A pair of Southern California law schools have gone Hollywood this month.

Pepperdine University School of Law last week hosted cast members of the upcoming ABC court drama “For The People” for a screening and panel discussion.

And this week, the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law will welcome Academy Award-winning actress Mira Sorvino and a host of Hollywood producers and media attorneys for a summit on how film can advance human rights.

Sorvino will receive the inaugural UCLA Law Promise Institute Award for Contribution to Human Rights Through the Arts at a reception during the Friday summit, dubbed, “Lights. Camera. Reaction: The Art of Impact in Entertainment.”

“Film is a powerful tool to bring about social change, and we in the industry have the privilege of using our platform for social justice, and to use our art to tell stories of injustice, war, and genocide to encourage the spread of human rights around the globe,” Sorvino said in an announcement of the summit.

The Promise award is designated for people who “have used their talents to focus the public's attention on injustices and human rights violations.” Sorvino, who won an Oscar in 1996 for her supporting role in the Woody Allen film “Mighty Aphrodite” and has appeared in numerous films, has worked to raise awareness about human trafficking and modern slavery. She served as the spokesperson for Amnesty International's Stop Violence Against Women campaign and has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for nearly a decade. She is also active in Times Up—the fledgling group fighting sexual harassment and inequality in Hollywood.

“Mira Sorvino is widely recognized as a champion of social justice and human rights, and we are thrilled that she is the first recipient of UCLA Law's Promise Award,” said UCLA Law Dean Jennifer Mnookin.

Among the other summit speakers are: producer and director Edward Zwick, whose credits include the films “Blood Diamond” and “Shakespeare in Love”; documentary film producer Amy Ziering, whose film “The Hunting Ground” took a critical look at how college campuses handle rape cases; and “Django Unchained” producer Reginald Hudlin.

UCLA Law established The Promise Institute for Human Rights in 2017 with a $20 million gift partially funded by profits from the film “The Promise,” which is about the Armenian genocide. The film's lead producer, Eric Esrailian, who is a doctor on the faculty of UCLA's medical school, took the lead in establishing the institute.

“Collaborations among human rights experts and filmmakers—including the organizers, sponsors and participants at this event—are critical for bringing attention to crises that are affecting lives around the globe and helping to find solutions that will prevent further violence and displacement,” Esrailian said.

Last week at Pepperdine, law students and faculty had the opportunity to watch the pilot episode of “For The People,” which premiered Tuesday on ABC. The screening was followed by a discussion between Pepperdine Law Dean Paul Caron and show creator Paul William Davies and three cast members. (Davies is a Stanford Law School graduated who previously worked at O'Melveny & Myers.) The hourlong drama follows the professional and personal lives of six freshly minted prosecutors and defense attorneys in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The panel discussion centered on the reality—or lack thereof—of the show's portrayal of assistant U.S. attorneys and federal public defenders, Caron said.

“My comments centered on the gender disparity reflected in the show, mirroring the disparity in the profession,” he said.

Caron noted that the show's U.S. attorney is a man, as are two of the three assistant U.S. attorneys. Three of the four federal public defenders—jobs that lack the power and prestige of prosecutors—are women. That rings true to life, Caron said.

As for the show itself, Caron said the pilot episode was “pretty good,” even if it wasn't terribly realistic.