Luber: Hey everyone, Marc Luber here. Have you always wanted to write for TV or movies?
Lots of lawyers and law students have that fantasy � and today�s guest made it her
reality. We�re exploring TV writing careers today � on JD Careers Out There. So stick
around! [Theme song] Alright, as you may already know, at JDOT we explore career paths you
can do with a law degree both in and out of law. And we do that to help you find a career
that fits you so you can love what you do. Today�s guest is Jordana Lewis Jaffe. She�s
a writer and producer on the hit CBS show NCIS: Los Angeles, which is a military and
law enforcement drama starting LL Cool J and Chris O�Donnell. Jordana�s gonna be telling
us all about how she went from being a regular law student with no Hollywood connections
to the writer and producer of a hit show. I�m also gonna be asking her for advice
on how to break in for those of you looking to do that. So let�s get started and meet
Jordana! Jordana, welcome to JDCOT.
Jordana: Thank you so much. I�m so happy to be here.
Luber: I�m glad you�re here. So Jordana, usually I start by asking people to tell us
what they do, but our audience can watch what you do every week on T.V. and I think your
story is so inspiring - even for those people not looking to break in to Hollywood. So let�s
start by this: can you tell us about your path that led you to law school?
Jordana: Of course. I wrote for my college newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, and I loved
writing but I didn�t think that I could actually make a career out of it. So after
graduating, I took a finance job at the Walt Disney company. And it was not the best fit
for me. I really missed writing and so I very quickly went back to journalism. I moved to
New York and I was loving it again. But then, the fears started creeping in again that I
couldn�t make an actual career out of being a journalist or a writer, and I had a fair
amount of parental pressure that law school would be a really wise, prudent decision for
me to do. And I caved into it and went to law school. I went to UCLA. And about two
weeks in, no disrespect to the school, I just realized that it was not the best fit for
me again. So I continued to do journalism while I was a student.
Luber: Whoa, wait. I want to stop you there because so many people face this issue. There�s
so many people who stay in law school or stay in a law job due to parent�s pressure, parental
pressure. So they feel this need to keep going down a path that doesn�t really fit them.
For the benefit of our law student audience and our young lawyer audience, can you share
how you came to this realization?
Jordana: That it wasn�t a good fit for me?
Luber: Yeah, and how you dealt with that.
Jordana: I dealt with it by being very strong. I think that it can be a very difficult decision
to clash with parents, depending on what your relationship is with them. And I was lucky
that I had found something that made me really, really happy and that challenged me and that
I was excited to do and I just knew in my gut that I had to get back to doing that.
Luber: Okay, great. So you said that you were doing some writing then during law school?
Jordana: I was really lucky, because one of my jobs was writing a column about Hollywood
for the New York Times and I got to take on the voice of this column, which was really
not my own. It was almost like writing for a character. I had always been interested
in writing for television and that is what lit the fire. I loved it and I knew I had
to give it a shot.
Luber: Alright, we�re gonna continue this discussion in the full interview. If you�re
watching on YouTube, please give us the thumbs up if this was helpful � and whether you�re
podcasting or watching, visit us at JDCOT.com. You�ll hear lots more there from Jordana
on what it�s really like to write for TV, what it takes, how you can break in and lots
more. If you�re already at the site, make sure you join our membership � that way
you get access to the full version of this interview, lots more helpful video content
and of course the transcripts so you can read along. Thanks again for watching everybody.
I�m Marc Luber and I�ll see you soon.