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Notable Fictional Lawyers Who Didn't Make the Cut (for one reason or another)


In the opinion of the ten contributing "popular culture experts" to the August 2010 issue of the ABA Journal, here are some other notable fictional lawyers who didn't make the "cut":

RUDY BAYLOR: The Rainmaker
Matt Damon and Francis Ford Coppola deliver John Grisham's most interesting lawyer as both naive and cynical.

ANDREW BECKETT: Philadelphia
Beckett's struggles would have meant nothing to us if he weren't so eloquent about what it means to be a lawyer.

HARVEY BIRDMAN: Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law
Who knew a cartoon lawyer could carve a career out of defending other cartoon characters?

AMANDA BONNER: Adam's Rib
She's tart. She's smart. She's Kate Hepburn. And she shows Spencer Tracy that she's a helluva lawyer.

JACKIE CHILES: Seinfeld
Actor Phil Morris manages a comic exaggeration of the late Johnnie Cochran, and somehow finds advocacy in the neurotic pratfalls of the Seinfeld crew.

DENNY CRANE: Boston Legal
He's the end-point of conservative logic and a lit fuse.

EDDIE DODD: True Believer
This James Woods character is a burnt-out case, until he's persuaded to become involved in a wrongful conviction.

ALICIA FLORRICK: The Good Wife
Alicia returns to law in midlife as an associate with a leg up on others: She's used to being betrayed.

TOM HAGEN: The Godfather
He's the family lawyer in every sense of the term.

CLAIR HUXTABLE: The Cosby Show
There are so many other reasons to adore Huxtable that we forget she had a law career.

LT. BARNEY GREENWALD: The Caine Mutiny
Herman Wouk's Greenwald (Jose Ferrer in the film) finds tension between a sense of honor and a sense of duty to defend two mutineers from the U.S.S. Caine.

OWEN MARSHALL: Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law
Arthur Hill is an earnest and driven defense attorney who works out of Santa Barbara.

BEN MATLOCK: Matlock
Watch out for Andy Griffith's shuffling country bumpkin in the seersucker suit.

BORIS MAX: Native Son
Richard Wright's Max tries to lend social perspective to the anger that drives Bigger Thomas to commit murder.

JOE MILLER: Philadelphia
Keeping it simple ("Now, explain it to me like I'm a 4-year-old.") makes Miller the antidote to law school lawyering.

JOHN MILTON: The Devil's Advocate
Sure, he's evil. But he understands that being a lawyer shouldn't involve self-deception.

KATHRYN MURPHY: The Accused
She's a prosecutor who overcomes obstacles in a case to find justice for a rape victim.

PORTIA: The Merchant of Venice
Masquerading as Balthazar, Shakespeare's most memorable lawyer, Portia carves a series of loopholes that utterly defeat the parsimonious Shylock.

NED RACINE: Body Heat
He's lazy and corrupt—and we like that in a fictional character, but maybe not in a lawyer.

HOWARD ROARK: The Fountainhead
OK, Roark was an architect, not a lawyer; but he represented himself pro se in one of literature's most provocative political trials.

ADAM SCHIFF: Law & Order
Blunt and acutely aware of circumstance, Schiff endures with a wry variety of wisdom.

ANN TALBOT: Music Box
Jessica Lange is a Chicago lawyer who learns that her beloved father is a Hungarian war criminal.

DOUGLAS WAMBAUGH: Picket Fences
Fyvush Finkel's feverish small-town lawyer, a kind of Dadaesque Matlock, was endearing, infuriating, dogged and principled in spite of himself.

DAVID WILSON: The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
Mark Twain's small-town lawyer overcomes a local notion that he's a bit backward, revealing that he's got a few modern tricks up his sleeve. 

Copyright 2010 American Bar Association. All rights reserved.

To read the ABA Journal's comments and trivia on this topic read more>>

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