Law and emotions in The Split

ABSTRACT

The representation of female lawyers in film and television has long been indicative of wider issues of patriarchal crisis. Seminal works by Cynthia Lucia (Framing Female Lawyers, 2005) and Orit Kamir (Framed: Women in Law and Film, 2005) have alerted us to the ambivalent representations of female lawyers as personifications of progress, embodiments of social justice and epithets of powerful career women. Women lawyers, Lucia contends, regularly end up on trial themselves for violating norms of femininity and rebelling against patriarchal authority. This paper analyses the representation of female lawyers in the BBC drama The Split (2018–2022) and suggests a more positive reading of female ambivalence. The paper is informed by law and visual culture theory, professional identity theory and community of coping theory to shed light on the emotional complexities, tensions and conflicts that divorce lawyers manage daily.

KEYWORDS:

• TV drama
• female lawyers
• emotional labour
• display rule conflict
• communities of coping

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Interview with Nicola Walker, BBC (16 April 2023).

2 Cynthia Lucia, Framing Female Lawyers: Women on Trial in Film (University of Texas Press 2005); Orit Kamir, Framed: Women in Law and Film (Duke University Press 2006).

3 Lucia (n 2) 22.

4 See Encyclopædia Britannica for a definition of second-wave feminism, <https://www.britannica.com/topic/feminism/The-second-wave-of-feminism> accessed 8 November 2022.

5 The ITV series was based on the West-End play Justice is a Woman (1967). In 1969 the play was screened on ITV. For more details, see Peter Robson, ‘Women Lawyers on Television—The British Experience’ (2014) 5 Nordic Journal of Law and Social Research 101–16.

6 Ibid 104.

7 Charlotte Cripps, ‘Abi Morgan: The Split Is Filled with a Lot of the Pain I’ve been through’ The Independent (London, 16 May 2022) <https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/abi-morgan-the-split-iron-lady-b2078275.html> accessed 8 November 2022.

8 We follow Gamman and Marshment's definition of the female gaze. Lorraine Gamman and Margaret Marshment, The Female Gaze: Women as Viewers of Popular Culture (The Women's Press 1994).

9 ‘Italy files for The Split’ BBC website <https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/bbcstudios/2022/italy-files-for-the-split> accessed 8 November 2022.

10 Kate Landells, ‘The New BBC Legal Drama Is a Worryingly Misleading’ The Independent (London, 5 May 2018) <https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/bbc-the-split-legal-drama-lawyers-divorce-uk-a8337821.html> accessed 8 November 2022.

11 Pauline Ellis, ‘A Realistic Interpretation of Family Law?’ <https://www.duttongregory.co.uk/site/blog/bbc-drama-the-split-a-realistic-interpretation-of-family-law> accessed 8 November 2022.

12 Gerard Gilbert, ‘Nicola Walker Is the Beating Heart of The Split’ The Independent (London, 4 April 2022) <https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/the-split-series-3-bbc1-review-nicola-walker-stephen-mangan-1556367> accessed 8 November 2022.

13 Carl Plantinga, Moving Viewers: American Film and the Spectator's Experience (University of California Press 2009).

14 Ibid 79.

15 Ibid 72. Also 98 where he explains that he uses sympathy and empathy interchangeably, as neither are ‘in themselves emotions, but rather a capacity or disposition to respond with concern to another's situation and often an accompanying tendency to have congruent emotions. […] Sympathy and empathy may arouse emotions as diverse as happiness, fear, anger compassion, resentment, moral disgust.’

