Whether you refer to them as courtroom dramas, lawyer movies, legal films, etc., movies centering around the law, crime, and the courtroom have been entertaining and challenging moviegoers for about as long as movies have existed!
Sadly, there are very few good resources for those who are interested in lawyer films. Because of this, we have decided to compile a list of the best lawyer movies in chronological order, going all the way back to the 1930's. Not only will you encounter all-time courtroom classics, but you are also sure to discover a large number of legal films that you have never even heard of before!
A Fall From Grace - Depressed after her ex-husband's infidelity, Grace Waters feels restored by a new romance. But when secrets chip away at her short-lived happiness, Grace's vulnerable side becomes violent.
Length: 120 minutes
Director: Tyler Perry
Stars: Crystal Fox, Phylicia Rashad, Bresha Webb
Watch Movie: A Fall From Grace
Dark Waters - A corporate defense kawyer decides to take on an environmental lawsuit against a powerful chemical company that exposes a long history of environmental pollution.
Length: 126 minutes
Director: Todd Haynes
Stars: Anne Hathaway, Bill Camp, Mark Ruffalo
Watch Movie: Dark Waters
RBG - The incredible life and work of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has developed an impressive legal legacy while becoming a surprising pop culture icon.
Length: 98 minutes
Director: Julie Cohen, Betsy West
Stars: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Ann Kittner, Harryette Helsel
Watch Movie: RBG
Marshall - Marshall tells the true story of Thurgood Marshall, the historic lawyer who would become the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, as he navigates through one of his most important cases.
Length: 118 minutes
Director: Reginald Hudlin
Stars: Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Kate Hudson
Watch Movie: Marshall
Denial - Historian Deborah E. Lipstadt must fight for historical truth to prove the Holocaust actually occurred, when she is sued for libel by David Irving, a well-known Holocaust denier.
Length: 109 minutes
Director: Mick Jackson
Stars: Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Spall
Watch Movie: Denial
True Story - A discredited New York Times reporter named Michael Finkel comes into contact with Christian Longo, an accused murderer who has stolen Finkel's identity. Finkel's investigation then begins to turn into a game of cat-and-mouse.
Length: 99 minutes
Director: Rupert Goold
Stars: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Felicity Jones
Watch Movie: True Story
The Judge - A Biglaw attorney named Hank Palmer goes back to his hometown where his father, who is the town judge, is accused of murder. Palmer sets out uncover what really happened while simultaneously reconnecting with his family, with whom he has strained and complicated relationships.
Length: 153 minutes
Director: David Dobkin
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga
Watch Movie: The Judge
Devil's Knot - The brutal killings of three children generates a controversial trial of three teenage boys accused of killing the kids as part of a satanic cult ritual.
Length: 114 minutes
Director: Atom Egoyan
Stars: Colin Firth, Reese Witherspoon, Alessandro Nivola
Watch Movie: Devil's Knot
Arbitrage - A distressed hedge fund tycoon determined to complete the sale of his trading empire makes a mistake that requires him to turn to a surprising person for assistance.
Length: 107 minutes
Director: Nicholas Jarecki
Stars: Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Brit Marling
Watch Movie: Arbitrage
Puncture
- A major underdog story of a drug-addled attorney who fights a large health supply company while fighting his own personal battle with addiction.
Length: 100 minutes
Directors: Adam Kassen, Mark Kassen
Stars: Chris Evans, Mark Kassen, Vinessa Shaw, Marshall Bell
Watch Movie: Puncture
Conviction -
A hard-working mom completes law school in order to help her brother, who has been wrongfully convicted of murder and has used up his chances to appeal his conviction using public defenders.
Length: 107 minutes
Director: Tony Goldwyn
Stars: Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell, Melissa Leo
Watch Movie: Conviction
The Informant - The United States government decides to go after a large agro-business conglomerate, accusing them of price-fixing, using evidence submitted by their star witness, vice president-turned-informant Mark Whitacre.
