The Lincoln Lawyerseason 4 should be dropping on Netflix by the end of this year, but until then we have several months to wait before finding out what’s going to happen in Mickey Haller’s murder trial. In the meantime, it’s worth exploring some other legal drama shows on streaming platforms, many of which have laid the foundations for David E. Kelley’s Netflix adaptation of Michael Connelly’s Mickey Haller novel series.The Lincoln Lawyermight be the mostpopular show about lawyerson TV right now, but it’s far from the only one.
From decades-old classics to contemporary hits, there are plenty of legal dramas to choose from on multiple streaming services. On the other hand, if it’s more shows based on Connelly’s books you’re looking for, then one of these streaming platforms has that base covered, too.Everything we know aboutThe Lincoln Lawyerseason 4already is enough to make us want to count down the days until it drops, but the combined total of over 1000 episodes of other top-quality legal dramas streaming right now should serve as a helpful distraction.
David E. Kelley’s first writing and production gig in Hollywood,L.A. Lawis the prototypical modern legal drama. In fact, it feels like Kelley has come full circle by makingThe Lincoln Lawyer, another show about a Los Angeles-based law firm that’s fast becoming a serial success story.
L.A. Lawbegan in 1986 and follows the exploits of law firm McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak. Michael Kuzak may begin as the most junior partner at the first, but he soon proves himself to be its most capable lawyer.Harry Hamlin’s character has a bit of the Mickey Haller swaggerabout him, and, like Haller, his strong moral compass occasionally comes into conflict with the justice system.
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The show has a total of 172 45-minute episodes spanning eight seasons, including the initial five with Kuzak as its chief protagonist.L.A. Lawis a must-watch for fans of legal dramaswho haven’t already checked it out, given its significance as a seminal work of the genre.
IfL.A. Lawwas the starting point for modern legal dramas, then Dick Wolf’s legendary seriesLaw & Orderbrought the genre into its own. Doubling up as a police procedural drama, the show features an innovative format thatbegins each episode with a detective case and finishes it in the law court. It also boasts a breadth of storylines that no other legal show in history can match, brought to life by a wealth of onscreen talent which includes Sam Waterson as Manhattan District Attorney Jack McCoy and S. Epatha Merkerson as Anita Van Buren.
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Jack McCoy was brought back for an ongoing revival ofLaw & Orderon NBC, which has placed it into direct competition withThe Lincoln Lawyer. Committed to a realistic depiction of criminal cases,Law & Orderis famous for basing each of its episode plots on headline-grabbing true stories reported in the news immediately prior to its production. That’s a whopping 517 true stories so far, and counting.
Starring the inimitableJames Spader as its neurotic but brilliant central character, defense lawyer Alan Shore,Boston Legalis arguably the best legal series that David E. Kelley created prior toThe Lincoln Lawyer. Shore is a highly unorthodox practitioner of the law, whose heart is always in the right place but whose methods aren’t always above board. One ofSpader’s most iconic TV characters, Shore was introduced in the last season of Kelley’s previous showThe Practiceand stole the show, warranting his own spin-off in the mid-noughties.
The Practiceis another legal drama created by David E. Kelley, which ran for eight seasons on ABC between 1997 and 2004.
The result is a brilliantly eccentric work that plays to the strengths of its main star, with Shore’s diatribes against the limits of the justice system and posing of legal conundrums elevating it far above the level of a procedural drama. Despite lasting only five seasons,Boston Legalcrossed the 100-episode barrierand will giveLincoln Lawyerfans who haven’t seen it yet a charming new hero to get acquainted with.
AlthoughWhite Collarisn’t strictly a legal drama,it’s similar in tone toThe Lincoln Lawyer, and features a central character with the same knack for solving the seemingly unsolvable as Mickey Haller has for winning apparently unwinnable cases. Neal Caffrey doesn’t have much else in common with Haller, except for his suave demeanor and eye for detail.
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Regardless of their respective differences, the show is the ideal complement toThe Lincoln Lawyer, with its twisting season-long plots and the entertaining relationship between Caffrey and his FBI agent-partner inWhite Collar, Peter Burke. While it originally aired between 2009 and 2014, the show feels perfect for the streaming age.