16 Ibid 60.

17 Lucia (n 2) 27.

18 Jennifer L Pierce, Gender Trials. Emotional Lives in Contemporary law Firms (University of California Press 1995); Jennifer L Pierce, ‘Emotional Labor Among Paralegals’ (1999) 561(1) The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 127; Kathryn J Lively, ‘Reciprocal Emotion Management: Working Together to Maintain Stratification in Private Law Firms’ (2000) 27(1) Work and Occupations 32; Lloyd C Harris, ‘The Emotional Labour of Barristers: An Exploration of Emotional Labour by Status Professionals’ (2002) 39(4) Journal of Management Studies 553; Kathryn J Lively, ‘Client Contact and Emotional Labour: Upsetting the Balance and Evening Up the Field’ (2002) 22(2) Work and Occupations 198–225; Chalen Westaby, ‘“Feeling Like a Sponge”: The Emotional Labour Produced by Solicitors in their Interaction with Clients Seeking Asylum’ (2010) 17(2) International Journal of the Legal Profession 153; Chalen Westaby, ‘What's Culture Got to Do with it?: The Emotional Labour of Immigration Solicitors in their Exchanges with United Kingdom Border Agency Case Owners’ (2014) 20(1) European Journal of Current legal Issues 1; Joy Kadowaki, ‘Maintaining Professionalism: Emotional Labor among Lawyers as Client Advisors’ (2015) 22(3) International Journal of the Legal Profession 323; Hilary Sommerlad, ‘“A Pit to Put Women In”: Professionalism, Work Intensification and Work-Life Balance in the Legal Profession in England and Wales’ (2016) 23(1) International Journal of the Legal Profession 61.

19 Arlie R Hochschild, The Managed Heart. Commercialization of Human Feeling (University of California Press 1983) 7fn.

20 Anat Rafaeli and Robert I Sutton, ‘The Expression of Emotion in Organizational Life’ (1989) 11 Research in Organizational Behavior 1; Blake E Ashforth and Ronald H Humphrey, ‘Emotional Labor in Service Roles: The Influence of Identity’ (1993) 18(1) The Academy of Management review 88; A Morris and DC Feldman, ‘The Dimensions, Antecedents and Consequences of Emotional Labor’ (1996) 21(4) The Academy of Management Review 986.

21 Rafaeli and Sutton (n 20) 8. Also see James Diefendorff and Erin M Richards, ‘Antecedents and Consequences of Emotional Display Rule Perception’ (2003) 88(2) Journal of Applied Psychology 284.

22 Chalen Westaby and Andrea Subryan, ‘Emotional Labour in the Legal Professions’ in Jake Phillips, Chalen Westaby, Andrew Fowler and Jaime Waters (eds), Emotional Labour in Criminal Justice and Criminology (Routledge 2021) 34. 

23 Ashforth and Humphrey (n 20).

24 Andrea Subryan, Emotion Work: An Exploratory Study of Experiences among Family Law Practitioners. Sheffield Hallam University (United Kingdom 2020).

25 Ibid.

26 Hochschild (n 19). 

27 Erving Goffman, The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life (Penguin Books 1959).

28 Westaby (n 18).

29 Celia Davies, ‘The Sociology of Professions and the Profession of Gender’ (1996) 30(4) Sociology 661.

30 Hilary Sommerlad, ‘The Commercialisation of Law and the Enterprising Legal Practitioner: Continuity and Change’ (2011) 18(1–2) International Journal of the Legal Profession 73.

31 Subryan (n 24).

32 Jennifer Gerarda Brown, ‘New Directions in Negotiation and ADR: Deeply Contacting the Inner World of Another: Practicing Empathy in Values-Based Negotiation Role Plays’ (2012) 39 Washington University Journal of Law and Policy 189 at 195. See also Lynne N Henderson, ‘Legality and Empathy’ (1987) 85(7) Michigan Law Review 1574.

33 Chalen Westaby and Emma Jones, ‘Empathy: An Essential Element of Legal Practice or “Never the Twain Shall Meet”?’ (2018) 25(1) International Journal of the Legal Profession 107 at 110.

34 Westaby (n 18); Ibid.

35 Kristin B Gerdy, ‘Clients, Empathy and Compassion: Introducing First-year Students to the “heart” of lawyering’ (2000) 87(1) Nebraska Law Review 1; Westaby (n 18); Brown (n 31).

36 John Barkai and Virginia O Fine, ‘Empathy Training for Lawyers and Law Students’ (1983) 13 Southwestern University Law Review 505 at 511.

