A legal drama is a genre of film and television that generally focuses on narratives regarding legal practice and the justice system. The American Film Institute (AFI) defines "courtroom drama" as a genre of film in which a system of justice plays a critical role in the film's narrative. Legal dramas have also followed the lives of the fictional attorneys, defendants, plaintiffs, or other persons related to the practice of law present in television show or film. Legal drama is distinct from police crime drama or detective fiction, which typically focus on police officers or detectives investigating and solving crimes. The focal point of legal dramas, more often, are events occurring within a courtroom, but may include any phases of legal procedure, such as jury deliberations or work done at law firms. Some legal dramas fictionalize real cases that have been litigated, such as the play-turned-movie, Inherit the Wind, which fictionalized the Scopes Monkey Trial. As a genre, the term "legal drama" is typically applied to television shows and films, whereas legal thrillers typically refer to novels and plays.
College drop-out Mike Ross accidentally lands a job with one of New York's best legal closers, Harvey Specter. They soon become a winning team with Mike's raw talent and photographic memory, and Mike soon reminds Harvey of why he went into the field of law in the first place.
See the rise of Jimmy McGill, a small-time lawyer searching for his destiny, but hustling to make ends meet. Working alongside, and often against Jimmy, is ‘fixer’ Mike Erhmantraut. The series tracks Jimmy's evolution into Saul Goodman, the man who puts the word ‘criminal’ in ‘criminal lawyer’.
In the first season of Murder one, Theodore Hoffman is a prominent defense attorney in a prestigious Los Angeles law firm. After successfully defending the wealthy but suspicious Richard Cross in a lurid murder trial, he is now involved in the defense of Neil Avedon. Neil is a famous young actor who has had severe drug and alcohol problems and was subsequently charged with the murder, after Cross was exonerated. This single case will run an entire television season (interspersed with bits from other cases that the firm is involved in). The show continued on for a second season, though withought the main character Theodore Hoffman.
Sebastian Stark, a charismatic, supremely self-confident defense attorney who, after a shocking outcome in one of his cases and a personal epiphany, brings his cutthroat tactics to the prosecutor's office as the head of the Los Angeles District Attorney's High Profile Crime Unit. A group of young prosecutors are about to have the learning experience of a lifetime because, though Stark is seeking to redeem himself, he has no intention of cooling his underhanded approach to cases just because he's now working for the "good guys."
The Practice focused on the law firm of Robert Donnell and Associates (later becoming Donnell, Young, Dole, & Frutt, and ultimately Young, Frutt, & Berluti). Plots typically featured the firm's involvement in various high-profile criminal and civil cases that often mirror current events. Conflict between legal ethics and personal morality was a recurring theme. Some episodes contained light comedy. Kelley claimed that he conceived the show as something of a rebuttal to L.A. Law (for which he wrote) and its romanticized treatment of the American legal system and legal proceedings.
In Franklin & Bash, two young, fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants street lawyers cause a seismic culture clash when they join a legendary, button-down law firm. Breckin Meyer is Jared Franklin, who loves sticking it to authority every chance he gets, while Mark-Paul Gosselaar plays Peter Bash, who has a knack for connecting with jury and judge.
On this critically acclaimed drama about a top Los Angeles law firm, some of the best battles take place outside of the courtroom. In the bedroom, in the courtroom, or at McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney & Kuzak's staff meetings, the firm's ambitious, competitive attorneys confront conflict between their own desires, their obligations as attorneys, and their principles as human beings.
Recent law school graduate (Robert Reed) joins his father (E.G. Marshall) as the pair tackle challenging legal cases, often involving issues which were highly touchy for the times (abortion, euthanasia, "un-American" activities, movie censorship). In most, the freshly minted lawyer has much to learn from his father's extensive legal experience.
An irreverent legal drama about two fiery and charismatic Las Vegas defense attorneys. Tenacious, defiant and completely engaging, they argue the law, and they follow the law, but they always keep a few tricks up their sleeves. No matter what the odds, these lawyers keep fighting for the little guy.
