The best TV shows about lawyers. 1. Suits (2011–2019) Error: please try again. On the run from a drug deal gone bad, brilliant college dropout Mike Ross, finds himself working with Harvey Specter, one of New York City's best lawyers. Stars: Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams, Meghan Markle, Sarah Rafferty. 2. L.A. Law (1986–1994)
Fun Fact: LA Law featured a number of guest appearances by actors who went on to become very big stars such as, Bryan Cranston, Kevin Spacey, William H. Macy, Jeffrey Tambor, David Schwimmer and Don Cheadle. When you can turn something like the legal industry into a straight up comedy, you know you have something special.
Perhaps the best legal TV show Law And Order began its life in 1990. The show followed a slightly different format bringing criminal case and legal case into a neat dovetail in the hour long show. In this respect, it actually copies a little known 1960s legal show called Arrest and Trial which starred Ben Gazzarra and Chuck Connors.
One of the most successful British legal TV shows was Rumpole of The Bailey starring Leo McKearn who was a very funny barrister in a show blending comedy and drama. McKearn was an amazing actor and the show is still show today on British satellite TV.
In May 2021, news came that the legal drama All Rise, which follows a group of judges and prosecutors in L.A., was canceled after two seasons on CBS.
You can watch it on FuboTV, a streaming service that offers you access to your favorite TV shows, live sports events and much more. There's a 7-day free trial when you sign up. You can also watch it on Philo.
Currently you are able to watch "All Rise - Season 2" streaming on Hulu, HBO Max, DIRECTV or buy it as download on Amazon Video, Vudu, Apple iTunes, Microsoft Store.
Watch All Rise Streaming Online | Hulu (Free Trial)
Oprah Winfrey NetworkCBSAll Rise/Networks
How to Watch All Rise. Right now you can watch All Rise on HBO Max or Hulu Plus. You are able to stream All Rise by renting or purchasing on Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, and Google Play.
3All Rise / Number of seasons
All Rise returns for season 3 on June 7 at 8 p.m. ET on OWN.
1The Rising of the Shield Hero / Number of episodes
NBC canceled Manifest despite its shocking season 3 finale cliffhanger. Luckily, Netflix saved the day, ordering a fourth and final season, thanks to a new crop of fans desperate to find out what happened to Flight 828.
Currently you are able to watch "All Rise - Season 1" streaming on Hulu, HBO Max or buy it as download on Amazon Video, Apple iTunes, Vudu, Google Play Movies, Microsoft Store.
OWN has revived the former CBS drama for a third season. Additionally, HBO Max and Hulu have acquired subscription streaming rights to all episodes of “All Rise” via a deal with Warner Bros.
Things are finally looking up for defense attorney Mickey Haller. After two years of wrong turns, Haller is back in the courtroom. When Hollywood lawyer Jerry Vincent is murdered, Haller inherits his biggest case yet: the defense of Walter Elliott, a prominent studio executive accused of murdering his wife and her lover.
Originally set up with CBS for a series commitment in 2020 it was cancelled right before filming of the first episode due to COVID. This has now been picked up by Netflix for a 10 episode first season based on the second Mickey Haller book The Brass Verdict.
By what name was The Lincoln Lawyer (2022) officially released in India in English?
Cast: Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams, Rick Hoffman, Meghan Markle, Sarah Rafferty, Gina Torres, Amanda Schull, Dulé Hill, and Katherine Heigl
Cast: Asante Blackk, Caleel Harris, Jharrel Jerome, Marquis Rodriguez, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Kylie Bunbury, Aunjanue Ellis, Vera Farmiga, Felicity Huffman, John Leguizamo, Niecy Nash, and Michael K. Williams
Cast: Charlie Cox, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Toby Leonard Moore, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Bob Gunton Ayelet Zurer, Rosario Dawson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jon Bernthal, Élodie Yung, Stephen Rider, Joanne Whalley, Jay Ali, and Wilson Bethel
Cast: Mansoor Alfeeli, Khalifa al Bhri, Fatima Al Taei, Malak Al Khalidi, Neven Madi, and Mohammed Al-Amiri
Cast: Sean Ellis, Rosemary Scapicchio, Edward McNelley, Marie Jackie Ellis, Jillise McDonough, William C. Dwyer, Kevin Cullen, David Murray, and David Duncan
Cast: Richard Roxburgh, Adrienne Pickering, Matt Day, Russell Dykstra, Danielle Cormack, Caroline Brazier, Keegan Joyce, Kate Box, and Damien Garvey
Cast: Michael Peterson, David Rudolf, Ron Guerette, Tom Maher, Bill Peterson, Freda Black, Jim Hardin, and Arthur Holland
Irrespective of whether you are a legal professional, legal shows offer a fantastic insight into the black and white of the profession. Some even follow a different format. E.g., ‘ Judge Judy ’ is a multiple Emmy-winning, American arbitration-based reality court show.
There are other lawyer tv shows which narrowly missed the abovementioned list. Of course, there is ‘ Law & Order ’. This impressionable show allowed the 90’s TV viewership to embrace legal drama as an acceptable form of entertainment.
Hopefully, this carefully curated list of lawyer tv shows will satiate your hunger for that weekend binge. However, be careful that you do not get so engrossed in the reel-life that it affects your real life. Remember, though all work and no play can make life dull, yet all play and no work can make you a dullard.
Douglas Brackman Jr. is the manager they seem to end up with. TRIVIA: Norman Chaney, a firm name partner, is found dead of a heart attack in the very first episode and is never actually seen on camera.
