August 2010 Issue

Cover Story

The 25 Greatest Fictional Lawyers (Who Are Not Atticus Finch)

Who is your favorite fictional lawyer? Vote here.

Hollywood loves lawyers. TV loves lawyers. And literature? Well, from Shakespeare to Dickens to Grisham, there is no shortage of fictional lawyers for us to admire, disdain or, above all, simply remember.

We wondered how the fictional lawyers of film, television and literature would stack up against each other. Of course, in some cases they are the same. The Perry Mason of Erle Stanley Gardner's popular novels is lost in Raymond Burr's television portrayal. John Mortimer's Horace Rumpole will forever have the face of actor Leo McKern. But whatever the medium, it is the character we come to love or loathe—whether as a lawyer, a detective, a hero or a human being.

In our survey of this literature of lawyers, however, we feel obliged to recognize a great divide—ante-Atticus and post-Atticus.

Feature Section

Farewell, Atticus

Since the moment he was introduced 50 years ago in Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch has represented both an image lawyers crave and a standard that intimidates them.

The Jury

Meet the law in popular culture experts who selected The 25 Greatest Fictional Lawyers.

Other Notable Characters That Did Not Fit Into Our Top 25