When it comes to the best lawyer shows, we expect some of their episodes to feature: neat suits and ties, a scene where someone yells “Objection!” to the judge and he responds “Order in the courtroom!”, rivalries between the prosecution and defense lawyers with personal matters involved, graphic panels on a lectern with the text ‘ Exhibit A ‘, final arguments of those who provoke discreet tears to the popular jury, an intense gaze into the infinite when someone finds the definitive evidence to win a case… All this, and much more, is what we expect from a good legal drama. And all that we find in this list,(and its spin-off , The Good Fight ) to more recent offerings like Your Honor .
Among other constants on the list is David E. Kelley, who, before achieving his umpteenth triumph with Big Little Lies , had already become the king of lawyer series with emblematic titles such as The Practice , Ally McBeal and Boston Legal . Along with them, there will be no shortage of current series like The Good Fight , which has been working as a fierce portrait of the United States today ( fake news , Trump, racism, Jeffrey Epstein…) through its brilliant law firm. And, of course, we could not resist putting Diane Lockhart twice thanks to the mother series The Good Wife , of which the previous one is aspinoff . In addition, there is also Spanish representation with the classic Turno de oficio , the TVE series from the 80s directed by Antonio Mercero and starring Juan Echanove. Don’t forget the classics!
Without further ado, we delve into the best lawyer series in the history of television: the most memorable, with bizarre cases, charismatic characters and heart-stopping trials, intense, charismatic, surprising and, also, our favorites of all time. Ideal for fans of addictive courtroom dramas.
How to defend a murderer
There are few series that have been able to gallop through its history with the same speed and intensity as How to Get Away With Murder . As evidence, the first episode: a group of voracious law students show their claws to capture the attention of her professor, the illustrious lawyer Annalize Keating (Viola Davis), who does not have a second to waste with hesitation. Only a few will be chosen to work side by side with her on real cases, but it turns out that they will live her own criminal case.
Created by Peter Nowalk and with six seasons behind him, this series once again showed us how exciting the stories of trials and the legal profession can be in fiction. In addition, it did not lack passions, romances, betrayals, script twists and deaths to keep us glued to the screen from start to finish. Not surprisingly, it is one of the best suspense series on Netflix.
This is not only the series with which the now British royal Meghan Markle became famous, but also one of the best lawyer series that we can go to for a good dose of criminal cases and contempt of court. Suits begins with the chance encounter between Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams), a textbook scoundrel who makes a clever living by breaking the rules whenever he can, and Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), one of the youngest and most Bright New York. The first dazzles the second and the rest is the story of a high-wire series about fierce lawyers in the Big Apple.
The marriage formed by Michelle and Robert King created one of the most emblematic series of the last decade, And, of course, their favorite setting is the court. The story follows Alicia Florrick (a stunning Julianna Margulies), who lives through a terrible time: her husband, a popular politician to whom she has been married for 13 years, is convicted of fraud and a sex scandal. And now? The protagonist will have to rebuild her life by returning to her trade: the legal profession. And how good she is at it.
Its great success as a canonical lawyer series is to perfectly balance a highly detailed portrait of the profession and the personal dramas that give it the most melodramatic touch. With the Kings being great reality readers and Margulies a guiding light among the cast, The Good Wife is foolproof.
After five brilliant seasons, it no longer matters that The Good Fight began as a spin-off of The Good Wife : it has become its own masterpiece. And with their own style, their ambitions and their charismatic characters. The connection is in the character of Diane Lockhart (played by Christine Baranski and her fantastic laugh), who has found her vital mission in combating the far-right of the Donald J. Trump era, now former president of the United States. USA.
What begins as a canonical lawyer series, with its criminal cases to be solved and the great dynamics of characters like Maia Rindell (Rose Leslie) and Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo) in the office, ends up mutating season after season into something much most original and combative: a portrait of political chaos, fake news , the scourge of racism, the contradictions of the Democratic Party, Jeffrey Epstein… In short, a deranged reflection of the world around us. And one of the best series of 2021.
