SUBTEXTsaid, "I'd never allow Mr. Fast on one of my juries! That tweed
jacket and sweater spells out 'intellectual' to me. Also the paper
you're reading. I don't want any intellectual on my jury. They
think too much. Now if you were carrying the Daily News ..."
Picking a jury by the papers they read is not so farfetched.
One lawyer I spoke to said that as a prosecutor he would strike
anyone reading The New York Times, but perhaps accept a reader
of The Wall Street Journal. "Tabloids or trash novels are okay,
but forget anyone carrying War and Peace into the courtroom!"
What a person reads as well as how he or she dresses projects
a subtext. A subtext can be read into almost any part of a person.
An African-American trial lawyer I talked to said he uses his
color and minority status as a positive image. "People still have 1
biases about a person's color. They don't have huge expectations
for me, and I throw them off base by being bright and articulate.
Whatever I do or say then seems a bit better."
Another lawyer, a Vietnam veteran with one leg, told me that
he refused to use a prosthesis. "I come to the courtroom early
and put my crutches below the table. At a crucial moment I will
stand up, holding the table, and make my point. The jury suddenly
sees my disability. What theater! What a subtext I send out! Believe
me, it always works."
However, I was told of a lawyer with a flamboyant style who
favors white suits and suspenders and gets away with it—but
only because he has the panache to carry it off, and because he
is an extremely clever man. The subtext he projects is suitable
to his style and delivery and to the court in which he operates.
The same clothes on another man could be laughable and a disaster.
The subtext must suit the style. In general, men are best advised
to avoid slacks and sport jackets and stick to suits.
For women in law, subdued colors are best, if the image is to