Fictional lawyers can be found in literature and drama dating back to Shakespeare and Dickens. More modern day examples include Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird and the many fictional lawyers and judges in Scott Turow and John Grisham novels.
But who is the best? If they were real, which one would you want to represent you? The ABA Journal tackles this very question (96 ABA Journal 26 August 2010) in “The 25 Greatest Fictional Lawyers {Who Are Not Atticus Finch}.”
Included in the top 25 are #2: Paul Biegler (Anatomy of a Murder), #5 : Henry Drummond (Inherit the Wind), #12 : Vinny Gambini (My Cousin Vinny), and #16 : Hans Rolfe (Judgment at Nuremberg), and #19 : Sandy Stern (Presumed Innocent). Their “Other Notable characters…” list includes Portia masquerading as Balthazar (The Merchant of Venice), Clair Huxtable (The Cosby Show), Andrew Beckett (Philadelphia), Amanda Bonner (Adam's Rib), and Jackie Chiles (Seinfeld).
If you have some down time, why not check out some of these fictional lawyers? Biddle's video and dvd collection contains many of the titles included in the ABA’s list of top 25 and notable characters. You can search for the titles in LOLA or in the Video Library - just take the call number to the circulation desk. Additional copies and titles may be located in Van Pelt’s online catalog, Franklin, and can be borrowed based on Van Pelt’s lending policy.