37 Gerdy (n 35); James Duffy, ‘Empathy, Neutrality and Emotional Intelligence: A Balancing Act for the Emotional Einstein’ (2010) 10(1) University of Technology Law and Justice Journal 44.

38 Jake Phillips, Andrew Fowler and Chalen Westaby, ‘Self Disclosure in Criminal Justice: What Form Does it Take and What Does it Achieve?’ (2018) 62(12) International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 3890 at 3890.

39 Florence Kaslow, Bernard Cooper and Myrna Linsberg, ‘Family Therapist Authenticity as a Key Factor in Outcome’ (1979) 1 International Journal of Family Therapy 184; Christine G Robitschek and Patricia R McCarthy, ‘Prevalence of Counselor Self-Reference in the Therapeutic Dyad’ (1991) 69 Journal of Counseling & Development 218.

40 Robert C Lane and James W Hull, ‘Self-disclosure and Classical Psychoanalysis’ in George Stricker and Martin Fisher (eds), Self-Disclosure in the Therapeutic Relationship (Springer 1990).

41 Carol Ganzer and Eric D Ornstein, ‘A Sea of Trouble: A Relational Approach to the Culturally Sensitive Treatment of a Severely Disturbed Client’ (2002) 30 Clinical Social Work Journal 127.

42 Stephen Lyng, ‘Edgework: A Social Psychological Analysis of Voluntary Risk Taking’ (1990) 95(4) American Journal of Sociology 851 at 857.

43 Anne Worrall and Rob Mawby, Doing Probation Work. Identity in a Criminal Justice Occupation (Routledge 2013) at 113.

44 Kathleen A Sullivan, ‘Self-Disclosure, Separation and Students: Intimacy in the Clinical Relationship’ (1993–1994) 27 Indiana Law Review 115.

45 Carolyn Knight, ‘Social Worker's Attitudes Towards and Engagement in Self-Disclosure’ (2012) 40 Clinical Social Work Journal 297.

46 Sommerlad (n 30).

47 Subryan (n 24).

48 Fred Mael and Black E Ashforth, ‘Alumni and their Alma Mater: A Partial Test of the Reformulated Model of Organizational Identification’ (1992) 13(2) Journal of Organizational Behavior 103.

49 Subryan (n 24).

50 Jennifer A Scarduzio, ‘Maintaining Order through Deviance? The Emotional Deviance, Power and Professional Work of Municipal Court Judges’ (2011) 25(2) Management Communication Quarterly 283.

51 Subryan (n 24).

52 Joan V Gallos, ‘Learning from the Toxic Trenches: The Winding Road to Healthier Organizations—and to Healthy Everyday Leaders’ (2008) 17(4) Journal of Management Inquiry 354–67.

53 Maryam Omari and Megan Paull, ‘“Shut Up and Bill”: Workplace Bullying Challenges for the Legal Profession’ (2013) 20(2) International Journal of the Legal Profession 141.

54 Susan Saab Fortney, ‘Soul for Sale: An Empirical Study of Associate Satisfaction, Law Firm Culture, and the Effects of Billable Hour Requirements’ (2000) 69 UMKC Law Review 239.

55 Charmaine Härtel, ‘How to Build a Healthy Emotional Culture and Avoid a Toxic Culture’ [2008] Research Companion to Emotion in Organizations 575.

56 Deborah Rhode, ‘Balanced Lives for Lawyers’ (2001) 70 Fordham Law Review 2207.

57 Subryan (n 24).

58 Härtel (n 55).

59 Subryan (n 24).

60 Rachel Cooke, ‘Screenwriter: Abi Morgan: “I am absolutely the same, but profoundly changed”’ The Observer (London, 1 May 2022) <https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/abi-morgan-interview-split-this-is-not-a-pity-memoir> accessed 8 November 2002.

61 BBC (n 9). Il Split italiano boasts Simone Spada as director and renowned actors Barbora Bobulova, Lunetta Savino and Massimo Ghini.