THE LINCOLN LAWYER (Netflix, 2022).

I recently watched the Lincoln lawyer which dropped on Netflix on May 13th with ten episodes. It’s a decision I don’t regret at all. I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy it at first but I ended up binging the whole thing without taking a break. This piece is loaded with spoilers.

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SETTING.

The Lincoln Lawyer is a legal thriller which tells the legal practice, life and career experiences of Mickey Haller played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo. Mickey was a Hispanic criminal attorney who had been out of practice for a year due to an injury he sustained while surfing, the injury resulted in his addiction to painkillers; his career was basically over at the time until some someone got shot by a hit man in the parking garage. That single event changed the course of his entire life and career.

The scene opens with a man walking to his car in the garage, he notices some weird noises and rustling as gets scared, he quickly gets into his car and sighs, he sharply glances at the back seat to see if anyone is there, there was no one so he felt relieved, only for him to turn around and next thing two shot were fired at him.

The person who was killed was Jerry Vincent, a criminal defense attorney; an old acquaintance of Mickey’s. A few weeks to his death, he wrote a will transferring his entire practice to Mickey Haller should anything happen to him. Well, he died and Mickey got a phone call and that was how he inherited a murder trial against Trevor Elliot amongst a bunch of other cases.

The show was set in the sunny city of Los Angeles, where Mickey Haller had been born and raised before his parents separated. His dad was a lawyer too, a very good one who was also a criminal defense attorney. Mickey watched his father in court on day and decided he was going to be a good criminal lawyer like him which he did become.

He had two ex-wives; the first one Maggie is a lawyer too but a prosecutor, he has a beautiful teenage daughter with her and the second - Lorna works with for him. Apparently their marriage was something that should never had happened but the have a good working and personal relationship now and he says she’s one of the four most important people in his life. Lorna’s fiancé Cisco an ex biker, left his biking team to come work for him as a private investigator. Together they make a great team.

Mickey Haller is referred to as the Lincoln Lawyer because he loves working from the back of his SUVs. He says he thinks better when he’s on the road. His first inherited case was that of an ex junkie who’s been tried for grand theft; she snatched a piece of jewelry from the defendants neck. She said it was the addict who did that, someone she isn’t anymore. Mickey spotted the jewelry was a knock off and managed to get the case complete dismissed, he hired her to be his driver so he could get his work done faster.

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PLOT.

The Trevor Elliot case was a high profile case amongst the bunch of cases he inherited, the Trevor Elliot case was the most important and the highlight of his revived career. Trevor was a video game owner and business mogul.

Trevor was on trial for the murder of his wife and her lover. They were both found dead and naked in their bedroom and it was Trevor who found them, obviously.

The case against him was pretty strong. First, he waited five minutes after arriving the crime scene to call the cops and he had an enormous amount of gun powder residue on him, and most importantly two classes of intent to kill.
First, as a jealous angry husband whose wife is not having an affair with her yoga coach.

Second, there was evidence that his wife wasn’t happy with the marriage and there wasn’t a prenuptial agreement so if she had filed for a divorce she would have taken half of everything so it was easier to kill her because Trevor wasn’t the kind of man that would let go of anything.
Third, the security cameras in his home were turned off and he was aware of it so it was pretty convenient.

This case was a difficult and frustrating one for Mickey Haller for so many reasons. First, when Jerry, Trevor’s former attorney was shot, the killer took his unit case which contained file and info on the case so he literally had nothing to work with, no evidence in his favor and no leverage against the prosecution. He had both Lorna and Cisco working their butts off to find something he can work with.

Secondly, Mickey had just one week to prepare for the trial but because he had nothing he wanted to file for a continuance but he couldn’t because his client - Trevor was hell bent on not filing for one. He wanted the trial to happen so it can be over with, he wanted his life and freedom back and also claimed he was at the risk of losing investors to his company and that would mean losing everything. Mickey, had to do as his client wished.

PLOT TWIST.

JERRY VINCENT’S MURDER.

There were questions on whether Jerry’s death was related or connected to the Elliot case, and if it did that means Mickey’s life was in danger too. Detective Griggs, the detective on the case, who initially seemed to be cross with Mickey though was simply doing his job, was determined to get to the bottom of the case, but he did tell Mickey to be careful because if Jerry was killed because of the case then that means he had a target on his back too.

