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Law in Popular Culture

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon to Portray Morgan Lewis Lawyers

Posted Aug 25, 2009 12:11 PM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Two partners from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius who managed to win an acquittal on retrial for their death row client racked up another success this month in a related ruling by a federal appeals court.

Touchstone Pictures has signed a deal to produce a movie on the case, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Am Law Litigation Daily. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon would play the lawyers, Michael Banks and J. Gordon Cooney Jr.

Banks and Cooney won the acquittal for their pro bono client, death row inmate John Thompson, in 2003 after a “Perry Mason moment,” the Inquirer says. An investigator learned that a New Orleans prosecutor had failed to turn over blood evidence that would have exonerated Thompson in a previous case that resulted in his conviction for a carjacking.

Thompson didn’t testify at his murder trial because of fears the carjacking would be introduced to impeach his testimony. But the evidence was used in the death penalty phase.

After the lawyers won the retrial and acquittal, they sued the New Orleans District Attorney's Office and won a $14 million judgment in 2007. On appeal, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals evenly split in an en banc ruling earlier this month, which had the effect of upholding the judgment, according to the Am Law Litigation Daily.

Cooney told the Inquirer if anyone had told him before the case began 21 years ago about the victories and the movie deal, “we would have laughed hysterically.”

Comments

1.

B. McLeod
Aug 25, 2009 1:58 PM CST

Clearly, the world is desperately in need of another lawyer movie.

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2.

AndytheLawyer
Aug 25, 2009 2:38 PM CST

B. McLeod—not to worry.  I predict that Judd Apatow will direct,  Seth Rogan will play Stubbie the Paralegal, and hijinx will ensue.

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3.

James
Aug 25, 2009 7:05 PM CST

Who would play McLeod in a movie?  Methinks a live version of that depressed donkey from Winnie the Pooh would be a good cast.

Thoughts?

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4.

cary cohen
Aug 26, 2009 5:52 AM CST

Looks as if this may be the one firm that has a heart. These guys are heroes. I wish I could have known them.

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5.

Netochka Nezvanova
Aug 26, 2009 10:19 AM CST

I don’t think the author understands what a “Perry Mason moment” is.  It’s where the witness suddenly cracks under Perry’s expert cross-examination and declares, “All right - it was me! I did it!  And I’m not one bit sorry!”  It’s not discovering that the DA hid exonerating evidence.  You need to brush up on your classic TV shows, Debra.

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6.

B. McLeod
Aug 26, 2009 11:31 AM CST

#3, there are a number of well qualified actors, who might pull that off, including Mel Gibson, Adrian Paul, Alan Alda or perhaps even Jim Carey.

Ms. Nezvanova makes a much better point.  Hamilton Burger was not even smart enough to figure out what might be exonerating evidence, let alone how to hide it.

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7.

Bill
Aug 28, 2009 5:53 AM CST

B. McLeod = Eeyore?  I dunno.

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8.

pkelly
Aug 28, 2009 6:48 AM CST

There seems to be some missing facts here becuase it appears that because this guy did not carjack someone that he 1) probably got away with murder and 2) now gets paid for getting away with murder, and 3) will now be a celebrity. Great.

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9.

MSchneider
Aug 28, 2009 7:20 AM CST

pkelly,

Wait a minute.  They didn’t let the guy go.  He had a retrial and was acquitted.  You’re assuming that because he was acquitted on retrial, he was actually guilty?  Why assume the first jury was right and the second wasn’t?

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10.

mpeters
Aug 28, 2009 8:17 AM CST

Don’t be cynical—this is actually a great story about good attorneys and great human beings. The only sad thing is that it took 18 years and a ton of pro bono legal work to save a guy who didn’t do the crime.  ps. the actual shooter died before the 2d trial, but was ‘crossed’ as an ‘empty chair’ witness.

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11.

James
Aug 28, 2009 8:38 AM CST

I wonder what roles will be played by Jay and Silent Bob?

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12.

Oh dear
Aug 28, 2009 9:25 AM CST

Oh no. This is exactly the kind of movie that encourages useless liberal arts grads to apply to private TTT law schools to change the world!

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13.

Hadley V.Baxendale
Aug 28, 2009 11:37 AM CST

Matt Damon & Ben Affleck?  Not bad,  but why not Rick Moranis & Oliver Platt?  At least they look like lawyers!

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14.

S Talley
Aug 28, 2009 11:49 AM CST

I am not one to blog, but feel compelled to respond to the comments that have been made. I came to know John Thompson (JT) when members of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers “blitz built” a Habitat home for JT and his wife. This case is filled with sorrow all around.  JT spent almost 18 years on death row for a crime he did not commit (the victim was a high profile business person and there was pressure to find the perpetrator).  The ADA on the case confessed to a friend that he suppressed the evidence when the ADA learned he was dying of prostate cancer.  The friend, a former ADA, urged him to go to the authorities, but he did not do so before dying.  When everything came to light in JT’s trial, the friend was then severly disciplined by the state bar for not disclosing what he then knew to the tribunal.  Our local DA’s office is now faced with a large judgment that could bankrupt it—in a city that needs all the criminal prosecution resources it can get.  Nothing in this is funny or deserves some of the thoughtless comments that have been made.

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15.

B. McLeod
Aug 28, 2009 2:05 PM CST

Yeah!  So shame on all you guys.

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16.

R
Aug 28, 2009 2:40 PM CST

Hmm. Affleck and Damon as Morgan Lewis lawyers?

Steve Buscemi and Paul Giamatti would have been far more believable.

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