No one has worked harder to romanticise the American legal system than John Grisham toiling away on his typewriter (or keyboard, as the case may be) in the nineties. With A Time To Kill and The Chamber at your average millennial’s behest, learning about things like the Fifth Amendment and which states preferred the gas chamber over the electric chair in the Bible Belt was a lot more palatable than memorising boring schoolwork on covalent bonding or the cosine rule.
Similarly, when it comes to legal eagles in film and television, the world has come along leaps and bounds. Where we once had Jackie Chiles doing his utmost to dispel Kramer’s legal woes in Seinfeld, we now have Annalise Keating on hand during trying times in How To Get Away With Murder. Let’s take a closer look at three more unforgettable on-screen lawyers.
Saul Goodman (‘Breaking Bad’)
If you are on the lookout for the crooked way of getting around a legal issue, Saul will be there at your service. Saul may be self-centred, but he also has no scruples to speak of, a vital quality when you have worrying legal issues that need tending. Walter White, chemistry-teacher-turned-meth-dealer had no end of legal problems, until he employed Saul’s services. Without Saul, Walter’s drug empire would have never reached its robust proportions. For the criminally oriented, do as advertised. Call Saul.
Vincent Gambini (‘My Cousin Vinny’)
Vinny is not the lawyer anyone would willingly call. He has no idea how to sweet-talk a judge. He had to take the bar exam six times before passing. He is easily frightened by owls in the wilderness and is woefully unaware of his fiancée’s ticking biological clock and her desire to have children. No one can quite work out just how short, stocky, unsuccessful Vinny has managed to retain this beautiful raven-haired fiancée. Until, that is, Vinny works his magic in the courtroom and destroys his opponent’s witnesses with hard-to-miss logic, saving two innocent boys destined for the electric chair (despite his unconventional attire). Vinny may not be male model of the year, but he has two things women find irresistible: impeccable street smarts and a gifted mind.
Harvey Specter (‘Suits’)
Not only is Harvey Specter tall, suave and debonair, he is also the owner of the most fabulous apartment in existence. If you want to nab a lawyer for any purpose whatsoever, Harvey is your man, if only for the fabulous view from the endless stream of windows in his apartment (which he definitely does not have the time or inclination to clean.) Harvey is sick of sycophantic ingratiating law students and agrees to take on the brainy Mike Ross, a move that proves to be a headache for both him and Mike for a long time. Mike may have a fine legal brain and a memory like an encyclopaedia, but his lack of legal credentials poses an obstacle on more than one occasion. Luckily, Harvey, too, is gifted in the brains department and manoeuvres around this little problem as often as is needed. Like many of his cohorts, Harvey has the unnerving ability to glance through a blue folder and immediately decode the legal mumbo jumbo that lies within. Harvey is loaded with brains, beauty, and wealth. He’s the one to beat.