Length: 108 minutes
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Stars: Matt Damon, Tony Hale, Patton Oswalt
Watch Movie: The Informant
Changeling -
A grieving mother goes up against the Los Angeles Police Department to her own detriment when it attempts to pass off a clear impostor as her missing child.
Length: 141 minutes
Director: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Angelina Jolie, Colm Feore, Amy Ryan
Watch Movie: Changeling
Michael Clayton -
A law firm involves its "fixer" to help fix the situation after an attorney has a mental breakdown while representing a company that he knows is guilty in a multibillion-dollar class action suit.
Length: 119 minutes
Director
: Tony Gilroy
Stars:
George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson
Watch Movie: Michael Clayton
Find Me Guilty -
At the tail end of the 1980s, a small time gangster named Jackie DiNorscio defends himself in court in what became known as the longest criminal trial in US judicial history.
Length: 125 minutes
Director: Sidney Lumet
Stars: Vin Diesel, Peter Dinklage, Ron Silver
Watch Movie: Find Me Guilty
North Country -
A fictionalized telling of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the US -- Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who underwent abuse while working as a miner filed and won the important 1984 lawsuit.
Length: 126 minutes
Director: Niki Caro
Stars: Charlize Theron, Jeremy Renner, Frances McDormand
Watch Movie: North Country
The Life of David Gale -
A man named David Gale, known for being against capital punishment, is suddenly accused of murdering a fellow activist and is ordered to death row.
Length: 130 minutes
Director: Alan Parker
Stars: Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet, Laura Linney
Watch Movie: The Life of David Gale
Secretary -
A young woman, recently released from a mental institution, finds a job as an administrative assistant to a difficult lawyer, where their employer-employee relationship turns into a sexual one.
Length: 107 minutes
Director: Steven Shainberg
Stars: James Spader, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jeremy Davies, Lesley Ann Warren
Watch Movie: Secretary
Legally Blonde -
Elle Woods, a fashionable sorority queen gets dumped by her aristocratic boyfriend. She decides the only way to get him back is to follow him to Harvard law school, and while she is there she figures out that there is more to her than just her good looks.
Length: 96 minutes
Director: Robert Luketic
Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson, Selma Blair
Watch Movie: Legally Blonde
Erin Brockovich -
Unemployed single mother, Erin Brockovich, gets a job as a legal assistant and brings down a California power company accused of polluting a city's water, almost totally by herself.
Length: 131 minutes
Director: Steven Soderbergh.
Stars: Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, David Brisbin
Watch Movie: Erin Brockovich
The Green Mile -
The lives of several death row guards are affected by one of the prisoners condemned to death: a black man accused of child murder and rape, yet who has a mysterious gift, and appears to be very kind and gentle.
Length: (189 minutes).
Director: Frank Darabont
Stars: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Morse
Watch Movie: The Green Mile
Rounders -
A reformed gambler must return to the high stakes poker tables to help a friend pay off loan sharks, while simultaneously balancing his love life and his commitments to law school.
Length: 121 minutes
Director: John Dahl
Stars: Matt Damon, Edward Norton, Gretchen Mol
Watch Movie: Rounders
The Rainmaker -
A David vs. Goliath story of a lawyer who takes on a fraudulent Insurance company.
Length: 135 minutes
Director: Francis Ford Coppola.
Stars: Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Claire Danes, Jon Voight
Watch Movie: The Rainmaker
Night Falls on Manhattan
-
A newly elected District Attorney finds himself caught up in a police corruption investigation that potentially involves his father and his partner.
Length: 113 minutes
Director: Sidney Lumet
Stars
: Andy Garcia, Richard Dreyfuss, Lena Olin, Ian Holm
Watch Movie: Night Falls on Manhattan
Murder in the First -
A young attorney defends an Alcatraz prisoner who has been accused of killing another inmate, despite his client having just spent over three years in solitary confinement.