Suitsis probably the only legal drama that compares withThe Lincoln Lawyerin terms of recent popularity, but even this stellar nine-season series has never achieved the number of views that Mickey Haller and co. have garnered across three seasons. Nevertheless,every season ofSuitsis just as slick and stylish asThe Lincoln Lawyer, if a little on the lighter side of things and less gritty.
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Based around a corporate law firm in New York, naturally, the show doesn’t portray the type of violent crimes that Mickey Haller has to deal with. However, it does depict high-level financial crimes taking place at an even higher level, giving us a glimpse beneath the hood into the inner workings of Wall Street with all the intrigue and subterfuge that entails.
Harry Bosch is, quite simply, Mickey Haller’s brother-in-arms. A police detective rather than a lawyer,Bosch exists in the same universe as Haller in Michael Connelly’s crime novels, where the two characters are actually revealed to be half-brothers. Since Amazon bought the TV rights forBoschbefore Netflix got hold ofThe Lincoln Lawyer, Harry and Mickey seem destined to be forever separated on the small screen, despite crossing over into each other’s book series.
Like Mickey Haller inThe Lincoln Lawyer, Harry Bosch frequently clashes with authority, and his moral scruples don’t earn him many friends in the LAPD.
Still, that shouldn’t stop us from enjoyingBoschon Prime Video while we’re waiting forThe Lincoln Lawyerto return. Harry Bosch is the closest thing fans of the Netflix show will find to Mickey Haller while they wait forThe Lincoln Lawyer’s fourth season, and not just because the two of them are related. Like Haller, Bosch frequently clashes with authority, and his moral scruples don’t earn him many friends in the LAPD. But no one else can do the job of a police detective quite like him.
A spin-off of political dramaThe Good Wife, Paramount+ showThe Good Fightstars Christine Baranski as legendary lawyer Diane Lockhart from its parent show, alongside two more junior lawyers, Maia Rindell and Lucca Quinn. Since its main character has a background in politics,the show deals with contemporary topical events in a way that other legal shows don’t. Originally airing between 2017 and 2022,The Good Fightfeatures episodes about the rise of the far-right in the United States, the phenomenon of fake news, and the MeToo movement.
Lincoln Lawyerviewers who agree with many of Mickey Haller’s sentiments about justice and are interested in the political side of the judicial system should definitely check this show out. Unlike many procedural dramas,The Good Fight’s lead characters are particularly likable, and the show offers a whole different dimension to legal drama from other series.
Billy McBride is the TV lawyer on this list who has by far the most in common with Mickey Haller.Goliathis another show originated byThe Lincoln Lawyer’s creator David E. Kelley, and it’s easy to see how the two shows’ protagonists were shaped by the same series developer. Both McBride, who’s played by Billy Bob Thornton, and Haller have had their struggles with addiction, and each of them harbors a profound sense of disillusionment with the American legal system.
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It may only be four seasons long, butGoliathis undoubtedly one of the best legal dramas of the streaming age. It’s effectively the forerunner to Kelley’s work on The Lincoln Lawyer, and fans of the latter show definitely need to give it a watch.
This spin-off from Amazon’s seven-seasonBoschseries sees a retired Harry Bosch taking younger detectives under his wing. Bella Lourdes andRenée Ballard take center stage inBosch: Legacy, as Bosch completes his career trajectory as one of the great TV detectives of all time.
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SinceThe Lincoln LawyerandBoschhave sprung from the same literary universe, it only makes sense to watch one if you enjoy the other.After completingBoschon Prime Video,Bosch: Legacyis the logical next watchto cover every TV adaptation of a Harry Bosch or Mickey Haller book in existence.
Reasonable Doubt’sJax Stewart could be the closest thing on TV to a female Mickey Haller. The show’s protagonist is going through a difficult separation from her husband while taking on high-profile cases at a Los Angeles law firm. Having received rave reviews for its first two seasons,Reasonable Doubthas been renewed for season 3, with plenty more to come from Emayatzy Corinealdi’s central hero.
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Mickey Haller might not be looking over his shoulder just yet, but this is certainly one show that deserves every comparison withThe Lincoln Lawyerit gets. Then again, it’s just one show among 10 spanning four decades that deserve a viewing from fans of Haller’s legal drama.
