“The jury finds the defendant innocent of all charges. This case is dismissed.”

The gavel drops. The peanut gallery cheers. After months of blood, sweat and tears (not to mention the extravagant media coverage and national attention), the innocent defendant is finally off the hook. Everyone goes home happy. A lawyer’s case is won; a lawyer’s work is done. For now.

Books by John Grisham and shows like Law and Order paint a fantastic picture of courtroom drama: the black-robed judge, sitting tall above the rest, deliberating on life-or-death scenarios; passionate attorneys bantering heatedly back and forth, both struggling for legitimacy against insurmountable odds, and a lone defendant — a man or woman, broken, praying against all odds for his or her name to be cleared and his or her life to return to some semblance of normalcy.

The scenario is clearly a gross romance of what typically occurs in the legal profession. Not every defendant is a Lizzy Borden or an Orenthal James. Not every lawyer gets his glory day in court. The reality of the situation might not be glamorous, but for those who are passionate about their profession, it is rewarding.

Among the pantheon of professions that include doctors, nurses, teachers, firemen and law enforcement officers, the jobs that people in their youth dream of one day joining the ranks of, being a lawyer is an equally lofty goal, though few people actually realize their ambition in the legal profession. The University of Washington alone sees a mere 19 percent matriculation into law school, and that’s out of those who have dared to apply. The application process includes taking the LSATs and having a high enough GPA to even be considered. Even after that, one must past the Bar exam to practice — an exam widely considered to be one of the hardest tests in existence to pass.

“[Courtroom dramas feature] a lot more action than is involved in real courtroom cases,” said UW law school professor James Hardisty.

Hardisty praticed law in Cleveland, Ohio in the late 1960s, and continues in the field as a mentor and instructor during his inactive status.

“It’s distorted,” he said. “A lot of time as a lawyer, you’re reading books, writing memos, summarizing what you read in books. There’s a lot of time, whether you’re drafting contracts, you’re thinking, reading or writing, that is not nearly as exciting.”

After working through years of school, countless books and exams and myriads of personal obstacles to obtain the golden chalice of law practice, one might find that even though it’s not all it’s been cracked up to be in the glitz and glamor of fiction and national sensationalist media coverage, it’s a way of life for those who have the drive.

Despite the over-glitzed image, some aspects of the Hollywood portrayal of a lawyer’s life are accurate, namely the bad ones.

“There’s a fair amount of stress with practicing law, and that’s accurately portrayed,” Hardisty said. “Law is involved with dealing with conflicts. You’re constantly dealing with people in conflict with each other. Obviously, conflict and stress tend to go together.”

Even the conflicts aren’t always stimulating. A lot of a lawyer’s job could be categorized as menial, at least from a criminal justice perspective.

“When I was in practice, I worked for a law firm with about 100 lawyers in it. Of the hundred lawyers working for the law firm, there were maybe five or seven that specialized in litigation,” Hardisty said. “I was not one of them.”

So after all the years of effort in an attempt to pursue your childhood dream of cold courtroom justice, just what does a law degree land you?

“What I’ve found is that one of the most difficult aspects of the job is keeping track of billable hours,” Hardisty said. “I had to be responsible. The system’s gotten more refined now, but back then, I had to record how I was spending every fifteen minutes of my time, then account for that to the law firm. They were billing the client, so my time was billed out at so many dollars per hour.”

All that effort certainly isn’t a waste of time, however. There is a lot of motivation for becoming a lawyer that remains intact, despite the reality check.

“An accepted truth for anything significant and worth pursuing is that there’s a lot of different motives for choosing that career,” he said. “[Law is] intellectually interesting, it pays reasonably well and it has a fair amount of status.”

Even more transcendent than the obvious rewards is something far less tangible.

“I get to help people,” Hardisty said. “Satisfying the needs of my client is great. I like helping and having my help be appreciated.”

To pursue the feeling, Hardisty even worked pro bono for several criminal defense cases, which he noted was duly rewarding.

“I once successfully negotiated a guilty plea for my client to have a lesser included offense,” he said. “That was probably my proudest courtroom accomplishment.”

The glamour of legal life may not be all it’s romanticized to be in popular culture, but if you ask someone who’s passionate enough about their profession, you’ll find that the regrets are few and far between and that the rewards are many.

[Reach reporter Jeff Tripoli at featuress@thedaily.washington.edu.]