How Elle Woods Inspired a Generation of Lawyers

‘My inner Elle Woods became the driving force behind everything’

Angela McCarthy, senior associate at Lawrence Stephens, London

Elle made being a lawyer look really glamorous and exciting. But what really drew me in was that she made it look like if you stay true to what you believe in and relied on your instinct, you could do anything. She stood up for what she believed in and came out at the top of her class. It was very empowering. She may have gone to law school for the wrong reasons, which was to pursue a man, but what she ended up coming out with was having a much better understanding of herself – she’d forged her own career.

The legal profession is such a competitive environment. You have to stand out from other people and you have to back yourself. Things are changing but it’s still very male dominated, especially at the top. When I’d come out of university and had my law degree under my belt, my inner Elle Woods became the driving force behind everything. I’ve been lucky in the sense that I am myself when I go into work, and the firm I work in knows I do a good job, so I don’t have to pretend to be anyone else..

I don’t think Elle is specific to just lawyers. She reminds everyone to be true to yourself and whatever you want to achieve. She makes everything seem possible.

‘My husband encouraged me to have a billboard of me all in pink’

Kathleen Martinez, Managing attorney specialising in immigration, Dallas-Fort Worth

Ever since I was a little girl, I had always worn pink and been really girly. I stood out in every room I was in. When I watched Legally Blonde, I was like, “Oh my god, I can be taken seriously.” My grandfather was a lawyer and I was interested in possibly being a litigator when I grew up, but when I saw the movie, I knew I had to practice law.

Elle helped people, and she helps people by relating to her clients, specifically through being approachable.

It’s a profession full of gossip, the lawyer Facebook groups are the worst – they’re so toxic. I realised I was never going to get accepted anywhere. Like many women in the field, I had to create my own table instead of joining another one, so I started my own firm. My husband encouraged me to have a billboard of me all in pink. It worked because people could see it and relate to me, and they’d remember because of it. Now, everyone in my firm wears the colour. I love that people call me the real Elle Woods – it’s a badge I wear with honour, and it’s awesome marketing. It’s such a compliment.

‘Law school has a way of making people forget who they are’

Haley Moss, Licensed attorney and neurodiversity expert, Miami-Fort Lauderdale

I think a lot about the scene where they’re in a circle at orientation. I felt just like her. I had a very non-traditional background: I was a psych major, an author and illustrator. Everyone around me felt so much more serious. I was able to relate to Elle more than I thought I would.

I also loved that she was so unabashedly herself. Law school has a way of making people forget who they are. They lose sight of their passions. Elle was there, not only embracing that she loved everything pink and feminine, but was also able to use it to her advantage. She knew what made her special and ran with it. On campusI would do the things that made me who I was, and my peers respected me for that.

As an autistic person, I find Elle so relatable. Especially how desperately she wanted to make friends, and how she was very, very into her hobbies. My ultimate Elle Woods moment was my law school graduation. Like her, I was elected class speaker. I wore a pink dress underneath my grad robes. I even ended with: “We did it!” I literally thought I was Elle Woods.

‘You can be consistently underestimated simply by existing outside the archaic norms’

Hadiyah Cummings, civil rights attorney and founder and CEO of LawyHer, Washington DC-Baltimore

Elle Woods didn’t inspire me to become a lawyer, but she absolutely inspired the kind of lawyer I wanted to be. I saw the movie for the first time when I was in college. What struck me is how Elle refused to shrink herself to be taken seriously. She inspired me to not shrink myself when I became a lawyer.

I founded a nonprofit, LawyHer, which is dedicated to redefining what it means to be a woman in the legal profession. It’s not enough to just get a seat at the table – what we care most about is ensuring you feel empowered to show up as your full self. Elle inspired the essence of it.

Elle is a white cis woman and, as a Black woman from the south, she’s just not someone who appeared relatable to me. But watching the film, I was able to see that she’s more than a white woman who loves wearing pink outfits. It’s more about the assumptions people make about you, and how you can be consistently underestimated simply because of the fact that you exist outside the traditional, archaic norms of professionalism. In law school, I’d strut around the hallways with my pink bag and my own style, and that’s when I started to build a community.

‘I watched Legally Blonde every night before every exam I took’

Jacqueline LaBayne, law school graduate, taking the bar this year, and is going into civil rights, Orange, California

I remember being inspired by Elle because she was so fearless. She’d just be like “Oh, I’ll go to Harvard and it’ll be easy, and there’s no doubt in my mind that I can do this.” In the movie she saw how the legal system can make change, and that’s how it was for me. I love everything about her. There’s a moment when a professor goes up to her in the hair salon and says: “If you let one stupid prick ruin the rest of your life, you’re not the woman I thought you were.” That really stuck with me, because I’ve been assaulted and going to law school was driven by wanting to speak up for other people, which is what Elle does.

I watched Legally Blonde every night before every exam I took, every night before midterms, before finals, and I’m going to watch it the night before the bar. Everyone called me Elle Woods at my law school. I wear pink all the time, I have pink suits. I’ve had professors tell me it’s unprofessional and I had a choice to continue trying to be myself , or go with the status quo and wear the boring black and blue. Like Elle, I’m not going to let someone tell me what I can and can’t wear. If you’re gonna judge me on my appearance, I might as well look cute!