22nd December 2022
Over at Mastodon, I asked the question of who is your favourite fictional lawyer – and why.
Click here to see the interesting replies.
Who is yours – and why?
The less obvious selections the better – so let us all take Rumpole, Mason, Finch, Saul and Hutz as given.
Personally, I have a soft spot for Jonathan Harker – a newly qualified real estate solicitor going that extra mile for a demanding non-dom client.
Though, given the reality of mundane legal practice, I also have a soft spot for that scrivener, Bartleby.
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Jimmy McGill would be too obvious so I’ll nominate Francis Pettigrew from The FP Mysteries by Cyril. M. Hare.
Mr Block wrote a series of hard exposés about Martin Ehrengraf.
Poor, hopeless Sidney Carton.: for the obvious reasons, but also for his existential struggle to be a better person. (That’s enough piety from me).
Surely Mr Vholes, for his admirable commitment to keeping his shoulder to the wheel, and upholding the one great principle of the English law
Atticus Finch
Yes, Tulkinghorne in Bleak House but also Inspector Bucket, who was methodical. George Smiley! Joan Hicks’ Miss Marple. Hamlet who has to work out the plot. Maigret.
David Staunton, the analysand in Robertson Davies’ Deptford Trilogy.
The JAG team, headed by Lieutenant Colonel Sarah “Mac” MacKenzie, USMC, and Commander Harmon Rabb, Jr, USN.
It’s lawyers in uniform with guns on the sea, in the air, on the land and even under the sea.
And, sometimes, even in a courtroom.
Favourite lawyer in fiction: Robbie Munro, from William McIntyre’s Best Defence series. McIntyre is a practicing Scottish solicitor, and the stories have a deep thread of outrage at the damage caused to that justice system over the years, leavened by a rich vein of humour. The supporting cast are beautifully drawn, and there’s an echo of Richard Gordon’s “Doctor” books in the way Robbie’s life and career develops…
Andri Ólafsson in Trapped. Sarah Lund in the Killing.
Miles Edgeworth (prosecution) and Phoenix Wright (defence) as – eventually – the ultimate Justice Team-up. Both from the original Ace Attorney Trilogy games.
There is a lot of comedy in the games but they were also originally created as a crit/parody of some very real issues that the writer perceived within the Japanese justice system, and often such concepts as the meaning of justice, the duty of lawyers, and where the line must be drawn when people are at risk will be addressed with surprising nuance.
They both work together to become a fearless team in court who will follow every avenue to smoke out the truth. I have known at least two people who have been inspired by these characters to become lawyers or study law themselves.
I’ll go for some good old Harvey Spectre
Tulkinghorn, by a country mile.
Julia Larwood, or to be honest any of Sarah Caudwell’s lawyer characters :-)
Martha Costello in Silk. Probably because she was played by Maxine Peake. I’ll understand if a lawyer finds this irksomely frivolous.
The Lincoln Lawyer – Michael Connelly.
Oddly, Mickey Haller was the first name that sprang to mind.. not sure if he counts as a “favourite”, but he was the first fictional lawyer I could actually name :-)
Ward Littell, in James Ellroy’s American Tabloid and even more effective sequel The Cold Six Thousand. These two books are the peak of Ellroy’s distinctive crime writing. They tell a fictionalised alternative history of the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, with mafia involvement. Littel wants to be a superhero FBI agent, but he needs to learn the ropes. He gets more effective as time goes on, but also more compromised as his misjudgments catch up with him. It’s the humanity of the man that I find compelling.
Alan Shore, as expertly brought to life in Boston Legal by James Spader
his supreme court appearances are precious
Sarah Lund. Great old 911 too
Sorry, instead of lawyer I read detective! I have a bad cold.
Aww .. come on!
.. it’s Billy McBride. (Billy Bob Thornton, in ‘Goliath’). The little guy up against the big guys .. and a great set of sidekicks.
The loveable rogue, Jeremy Aldermarten QC, from Kavanagh QC fame!
Arthur Kipps…that was a tough assignment.
Am I the first person to mention Jack McCoy? Oh well, Jack McCoy of Law & Order. Not because he is the best example of a lawyer, simply that I find him enjoyable to watch. Oh, and from the SVU spin-off, I’d say Rafael Barba.
Minor recurring character Shambala Green from Law and Order – she seems very capable. And of course Kim Wexler from Better Call Saul.
Umm, all judges are lawyers, right?
If so then my nomination is Mr Justice Swallow from A P Herbert’s 1935 collection of short stories Uncommon Law, originally published in Punch as Misleading Cases. Justice Swallow was memorably portrayed by Alastair Sim in the BBC dramatisations between 1967 and 71.
Mickey Haller – the Lincoln Lawyer. The first book subtitled “There is no client as scary as an innocent man”. The author is Michael Connelly and I came across the first book in 2006 in a bookshop just off the waterfront in San Francisco and have been a fan every since.
Being a very elderly lawyer my great hero lawyer/author was A P Herbert. Still worth reading.
What about the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe? Gloriously satirical.
my ‘umble Mr Wickfield Sir.
Perry Mason. Good old corny American soap.
Mr Jagger’s in Great Expectations 🤗
The King of Hearts, who presides over the trial in Alice in Wonderland: `‘Give your evidence,’ said the King; `‘and don’t be nervous, or I’ll have you executed on the spot.’
A few years ago it would have been Jake Brigance in John Grisham’s books. Or perhaps Rusty Sabich in Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow. A book with a very clever twist.
