Entertainment Weekly has just generated 15 Legal Eagles We’d Hire: a list of the on-screen attorneys they would like to have as counsel. To save you the trouble of clicking through EW’s annoying slideshow format, here’s the breakdown:
1. Atticus Finch / Gregory Peck, To Kill a Mockingbird
2. Perry Mason / Raymond Burr, Perry Mason
3. Vincent Gambini / Joe Pesci, My Cousin Vinny
4. Lt. Daniel Kaffee / Tom Cruise, A Few Good Men
5. Ally McBeal / Calista Flockhart, Ally McBeal
6. Denny Crane / William Shatner, Boston Legal
7. Henry Drummond / Spencer Tracy, Inherit the Wind
8. Jack McCoy / Sam Waterson, Law & Order
9. Victor Sifuentes / Jimmy Smits, L.A. Law
10. Fred Gailey / John Payne, Miracle on 34th Street
11. Miles Massey / George Clooney, Intolerable Cruelty
12. Joe Miller / Denzel Washington, Philadelphia
13. Jake Tyler Brigance / Matthew McConaughey, A Time to Kill
14. Frank Galvin / Paul Newman, The Verdict
15. Lionel Hutz / Phil Hartman, The Simpsons
We can’t believe that Ally McBeal ranked higher than Jack McCoy. That show was canceled, while Law & Order lives on like the Energizer Bunny.
Some Hollywood legal-types ATL would add to the list:
AI Is Reshaping Legal Practice—But Tools Aren’t The Real Differentiator.
Explore the mindset, cultural shifts, and training strategies that define the AI‑savvy lawyer, revealing why human judgment, standardized competence, and integrated learning—not technology alone—will shape the future of the profession.
— Reese Witherspoon, in Legally Blonde;
— Richard Gere, for Chicago and Primal Fear;
— Julia Roberts, as paralegal in Erin Brockovich, and a law student in the Pelican Brief;
— Michelle Pfeiffer, in I Am Sam;
— Jim Carrey, in Liar, Liar; and, most importantly,
— Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino, as good lawyer vs. evil Satan lawyer, in The Devil’s Advocate
That is not a scientific list, just the result of rigorous ATL brainstorming and some Google searching.
Who are your favorite on-screen attorneys? We encourage you to list your top five, in the comments.
Best TV/Movie Lawyers: 15 Legal Eagles We’d Hire [Entertainment Weekly]