The Ten Best Movies For Lawyers Based on Actual Cases
Lawyers love a good movie based on a real story. Talented writers who spin stories of fictionalized legal drama produce great movies year in and year out. However, every once in a while, a movie that follows a legal case based on a true story comes along and captures our imaginations. We follow the twists, turns, and emotions of the characters. When we then remember that the film is based on real events, these films take our breath away.
Erin Brockvich (2000)
Erin Brockovich is a single mother who is struggling to care for her family when she is in an automobile accident. She is represented by a local Los Angeles Personal Injury attorney and she loses her case at trial. Brockovich ends up begging her attorney for a job in his office and he hires her as a clerk. She comes upon a real estate file for a house that is to be purchased by Pacific Gas And Electric (PG&E) and finds medical files mixed in the legal documents. She seeks out the woman whose name she finds in the file and this encounter leads her to discover that PG&E has let dangerous chemicals seep into the groundwater in Hinkley, CA. If you’re interested in how class actions, investigations, and depositions work, this is one of the best films you’ll ever watch.
Trivia: Julia Roberts won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Erin Brockovich.
The Hurricane (1999)
This is the story of Rubin “The Hurricane” Carter. The Hurricane is the real-life story of a middleweight boxing champion who was well on his way to winning a title when he is arrested and wrongfully accused of participating in a murder at a New Jersey bar where three men were killed. His first trial is a sham involving a corrupt prosecution and police investigation. The bulk of the movie follows a group of Canadian lawyers who fight for the unjustly incarcerated who take an interest in the case. It is one of Denzel Washington’s all-time great performances and I dare you not to weep during the final courtroom scene.
Trivia: After Rubin Carter was released from prison, he moved to Canada, where he would eventually become the Executive Director of the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted. Bob Dylan’s classic 1975 hit Hurricane proclaimed Carter's innocence.
Loving (2016)
This amazing movie gives the backstory of the famous Supreme Court case Loving v. The Commonwealth of Virginia (1967). Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving fall in love while living in a small fairly integrated community in Northern Virginia where they grew up. Mildred is Black and Rappahannock and Richard is White. They marry in Washington, D.C as they know it is illegal for them to marry in Virginia. They move back to the town where they were raised. Mildred and Richard are arrested a few weeks after their Washington, D.C. wedding and are given suspended jail sentences if they agree to leave Virginia for twenty-five years. The couple moves to D.C. and have children, but greatly miss their families and their hometown. The story centers on their fight to stay married and live in the state of their choosing.
Trivia: In 1967 the Warren Court unanimously voted to overturn the law in Virginia and under an Equal Protection argument, struck down all such laws in the country. Mildred Loving wrote to Robert F. Kennedy about their circumstances and he referred her to the ACLU.
Bridge of Spies (2015)
This is the compelling story of James Donovan, an attorney who works as an insurance defense firm. He is assigned to represent Rudolf Abel, a Russian spy arrested and ultimately convicted of spying for the USSR. This leads him on a fascinating journey that truly represents his masterful skills as a negotiator.
Trivia: James Donovan was an assistant to Justice Robert Jackson during the Nuremberg Trials and he was the General Counsel for the OSS, the predecessor organization of the CIA.
On the Basis of Sex (2018)
This is a biopic of Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s early career. It is an extraordinary portrait of the woman who would later become the second female Justice on the Supreme Court. This movie follows law student Ruth Ginsberg through her time at Harvard Law, her first job search, and the first appellate case she ever took. She would file many more cases before she took the bench and would be known as a Warrior for Justice before she ever put on a black robe. This engaging story also highlights her loving marriage and the true partnership she formed with her husband, legendary tax scholar Martin Ginsberg.
Trivia: She graduated first (it was a tie) in her law school class and was rejected as a Supreme Court Clerk based solely on her gender.
Marshall (2017)
The true story of Thurgood Marshall while he is an attorney for the NAACP. This is not a movie about Brown v. Board of Education, but of how as a young attorney, Justice Marshall goes to Connecticut to represent a young black man who has been accused of sexual assault and attempted murder by a famous and wealthy socialite. He teams with Sam Friedman and together they build their client’s defense as they face never-ending racism and antisemitism.
Trivia: Justice Marshall founded and was the Executive Director of the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund.
The Chicago 7 (2020)
The film is based on the 1969 trial of seven defendants who had participated in the protests surrounding the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. The seven defendants were all noted anti-war protestors who were charged with inciting riots ahead of and during the Democratic Convention. The Judge showed a clear bias toward the prosecution and was angered by the antics that the defendants, especially Abbie Hoffman, injected into the court proceeding. It is a remarkable look at street demonstrations that protest and agitate against the government.
Trivia: Bobby Seale, the 8th defendant and a co-founder of the Black Panthers, was bound and gagged during the trial because of his insistence to object to the proceedings. At one point he was taken into a separate room and was beaten. After his attorney fell ill, there were arguments about who should represent him, Fred Hampton came on as his advisor. The Judge thought Mr. Hampton was an attorney, but he was not – rather, he was another prominent activist and Black Panther member. Fred Hampton was killed during the trial and Bobby Seale’s trial was declared a mistrial. In 2020 Fred Hampton’s amazing and tragically short life was depicted in Judas and The Black Messiah.
In the Name of the Father (1993)
A bombing takes place in a Guilford pub outside of London. The IRA claims responsibility for the bombing. Jerry Conlon, his father Guiesppi, and two friends are unjustly arrested for the crime and sentenced to serve life in prison. These events take place during what was called “The Troubles” between England and Northern Ireland. It is an incredible example of injustice, corruption, and illegal police interrogations. Watch as Emma Thomas, who plays the lead character’s appellate counsel, investigate the wrongdoings, keep the case in the headlines, and argue with passion during the court scenes. Daniel Day-Lewis plays the main character to perfection.
Trivia: Daniel Day-Lewis won an Academy Award for Best Actor for this performance.
Reversal of Fortune, (1990)
Socialite and heiress Sunny von Bulow falls into a diabetic coma and her husband Claus immediately comes under suspicion as having injected her with a lethal dose of insulin. Claus has already been convicted when the movie starts. The focus is on the appeal that is filed seeking a new trial on his behalf by Alan Dershowitz and a group of his Harvard students. Most of the film happens in flashbacks. It is engrossing, especially in the scenes where the law students are figuring out the legal and factual reasons that would support a new trial for Claus.
Trivia: Jeremy Irons won a Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of Claus von Bulow, who was eventually acquitted of the attempted murder charge during his retrial.
A Civil Action (1998)
A successful personal attorney takes on the biggest toxic tort case of his career. He’s passionate about helping his clients who have been greatly harmed by the poisoning of their groundwater due to polluted runoff caused by two giant companies. He also believes that this will be the biggest settlement or jury award of his lifetime. This film is one of the most accurate on-screen depictions of what it means to take on a large class action on a contingency.
Trivia: This movie is based on the best-selling book by Jonathan Harr who brought this corporate malfeasance to light and how the experience affected his life.
Honorable mention: The Social Network (2010)
Some of the most realistic deposition scenes ever produced in film.
Lawyers will see themselves and their clients in these films. The lawyers are brilliant, hard working, passionate, and often exhausted. Clients are terrified, injured, and in need of advocacy. While most lawyers will never have this kind of drama in their lives and in their work, we all experience drama everyday in our practices.