But more recently I think Mickey Haller in the books by Michael Connelly is my favourite. The Lincoln Lawyer is an excellent book and film. The subsequent books are excellent and are now being dramatised on Netflix. But the detail in the books (Connelly is brilliant on procedural detail) is better than the on screen stuff.
I also thought that Harvey Specter in the US TV series Suits was fun. The series other claim to fame was that an actress called Meghan Markle was very good in it.
Fictional US Lawyers always seem to have a bit more scope for “trickery” than their UK counterparts.
Jean-Baptiste Clamence because the character is so incredibly complex on so many levels.
Well, it’s a long time since I saw A Night at the Opera and I don’t know if Otis B Driftwood had ever actually qualified as a lawyer but I’ve never forgotten him negotiating a contract for his client.
Ally McBeal obvs
All the fictional ones I mighty have chosen are already gone.
Real people my favs are Edward Carson and Edward Marshall-Hall but that is not the question.
Hedobald Braxén (The Terrorists by Sjöwall & Wahlöö)
All ten titles from the S & W series make for good Xmas reading :)
I’ve got a soft spot for Charles Laughton’s performance in ‘Witness for the Prosecution’ if that’s allowed.
It’s the way he’s both taken in and not taken in (if you see what I mean) that makes it such a delight.
I’m not sure how much is in the writing and how much is owed to the actor.
The Guardian (US series): “Nick Fallin is a hotshot lawyer working at his father’s ultrasuccessful Pittsburgh law firm. Unfortunately, the high life has gotten the best of Nick. Arrested for drug use, he’s sentenced to do fifteen hundred hours of community service, somehow to be squeezed into his 24/7 cutthroat world of mergers, acquisitions, and board meetings. Reluctantly, he’s now The Guardian, a part-time child advocate at Legal Aid Services, where one case after another is an eye-opening instance of kids caught up in difficult circumstances…” Why do I think it’s excellent? Very different kinds of moral dilemma hitting protagonist every episode from diametrically opposing social worlds and his conflicted response to same. Compelling drama based (so they say) on real life circumstance.
Jack Irish, from Peter Temple’s series of Aussie noir crime novels. Also very memorably played on the small screen by Guy Pearce.
Worth checking out – Peter T (now sadly deceased) captured 80s/90s inner city Melbourne to a T, and Jack is a great character.
Perry Mason. He was my first exposure to TV coutroom drama, extracting dramatic courtroom confessions to get his clients off.
Dishonourable mention for Suella Braverman. While not a fictional character her legal ability is clearly in the realm of fiction, fantasy and horror.
Harvey Dent, although he can be a bit two-faced.
Matthew Shardlake of the series by C. J. Sansom, and I’ll bet you like him too. He’s Lincoln’s Inn. If you don’t know C. J. Sansom (but of course you do), he’s a Birmingham University educated historian who trained as a solicitor before giving that up to write full time.
Henry Cecil’s Roger Thursby, who goes from young inexperienced barrister to High Court judge in ‘Brothers in Law’, ‘Friends at Court’ and ‘Sober as a Judge’.
If I may offer a civil fictional lawyer then it has to be Jack McCoy, whom we first meet as the Executive Assistant District Attorney for the borough of Manhattan in Law and Order.
One should not, of course, forget his band of second chairs as well as Adam Schiff and Arthur Branch.
The chaps in Law and Order UK are an impressive team, but do not quite make it to the same level as the guys in New York.
Arthur Branch was played by Fred Thompson, an attorney, lobbyist, columnist, and radio personality.
A member of the Republican Party, Thompson served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1994 to 2003. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the Republican Party presidential primaries for the 2008 United States presidential election.
Has any other drama had an attorney regularly playing a lawyer?
Yes definitely the handsome Jack McCoy and yes the original Law and Order by far the best.
Mathew Shardlake in the fanratic Samson series
Scratch James Woods as Deputy District Attorney, Sebastian Stark in Shark, but Jeri Ryan made a memorable District Attorney in the series as Jessica Devlin.
Crown Court is coming to a small screen early next month.
Talking Pictures TV will start showing the series on Monday 16th January at 14:30.
Will the Secret Barrister give us a critique of each three part case …
Frank Galvin
Sir Thomas More. The man of principle and conscience from “A Man For All Seasons”, who would “give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!” Not the real and more complex person: a hair-shirted and self-flagellating Catholic, who persecuted Protestant heretics.
But if you prefer a completely fictional lawyer: Mr Slope, the zombie lawyer from Terry Pratchett’s Ankh-Morpork, who was old enough to be his own legal precedent.
The dreaming Barrister in The Hunting of the Snark. Especially in the version illustrated by Tove Jansson. Moominland meets Chancery Lane.
J. Cheever Loophole
Grouchy Marx.
J. Cheever Loophole
Groucho Marx.
Mr Justice Cocklecarrot.
Mr. Grey in Trollope’s “Mr. Scarborough’s Family ”, who showed his moral standards by giving up his practice! Not, I suppose a good example for lawyers, but a wholly admirable man.
Michael W.
One of the benefits of studying French at A level was to read Honoré de Balzac, whose wily lawyers were a match for those of Dickens, and less of a caricature. Derville in Gobseck (one of our set books) and Rastignac in Goriot still stick in mind.
John Deed as depicted by Martin Shaw and his father in law Sir Joseph Chandler as depicted by Donald Sinden – both in Judge John Deed.
I love both characters and especially their infrequent direct interaction.
the law looks beautiful and like a source of justice through these stories.
J.Noble Daggett from “True Grit”. “She wields that lawyer like a six gun”. I’m not sure I have that quote quite right but it gives the essence of Matty’s relationship with him.