The Lincoln Lawyer is a 404-page crime fiction novel written by Michael Connelly, © 2005. Criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller is presented with his latest client, Beverly Hills playboy Louis Roulet. Roulet is accused of rape and assault on a female prostitute but this does not trouble Haller in the slightest; on the contrary, he revels in it because it means he is being offered a franchise case, or a case offering an enormous payout. Naturally, Haller takes the offer but what is unique about this case is that for the first time ever, Haller thinks he may have an innocent client. Haller finds innocence troublesome because Haller Sr. once said “There is no client as scary as an innocent man. And no client as scarring” (402). As the case continues,
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Despite his unwelcoming demeanor, his personal philosophies of the legal system are intriguing and enlightening. For example, Haller is often looked down upon by society for defending the criminals when, in reality, he is just doing his job. “Much of society thought of me as the devil but they were wrong. I was a greasy angel” (25). One of his own clients, a conman, nonetheless, calls him a con “...no different from me...Only that paper they give you makes you street legal, that’s all,” to which Haller’s response is “They always blame the lawyer for making a living” (116). Mickey’s view of the justice system is highly cynical as he believes that the justice system is rarely about justice: “The law was not about truth. It was about negotiation, amelioration, manipulation. I didn 't deal in guilt and innocence because everybody was guilty” (25). Yet as the novel progresses, he slowly begins to search for the truth in the case of Louis Roulet. Instead of swimming in the gray area, Haller starts to look for the black and white. For the first time ever, he wants it to be about guilt and innocence. Indeed, by the middle of the novel, the defense attorney realizes that it should not have been guilt or innocence that he was watching out for but evil, pure evil. (231). This statement is the turning point of the whole novel and is extremely important because it shows the development of Mickey Haller’s character as a gray cog in the legal machine to an actual human diving into the black and white morals of life. The death of Mickey’s colleague and the lies that came along with it changed the very nature of Haller’s character and developed him as a person who is no longer a cynic who serves to defend his clients but a realist who wants
Despite his unwelcoming demeanor, his personal philosophies of the legal system are intriguing and enlightening. For example, Haller is often looked down upon by society for defending the criminals when, in reality, he is just doing his job. “Much of society thought of me as the devil but they were wrong. I was a greasy angel” (25). One of his own clients, a conman, nonetheless, calls him a con “...no different from me...Only that paper they give you makes you street legal, that’s all,” to which Haller’s response is “They always blame the lawyer for making a living” (116). Mickey’s view of the justice system is highly cynical as he believes that the justice system is rarely about justice: “The law was not about truth. It was about negotiation, amelioration, manipulation. I didn 't deal in guilt and innocence because everybody was guilty” (25). Yet as the novel progresses, he slowly begins to search for the truth in the case of Louis Roulet. Instead of swimming in the gray area, Haller starts to look for the black and white. For the first time ever, he wants it to be about guilt and innocence. Indeed, by the middle of the novel, the defense attorney realizes that it should not have been guilt or innocence that he was watching out for but evil, pure evil. (231). This statement is the turning point of the whole novel and is extremely important because it shows the development of Mickey Haller’s character as a gray cog in the legal machine to an actual human diving into the black and white morals of life. The death of Mickey’s colleague and the lies that came along with it changed the very nature of Haller’s character and developed him as a person who is no longer a cynic who serves to defend his clients but a realist who wants