It was born as a spin-off of Breaking Bad , one of the most acclaimed and beloved series of all time, but Better Call Saul has become its own phenomenon. And it has done so by changing amphetamine laboratories for the courts. The character of Saul Goodman (played by Bob Odenkirk) leads this story six years before meeting Walter White, and where we will see how he became an infallible criminal lawyer. Although, before it came to that, he was simply Jimmy McGill.
Created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, the series bets on the anti-hero lawyer who confronts with great ingenuity and many illegalities the day to day of the trade, with cases ranging from documentary fraud to tax problems. But even the smallest case can become a great adventure with the protagonist, and together with his wonderful partner Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn).
If you think of television lawyers, you have to think of her. Ally McBeal, played by Calista Flockhart, was an icon in the ’90s with this series named after her, created by the now very busy David E. Kelley ( Big Little Lies ). In it we met a very independent lawyer, but also full of contradictions and insecurities. And her life doesn’t make it easy for her: she has just started working at the law firm where not only the guy who broke her heart works, but also his new wife.
In this subgenre that we celebrate, the court scenes, the moments of investigations and the rivalries between the defense and the prosecution are important, but something that Ally McBeal achieved perfectly is also important: an absolutely charismatic and charming main character with whom we would go until the end of the world.
This iconic American television character (created on paper by Erle Stanley Gardner) now has a new life on HBO as Matthew Rhys ( The Americans ), and is a delight for fans of legal, investigative and trial series. If you remember, Mason was quite an idol of the masses in the 60s and 70s with the versions starring Raymond Burr and Monte Markham, but now, almost thirty years after the last one, we find a much darker Perry Mason.
Set in Los Angeles in the 1930s, the series introduces us to Rhys as a private detective working for a lawyer (John Lithgow), instead of defending cases in court himself. Although, if you manage to make it to the end of the season, you might see a change. A murder mystery ensues, involving a religious cult led by a self-proclaimed godsend (Tatiana Maslany), but Mason believes the wrong person is being targeted.
Riz Ahmed won the Emmy for Best Actor thanks to this miniseries created by Steven Zaillian and Richard Price, and which presents a situation full of shadows: after spending the night with a stranger whom he picks up in his father’s taxi in Manhattan, Naz (Ahmed) wakes up in a strange place with the dead body of the woman next to him. She has been stabbed. And he just became the prime suspect, even though he doesn’t even remember how he got there.
Remake of the British Trial of an Innocent , applauded at the BAFTAs, The Night Of once again did things right with the story, also adding a layer of institutional racism against a young man of Pakistani origin. Thus, it becomes not only a series of trials and lawyers more than remarkable, but also a reflection of an entire society, and its imperfect justice.
American Crime Story: The People Versus OJ Simpson
The OJ Simpson case paralyzed the United States and his trial is still remembered as one of the most memorable and high-profile in American judicial history. And there’s no better way to find out what happened (and how, who, where, when and why) than with this incredible, award-winning miniseries starring Cuba Gooding Jr., John Travolta, Sarah Paulson, Courtney B. Vance, David Schwimmer and more.
Based on the book The Run of His Life: The People VOJ Simpson by Jeffrey Toobin, the series explores how sportsman OJ Simpson, accused of a double homicide based on substantial evidence, was found not guilty by a popular jury. Beyond the curiosity generated by the real events, it is a fantastic story to see the ins and outs of creating a judicial strategy.
How David E. Kelley likes a number of lawyers. After Ally McBeal , he returned to court with this series starring Billy Bob Thornton. The veteran actor plays Billy McBride, who was once a prestigious lawyer until he fell out of favor. But revenge is best served cold and, after endless days at the bar, he will have his chance against those who ruined his life: the Cooperman & McBride law firm, which he himself helped create.
As its title indicates, it is a classic David vs. Goliath fight, of the little pawn against the kings of the roost in the legal scene of Los Angeles. And therein lies its best asset: the spectators are always going to bet on the less privileged, and hope that they knock down those damn capitalist sharks.
