“Pomp and Circumstance” involves the two most popular American preoccupations: sex and litigation.
A young attorney who would rather pursue women than billable hours is put on probationary notice and is forced to grow up fast after his father, famed trial attorney Max Ebersohn has had a heart attack and a new generation of partners has wrested control from the aging patriarch. Young Zach seeks to prove his worth to his dad, who is reluctant to let go of the firm he created and of his identity as a star litigator.
Without his father’s consent or the firm’s knowledge, Zach embarks on the course of handling two important cases at once. One is a loss of consortium lawsuit brought by a Modern Orthodox Jewish couple: The man has suffered damage as a result of taking five tablets of a medication for erectile dysfunction. The defense attacks their marriage, sealed with a ketubah (Jewish ritual marriage contract) and observant of niddah (sexual separation during menses). How relevant is religious law in a civil suit? How far is Zach willing to go to prove his case to his father?
Simultaneously, Zach takes on a criminal case, as Saul Robinson, an actor playing Othello has strangled his Desdemona. Was it an accident, or did the actor have a sinister motive? Was he set up by his Iago? Was Saul even in his right mind? Zach will attempt a Stanislavsky defense: that Saul was so immersed in The Method, he did not intentionally slay his acting (and romantic) partner.
As he hops from one courtroom to the other in simultaneous trials, Zach has only one ally upon whom he can rely, a young spitfire associate, Diane, who has a few tricks up her sleeve in court and out. Does Zach have the guts to fight his father’s definition of him and the firm’s billable hour requirements and prove himself a worthy advocate of not just his clients, but himself? Will he prevail on behalf of the couple seeking redress from the drug manufacturer? Can he find his own identity while proving that Saul lost his? Can Zach connect with his father and win his love before it’s too late?