Mickey’s car was bugged by someone or some group we believed to be tied to Jerry’s murder so that meant he was in potential danger too.
Mickey soon discovered missing large amount of cash which we believed was used to pay a bribe, and he was visibly upset by it. Cisco advices him not to ask questions he didn’t want to know the answer, but that’s not Mickey Haller. Initially they thought the bribe was paid to the judge overseeing the trial but it wasn’t .

We later learn the bribe was paid to judge Mary Holder, the presiding judge for the purpose of rigging the jury. The plan was to plant a juror to help tilt the case in favor of Trevor Elliot. Judge Mary Holder’s involvement was an absolute shocker which was revealed at the end of the trial.

Who killed Jerry Vincent?

We can not successfully observe the dynamics of this show without asking this question. It was later unfolded that Jerry’s death was tied to the Trevor Elliot case. He was killed because he learnt about the ongoing manipulation and bribery and wasn’t going to stand for it. He was a lose end and had to be tied.

The planted juror was McSweeny(juror number seven) who happens to be a former client of Judge holder’s husband and was sent by her to take out Jerry Vincent.
He was trained to fit the profile of a viable juror obviously by someone who knew the workings of the legal system.
It was also Judge Holder who bugged Mickey’s car, he works from his car so the way to know what he was up to was to bug his car. Turns out she and her husband are in the business of rigging juries for fat amounts of cash and tying lose ends of course.

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THE TRIAL.

Trevor was in fact guilty to the core but Mickey Haller was great at what he did and got him the ‘Not Guilty’ verdict he assured him of. He worked hard to find evidences to prove Trevor Elliot wasn’t guilty of the crimes. He was able to explain the gun power reside was tied to a previous arrest of an ex military who went off and fired thousand of rounds, it was the same car, I cleaned that was also used to arrest Trevor.

Mickey presented his case as that of a tunnel vision. He told the jurors at the beginning that the police found their suspect - Trevor and stopped looking. He tied murder to an innocent man who just happens to fit the profile. He was the ex husband of another woman with whom Trevor’s wife’s lover had an affair with too. The man had initially threatened the yoga lover boy to stay away from his wife and the yoga lover boy obtained a restricting order against him though he didn’t get the chance to file it.
Cisco set him up and obtained an evidence of proof of violence and that was how he took the fall for Trevor.

He argued that Trevor couldn’t have had the time to commit the murder, hide the weapon and clean up himself before the cops arrived. Well, while the cops searched the house, Trevor sat outside and used his cell phone to control the drone that carried the murder weapon and evidence across the sea. Smart man.

Mickey was almost taken out by McSweeny too be was also a lose end but he fought him and survived and I’m glad he lives. Thanks to detective Griggs who had a tail on him all the time hoping he won’t lead him to finding the killer.

However, the prosecutor on this case was portrayed in an unlikable and annoying perspective. His character wasn’t likable and I’m not sure why he was scripted like that because he was literally on the side of justice. He was also lousy and relied on the glaring evidence to win without any extra digging. He was no match for Mickey Haller and I didn’t quite like that.

Trevor Elliot got what was coming to him because after he though he had scaled, a friend ofthe yoga lover boy who apparently loved him showed up crying miserably and shot him dead.

MY THOUGHTS AND RECOMMENDATION.

THE LINCOLN LAWYER is a show that’s completely worth the time I spent watching it. The casting was amazing, the dynamics of the relationships that existed between them was also noteworthy.
Mickey Haller was awesome, he poured himself into the role and played it from his heart and mind. He was not a typical man with addiction and failed relationship. He had two ex wives with whom he had great relationships with, he was not small minded and looks for more where people would easily write off.

I was rooting for him and his first wife whom he still loved and wanted a second chance with but I guess love and desire isn’t enough, their opposite side of their career poses a big hurdle for them.

He was man who got a second chance at doing what he loved, he was a man who chased redemption as he foul to fix the case he screwed up before the accident and addiction took the better part of him.
He was a vulnerable man who saw the good in people. Despite being a brilliant and smart man, he got played by Trevor Elliot but that’s the job.

He was told to take the win, after all he was a criminal defence attorney.
He did say something that stuck with me and I’ll end on that note.

“What you desire, what you believe, and what you have to do; they don’t always line up”.