When Nick's father mysteriously dies in a plane crash, he agrees to take his position as the Darling family's lawyer, while trying to discover who committed the murder. The Darlings, the richest family in New York, constantly rely on Nick to solve their problems. Nick struggles to balance his morals and family life while dealing with the demands of the Darlings.
Dr. Jason Bull is the charming and cocky founder of successful trial consulting firm Trial Analysis Corporation, where he and his team of experts employ psychology, human intuition and high-tech data to understand jurors, lawyers, witnesses and defendants, and construct effective narratives to help their clients win.
Judd For the Defense. Clinton Judd was a high-priced, high powered criminal attorney modeled along the lines of such real-life legal superstars as F. Lee Bailey and Percy Foreman. Based in Houston, Texas, he traveled all over the U.S. defending wealthy tycoons. Carl Betz won an Emmy and Golden Globe in 1968 for outstanding dramatic actor in this role. Even with this accolade, the show lasted only one more season, ending in 1969.
Welcome to the Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law guide at TV Tome.
Tony Petrocelli was an Italian-American Harvard-educated lawyer who grew up in South Boston and gave up the big money and frenetic pace of major-metropolitan life to practice in a sleepy city in the American Southwest called San Remo (filmed in Tucson, Arizona). He and his wife Maggie lived in a house trailer in the country while waiting for their new home to be built (which it never was), and traveled around in a beat-up old pickup truck, which Tony always raced around in...going way over the speed limit, with the tires screeching. Petrocelli hired Pete Ritter, a local cowboy, as his investigator.
Don't be fooled by his down-home demeanor and country-boy ways; criminal defense lawyer Ben Matlock is worth every penny of his fee. Count on Matlock to visit the crime scene, scope out the clues everyone else missed, and dramatically reveal the real criminal during a climactic trial sequence.
A blended police procedural and courtroom drama which employs a two-part approach: The first half of each episode focuses on NYPD homicide detectives investigating a crime—often derived from a real-life headline—and apprehending a suspect. The second half takes place in the courtroom, with the district attorney prosecuting the defendant.
The Good Wife is a drama starring Emmy Award winner Julianna Margulies as a wife and mother who must assume full responsibility for her family and re-enter the workforce after her husband's very public sex and political corruption scandal lands him in jail.
Picking up one year after the events of the final broadcast episode of The Good Wife, an enormous financial scam has destroyed the reputation of a young lawyer, Maia Rindell, while simultaneously wiping out her mentor and godmother Diane Lockhart’s savings. Forced out of Lockhart & Lee, they join Lucca Quinn at one of Chicago’s preeminent law firms.
After losing her license to practice law, former attorney Jessica Pearson enters the complex and seedy world of Chicago politics.
There are few actors so closely tied to a persona than Raymond Burr as Perry Mason. This long-running series was built upon Erle Stanley Gardner´s many novels about a brilliant defense lawyer and his staff, that solved many a crime with surprise witnesses and stern cross-examinations.It was the first mystery series to feature chalk or tape outlines to mark the spots where bodies were found. Filmed almost exclusively in the Los Angeles area, Raymond Burr had Gardner's seal of approval in the role. The cases were usually won by way of pivotal confessions of witnesses, solicited by Perry Mason (Burr's) surgeon-like examination or with last-minute, key evidence brought into the courtroom by private investigator, Paul Drake (William Hopper). Della Street (Barbara Hale), Perry´s faithful secretary, was always at Perry's side in the courtroom where hapless Hamilton Burger (William Tallman) was the Los Angeles District Attorney who never seemed to win. As to the myth that Perry Mason never lost, there were 2 episodes where it did occur... but you'll have to watch to find out.The show was revived in 1973-74, with other actors in the familiar roles (Monte Markham as Mason), and then again with the some of the original cast, in a string of feature length TV films from 1985 until Raymond Burr´s death in 1993.
