At the ABA Journal, our most popular web post of all time is our “Top 25 Greatest Legal Movies” feature from 2008. I haven’t seen the stats, but apparently, it’s number one by a country mile. Kind of like how The Matrix is, far and away, the best movie in its trilogy or how Alec Baldwin is, without question, the most talented actor in his family.
So, to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of our most popular feature of all time, the lead feature of this month’s issue is an updated look at the list of greatest legal movies. Some movies from the last decade to be included are Spotlight, The Post and Marshall, while movies like Legally Blonde, Primal Fear and Michael Clayton made the cut this time after missing out on the original list. Also, some movies from the original list dropped out, including Philadelphia, Presumed Innocent, Chicago, In the Name of the Father, and the Al Pacino tour-de-force And Justice for All.
All of this got me thinking about a different Pacino legal drama. The Devil’s Advocate (1997) may not be remembered as his greatest film (if we’re being honest, it’s probably not even in the top half of his filmography), but it’s a fun, creative take on lawyers, law firms and the legal profession.
After all, we’ve all heard the jokes and one-liners comparing lawyers to devils. The Devil’s Advocate takes it one step further by having an actual law firm run by Satan, himself. Chewing up the scenery as if it were made of ham in his most over-the-top role since Scent of a Woman (a movie that is, kind of, a legal film), Pacino gives a dynamic performance as “John Milton,” the senior partner at Milton, Chadwick & Waters and a man of wealth and taste who’s definitely been around for a long, long year.
Milton sets about tempting the nominal protagonist of the film, small-time Florida trial lawyer Kevin Lomax (an overwhelmed Keanu Reeves sporting the worst Southern accent this side of Nicholas Cage). When we first meet Lomax, he’s defending his client, a local teacher accused of molesting a student. Lomax has “never lost a case” and has been riding an incredible winning streak (63 consecutive victories – a dubious number given how often criminal cases end in plea bargains) but his unblemished record is in jeopardy, in no small part, because he realizes his client is clearly guilty and he’s unsure whether he should go all-out to try and defend him. Ultimately, his pride (and adherence to the rules of legal ethics) wins out and he goes after the victim on the witness stand, ruining her credibility and securing a not guilty verdict.
The victory earns him a call-up to the big leagues as Milton recruits him for his firm (also unrealistic – Wall Street firms rarely hire small-town trial lawyers that don’t have a portable book of business). Coming across more as an eager and supportive, albeit unconventional mentor than the prince of darkness and epitome of everything evil in the mortal world, Milton promises Lomax everything the ambitious but naive younger lawyer could ever want. A big-money job at Milton’s prestigious New York City law firm? Check. A fancy penthouse in Manhattan for him and his beautiful wife (Charlize Theron)? Check. A coterie of interesting clients and high-stakes trials? Check – to the chagrin of others at the firm who feel like this anonymous country lawyer is cutting the line and getting opportunities they’ve been fighting for ever since joining the firm.
Ultimately, Milton shows he has ulterior motives for championing Lomax. It turns out that Satan has been traveling the world, impregnating as many women as possible so that, one day, his two best children will mate and produce the Antichrist. One of the women Satan procreated with was Lomax’s mother, and it seems that dear old dad is just thrilled with how his son has turned out. Now, he just has to convince/manipulate Lomax into agreeing to be part of his evil scheme.
All of this leads to an epic confrontation during which time Pacino unleashes a near 10 minute monologue about Christianity, morality, the law and human nature while demonstrating the extent of his powers, including surviving a hail of bullets with nary a scratch, bringing sculptures to life and making Lomax’s Southern accent, which had mostly gone missing since his arrival in Manhattan, reappear. Keanu, for his part, mostly looks dumbfounded – although he does get in a fantastic line about what it means to be a lawyer.
“Lose? I don’t lose! I win! I WIN! I’m a lawyer! That’s my job! That’s what I do!” Lomax bellows.
And that represents the central conflict in the movie. One of the first things they teach you in law school is that legal ethics are not the same as traditional ethics. Indeed, they are often incongruous or in conflict with each other. Lomax can choose to be a good, moral person, but oftentimes, that clashes with his ethical duties as a lawyer.
On the flip side, he finds that giving into his darkest instincts makes him an excellent, even ethical lawyer – with one major exception at the end where he suborns perjury to win an acquittal in a murder trial for firm client and Donald Trump expy Alexander Cullen (Craig T. Nelson). Until then, he had behaved as an ethical attorney, following the rules and reaping the benefits, even as he moved deeper into Satan’s warm embrace. Lomax has already broken every rule of morality and ethics in his personal life by ignoring his family and putting his career over everything – even his mentally deteriorating wife. Once he finally breaks his ethical vows as a lawyer, then he’s ready to really do Satan’s bidding – or so it seems.
Ultimately, the film takes a superficial look at the law and portrays it, merely, as a vessel for the devil (indeed, Lomax outright asks Milton why he uses the law – “because the law, my boy, puts us into everything … do you know there are more students in law school than there are lawyers walking the earth?”). Bad guys get off on technicalities and loopholes while lawyers that win are rewarded. It’s an unfair way of looking at things. After all, it ignores how this country was founded on the rule of law and that everyone, no matter how guilty they may be, is entitled to legal representation.
So, maybe that’s what is stopping this film from being an all-time legal classic. Then again, who knows? Maybe we’ll reappraise this movie in ten years time like we did with Legally Blonde.