Suits is an American legal drama television series filmed in Toronto, Canada, created and written by Aaron Korsh. The series premiered on June 23, 2011, on the cable network USA, and is produced by Universal Cable. Suits is set at a fictional law firm in New York City. The focal point of the show follows talented college dropout Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams), who initially works as a law associate for Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), despite never actually having attended law school. The show focuses on Harvey and Mike managing to close cases while maintaining Mike’s secret.
They usually involved some of the most divisive issues of the time (abortion, un-American activities, censorship, race). The show was based on a two-part drama called The Defender, which had featured veteran actor Ralph Bellamy and a young William Shatner.
Full of pratfalls and seriously good intentions, the show managed to humanize the one place where most people meet up with the law. TRIVIA: John Larroquette (prosecutor Dan Fielding) narrated the original version of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
This first spin-off of L&O is more police procedural than lawyer-driven drama, but was still a favorite of our judges. The sex-crime plotting is explained in the opening narration, and the serialization is keyed to the show’s two principals—Elliot Stabler (Chris Meloni) and Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay).
Before getting into our list, we send sincere condolences to the friends, family, and loved ones of Norm Macdonald, who recently passed away due to cancer at the age of 61. While Norm was a great comic, talk show guest, and newsman, he also was the original actor portraying no-nonsense attorney Roger Edwards on the television series NewsRadio.
Plot: Ally McBeal is a young, single lawyer in search of love and fulfillment.
We also asked our readers for their opinions on the shows in this list, as well as the legal genre in television. More than 97% of participants indicated they had watched a lawyer or legal television show and just over 95% of people indicated that they liked or enjoyed these legal tv programs.
As discussed in our previous posts about lawyers in film and songs about law, movies, music, and television shows may not help your legal marketing strategies. Nonetheless, they remain great tools to help you take a break from the daily work of your practice.
Perhaps one of the best legal TV shows in the 1970s was The Paper Chase, which was successful on both sides of the Atlantic and featured the wonderful John Houseman as Professor Kingsfield, overseeing the success or otherwise of law students at Harvard.
D'Onofrio took over from Chris Noth in the lead role and brings an intensity to the role of renegade cop, Robert Goren.
The great thing about The Paper Chase was that it was about the law but in a very different way; the storylines mainly concentrated on the successes or otherwise of 3 law students and there was more going on in their personal lives than just college so it was a sort of legal soap opera at times.
Although The Law and Mrs Jones only lasted 2 seasons, it led the way for similar legal dramas and was a well-made show with high quality acting.
Perhaps the best legal TV show Law And Order began its life in 1990. The show followed a slightly different format bringing criminal case and legal case into a neat dovetail in the hour long show.
There was also some personal life covered and quite a few love affairs between some of the partners. In British TV, 'Is It Legal' was a popular legal comedy starring Imelda Staunton, later to be famous for being Oscar nominated for the movie, Vera Drake. Law has continued to be a popular topic for British comedy.
Sadly, almost every episode of the show was lost. Another popular show called Brothers In Law starring a young Richard Briers as a young solicitor ran for many years in the late 50s and early 60s and was, surprisingly for a legal TV show, a comedy! pinterest-pin-it. Paper Chase. pinterest-pin-it.
In this scope, Trial & Error does a darn good job at keeping the laughs rolling as a young and ambitious New York defense attorney, Josh (greatly played by Nicholas D’Agosto), who is paged to a southern and somewhat backwards town to defend the murder charge of Larry Henderson (played by John Lithgow).
All the while garnering up 19 industry award nominations, winning 10 of them. #2: Perry Mason. Arguably the foremost legal drama of all time, this series originated at CBS in 1957 and enjoyed a very well-received run through 1966. This intense drama starred Raymond Burr as a bloodhound of a criminal defense attorney.
NBC knew that when Night Court first aired in 1984. Featuring a well-received ensemble cast highlighted by Harry Anderson and John Larroquette, this sitcom had its audience in stitches.
The series came to a conclusion in 1994, exiting with 15 Emmy Awards to its credit.
This NBC episodic comedy debuted in 2017 to strong reception by fans and critics. The show takes a well-aimed, sarcastic shot at the growing genre of reality-law species, i.e. Netflix’s immensely popular Making A Murderer.
Matlock debuted in 1986 and enjoyed a nice lengthily run until its finale in 1992. This legal drama starred Andy Griffith as a sharp criminal defense lawyer named Ben Matlock fighting the cause for justice. Many of the signature scenes included Matlock dramatically confronting witnesses on the stand.
The standouts in this show are Bob Odenkirk (who plays the title character, James McGill/Saul Goodman) and Jonathan Banks who plays the ever stout Mike Ehrmantrout. The brilliance of this legal show is the way in which the writers seamlessly wield splats of comedy into the very suspenseful plot undertones.
The history of attorneys on TV dates back to the 1950s with the appearance of “Mr. Malone” on NBC in 1951. The genre is alive and well today with more than a dozen law-related shows on broadcast television at any one time, not to mention the shows available on cable and streaming networks.
20. Harvey Birdman, “Harvey Birdman, “Attorney at Law”. The first thing that should be noted is that Harvey Birdman is the only lawyer that has “Attorney at Law” in the title of his show.
Ben Matlock, “Matlock”. A gentlemanly Southern lawyer , Matlock may have moved slow and was tight with a buck, but he always got his man or woman. The homespun philosophy that you received every episode was a bonus as was the ability to watch Andy Griffith continue to ply his trade. 6. Jackie Chiles, “Seinfeld”.