The truth-seeking protagonist is usually a crusading lawyer. There are many films in this category with Atticus Finch, in To Kill a Mockingbird, first among lawyerly equals. Sometimes the crusading attorney is advocating as much for his own redemption as he is for his client’s. Frank Galvin in The Verdict comes to mind.

Occasionally the truth exposes a client’s guilt, but the crusading lawyer, bound by morality if not legal ethics, goes wherever the truth takes him or her. Ann Talbot learns this about her father in Music Box; Claire Kubik discovers a treacherous truth about her husband in High Crimes. There are times when the lawyer isn’t as charismatic, or as essential to the plot, as the client. Often that lawyer has much to learn from the client. This is certainly the case for Kathryn Murphy in The Accused, Bobby DeLaughter in Ghosts of Mississippi, Rita Williams in I Am Sam, Bill White in North Country and even Jake Brigance in A Time to Kill.

Quiz: Which movie lawyer are you?