Two of my favorite movie lawyers square off against each other in the courtroom in Anatomy Of A Murder - Paul Biegler (played by James Stewart) and Claude Dancer (one of the all-time great literary/cinematic names - played by George C. Scott). Dancer was elegantly scumbaggy.
Also, Lt. Barney Greenwald, reluctantly but briliantly defending the mutineers in The Caine Mutiny - (Jose Ferrer).
God, yes. He was, in a show full of revolting characters, the revoltingest.
Among the hundreds of movies that feature courtroom dramas, a few of my favorites are:
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
A Place in the Sun (1951)
Town Without Pity (1961)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
which pop up on TCM and Retro from time to time.
In order of preference :
1.) Jack McCoy
2.) Jack McCoy’s eyebrows.
Was “Rumpole” an intentional, or unintentional, pun?
Likewise, but Maj. J.F. Thomas, the defense lawyer from Breaker Morant (played by Jack Thompson), is a close second.
The American Bar Association magazine had a poll of favorite fictional lawyers earlier this year. They had to put Atticus in his own category because he just squashed all the other lawyers like bugs.
John Larroquette plays a lawyer well.
My favorite TV attorney: Old Man Waterfall from Futurama, followed closely by the Hyper-Chicken from the same show. Who else but Waterfall could have coerced the Supreme Court into finding polygamy legal, when it wasn’t even an issue in the case?
Waterfall: “I can’t wait to tell my husband!”
Audience: “BOOOOOOOOO!!!”
And the Hyper-Chicken, from the same episode: “Your Honors, yonder crawdad done et up our flag.”
In closing, “I’m sorry, I thought you was corn.”
Perry Mason (so debonair)
Atticus (of Course) Finch
Jack MaCoy
Not in that order…
Oh yes, Charles Laughton as Sir Wilfrid is one of the greats.