25 Greatest Fictional Lawyers:
17. Mitchell Stephens, The Sweet Hereafter

17. Mitchell Stephens, The Sweet Hereafter

Creator: Russell Banks

NOVEL/FILM

In Banks’ fine novel and Atom Egoyan’s subsequent film, a plaintiffs attorney (Ian Holm) journeys to a small town that has experienced an unfathomable tragedy. There he finds a compassion that forces him to rethink the bedrock reliance on revenge and compensatory damages on which his life and his practice have relied.