Courtroom Scenes (And How They Are Wrong In Real Life)

Don't even get me started on Legally Blonde's portrayal of law schools, but that's a separate issue all together.

In Legally Blonde, Reese Witherspoon's character of Elle Woods plays a first year law student at Harvard Law. While in her first year, she is brought in with a group of fellow first-years (affectionally known in law schools as "1Ls") to work on a high-profile murder case. In the middle of the trial, Elle is then effectively made lead counsel on the case (as long as she has Luke Wilsons character, an attorney, overseeing her work).

No. No. No.

A first year law student may or may not have taken a class on Criminal Law, but has definitely not taken all of the relevant classes on Criminal Procedure, Constitutional Law, Evidence, or rules of court. There is no way she'd be allowed to touch a murder case at trial when the consequences of her actions could be so serious.

All of that notwithstanding, the types of questions Elle was asking (both with her phrasing and tone) would not be allowed in court. Without going into too many details, she broke multiple Rules of Evidence (Badgering and Counsel Testifying) and one strategic rule that any trial lawyer worth his or her salt would never break (failure to lead a witness during cross-examination).

Hey, at least we all learned about showering and perms. So there's that.