The Lawyer (The Practice)
In the same year that Ally McBeal premiered , David E. Kelley also hosted another of his memorable lawyer series. But this one is less focused on the charming personality of its protagonist (and her love affairs) and more on the deep contradictions of the legal profession, where very often situations arise in which you have to choose between professionalism and morality.
In The Lawyer , we follow the daily life of a group of young associates at a law firm led by the interesting Bobby Donnell (Dylan McDermott). Nothing more and nothing less. Together they will try to find that balance with their code of ethics (and their consciences) while accepting the most difficult cases in court. Its ending spawned a spin-off, Boston Legal, starring James Spader.
David E. Kelley, who as we can see in this list is the king of lawyer series, returned to the charge after Ally McBeal with this acclaimed drama starring James Spader, and which works as a product between the spin-off and the sequel to the predecessor The Lawyer . That series finale literally ushers in Boston Legal : In the finale, several clients were fired and Alan Shore (Spader) came on board as a sassy lawyer who promised to reinvigorate the format with a new phase to its story.
Thus, it narrates the private and professional lives of a group of lawyers from the firm Crane, Poole & Schmidt. Within the cast they also have an icon, William Shatner (Captain Kirk from the original Star Trek ), who gives life to Denny Crane, one of the firm’s associates.
Damages
Make Way: Enter Glenn Close, the star of movies like Fatal Attraction , the original Cruella de Vil and eight-time Oscar nominee (without a win, mind you), who stars in this acclaimed lawyer series opposite Rose Byrne. Damages is a reflection on power, and what many are willing to do to keep it. Bread of every day!
Set in New York, it follows Patty Hewes (Close), a famous and unerring lawyer who has earned a reputation for lashing out at the heads of big business. Working alongside her is her protege, Ellen Parsons (Byrne). When we meet them in the first season, they are about to face a major trial against one of the richest and most powerful businessmen in the city, Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson).
We cannot say that there are many series on lawyers in our country, but we can boast of an iconic one: Turno de oficio , broadcast in the 80s on TVE, plunged viewers into the day-to-day life of the national courts, with its headquarters (and stage) in the courts of Plaza de Castilla in Madrid. It was directed by the great Antonio Mercero, who gave us other memorable series such as Verano azul and Farmacia de guardia .
The series, starring Juan Echanove, makes a fairly realistic portrait of judicial life through different criminal cases and three lawyers willing to solve them. But the protagonist is Cosme, a young man from a wealthy family who is preparing to become a notary, but who, after being arrested for a fight, decides to change the course of his life and go into law. This is what Chepa (Juan Luis Galiardo) advises, a veteran lawyer who will mark the contrast in the dynamics of the story.
There are experiences that completely mark a lawyer and make him think: what the hell am I doing with this job? This is what happens to Sebastian Stark (played by James Woods), a famous defense attorney whose decisions between the professional and the moral have a tragic result: after successfully defending an abuser, the battered wife ends up murdered after the trial.
It’s certainly the kind of event that forces you to examine yourself. His salvation? He becomes the district attorney, a position where he can actually put criminals in jail, not out on the streets. Although his methods are still just as original. Shark shows us his day to day and his relationships with his professional and personal circle.
In series set in courts, the most common thing is that the focus is on lawyers. But, in Your Honor , the protagonist is a judge who is torn between his duty to the law and his family loyalties. Created by Peter Moffat, although it is a remake of the Israeli series Kvodo , the series follows a respected judge (played incredibly by Bryan Cranston) who will try to hide a crime perpetrated by his son. The young man is involved in a hit-and-run, but it will be the identity of the victim that really complicates things. You will only need the first scene of the series to convince you.
It is unorthodox to include the mythical Law and Order in this list in the case of one of the longest running police series on television but it is, also and from its title, a procedural about the legal intricacies and how a criminal is prosecuted. The traditional 1990 series ended in 2010 but since then it has continued with its spin-off, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit with the equally mythical Mariska Hargitay, of whom we have already lost count of all the times she has been nominated for Emmy.
