LAW
Art in Law
I often imagine lawyers, particularly those with a few years of practice under their belt, congregated and having a picnic under a large, shade tree at the intersection of art and law, appreciating the importance of both disciplines. I have even said in this space that I “… find lawyers to be just like artists – brilliant, creative minds, but a crazy bunch with egos that need to be managed.”
Every lawyer in practice has access to the same laws and must fit their story into those laws. The ability to be creative with the facts at hand, weaving an interesting story (a solution for the client) against the backdrop of the letter of the law, is what makes good lawyers stand out from the pack. A few years ago, I had a recent law graduate intern at my organisation while he awaited admission into law school. I do not remember exactly what his assignment was except that it had to do with internet fraud, but when his response to me was that internet fraud could not be prosecuted in Nigeria because of the inadmissibility of computer-generated evidence, I knew he was still a long way from the picnic at the intersection of art and law. I had the pleasure, only a day or two after, of showing him a newspaper report of some young men who had been convicted for internet fraud by a court in Nigeria. While there were, and still are, to some extent, difficulties with the courts’ acceptance of computer-generated documents as evidence, this young lawyer’s reluctance to even peep out of the mental box that the Evidence Act had him in, was evidence to me that he was yet to find the art in law.
I have read a few media interviews with lawyers who would choose a profession in the arts as an alternative to law. Ayuli Jemide of Detail Solicitors in an interview with ThisDay Lawyer sometime ago said that he would be a filmmaker if he wasn’t practicing law. English lawyer and human rights activist, Shami Chakrabarti, has also said that if she wasn’t a human rights activist she would be a Hollywood screenwriter. Lawyers’ flirtation with the arts and vice versa is not new. Locally, we have examples in singer turned pastor, Chris Okotie; comedian, Lepacious Bose; radio personality, Lolo One; art collector, Yemisi Shyllon; movie producer, Mildred Okwo; make-up artist/entrepreneur, Tara Fela-Durotoye; music mogul, Audu Maikori; and actor turned politician, Richard Mofe-Damijo, to name a few. But it seems lawyers are flying out of the art closet these days. That is not such a bad thing. I have read closing arguments and court judgments that would make literature teachers take notice. And who can forget the late Johnnie Cochran’s attempt at poetry with the now famous quote regarding the bloody glove in the O. J. Simpson double-homicide case, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit”?
Globally, there are lawyers in the arts like David E. Kelley, the award-winning screenwriter and creator of hit television shows like Ally McBeal, The Practice, and Boston Legal. There is also Hill Harper, actor, author, cum laude graduate of Harvard Law and friend/law school mate of President Barack Obama – you may remember him as the black scientist from the television drama CSI – New York. There are others that may surprise you, like singer Julio Iglesias and artist Henri Matisse.
Julio Iglesias became a global sex symbol by accident, literally. After a serious car accident in 1963 left him unable to walk and use his limbs, his dreams of playing soccer and completing his law studies were truncated for a few years. While convalescing, a nurse gave him a guitar which he started playing as a way to develop and increase the dexterity in his limbs, and his love for music was born. After his recovery, he went to England to study English, and by the time he returned to Spain in 1968 his foundation for a career in music was established, and he was hugely popular especially among the ladies. Despite his growing popularity and success with his music, to please his parents, he went back to school and completed his law degree.
French master artist Henri Matisse received his law degree from the University of Paris at the age of 20. After obtaining his qualification, he returned to his hometown and worked as a court administrator until he had an attack of appendicitis, which kept him in bed for almost a year. While he was recovering, his mother bought him some art supplies (a box of oil paints and a how-to book) and he discovered ‘a kind of paradise.’ That was the turning point in his life. He decided to become an artist and went back to Paris to study art, deeply disappointing his father.
The ability to dream in colour, and to see and paint the one orange leaf hidden in a landscape, is what makes it possible for two people to look at the same facts and come up with different stories for two opposing parties.
All I have to say is this, even if you may never exchange your wig and gown for a paint brush, embrace your creative side and let the picnic continue.