Length: 122 minutes
Director: Marc Rocco
Stars: Christian Slater, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman
Watch Movie: Murder in the First
The Client
-
A small boy who saw the suicide of a mafia lawyer hires an attorney to help protect him when the DA tries to use him to take down the mob family.
Length: 119 minutes
Director: Joel Schumacher
Stars: Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Renfro
Watch Movie: The Client
Philadelphia -
When a gay man with HIV is fired by his law firm because of his illness, he hires an unknown, homophobic lawyer as the only willing advocate for his wrongful dismissal suit.
Length: 125 minutes
Director: Jonathan Demme
Stars: Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Roberta Maxwell
Watch Movie: Philadelphia
Top Lawyer Movie From 1992
A Few Good Men
-
Military lawyer Kaffee defends Marines accused of murder; they contend they were acting under orders.
Length: 138 minutes
Director: Rob Reiner
Stars
: Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon
Watch Movie: A Few Good Men
JFK -
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison finds out through research and secret meetings that there is more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story tells.
Length: 189 minutes
Director: Oliver Stone
Stars: Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Jack Lemmon
Watch Movie: JFK
Reversal of Fortune -
Rich Sunny von Bülow lies brain-dead, and husband Claus is found guilty of attempted murder; but he maintains his innocence and hires Alan Dershowitz for his appeal.
Length: 111 minutes
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Stars: Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, Ron Silver
Watch Movie: Reversal of Fortune
True Believer -
A misanthropic former civil liberties attorney now reduced to defending drug dealers becomes engrossed by an old cold case
murder.
Length: 108 minutes
Director: Joseph Ruben
Stars
: James Woods, Robert Downey Jr., Margaret Colin
Watch Movie: True Believer
The Accused -
After a young woman experiences a vicious gang rape in a bar, a prosecutor helps out in bringing the assailants to justice, including everyone who cheered on the attack.
Length: 111 minutes
Director: Jonathan Kaplan.
Stars: Kelly McGillis, Jodie Foster, Bernie Coulson
Watch Movie: The Accused
Suspect - A story of corruption in high places unfolds as a public defender takes on the case of a homeless deaf-mute man who has been arrested for the murder of a judge's secretary.
Length: 121 minutes
Director: Peter Yates
Stars: Cher, Dennis Quaid, Liam Neeson
Watch Movie: Suspect
Legal Eagles -
A New York DA works and flirts with his legal opponent and her bizarre artist client, who is on trial for a murder that she didn't commit.
Length: 116 minutes
Director: Ivan Reitman.
Stars: Robert Redford, Debra Winger, Daryl Hannah
Watch Movie: Legal Eagles
Jagged Edge -
Wealthy heiress Page Forrester is savagely murdered in her beach house. Her husband Jack is very depressed over the crime but soon finds himself accused of murder.
Length: 108 minutes
Director: Richard Marquand
Stars: Jeff Bridges, Glenn Close, Peter Coyote
Watch Movie: Jagged Edge
A Soldier's Story -
An African American military officer looks into a murder in a racially charged situation in World War II.
Length: 101 minutes
Director: Norman Jewison
Stars: Howard E. Rollins Jr., Adolph Caesar, Art Evans
Watch Movie: A Soldier's Story
The Verdict -
An attorney sees his chance to salvage his career and self-respect by deciding to take a medical malpractice case to trial as opposed to settling out of court.
Length: 129 minutes
Director: Sidney Lumet
Stars
: Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden
Watch Movie: The Verdict
Absence of Malice -
When a prosecutor leaks an untrue story that a warehouse owner is involved in the murder of a local union head, the man's life begins to come apart.
Length: 116 minutes
Director: Sydney Pollack
Stars
: Paul Newman, Sally Field, Bob Balaban
Watch Movie: Absence of Malice
Breaker Morant -
Three Australian lieutenants are court martialed for killings prisoners as a way of diverting attention from war crimes committed by their superiors.
Length: 107 minutes
Director: Bruce Beresford
Stars: Edward Woodward, Jack Thompson, John Waters
Watch Movie: Breaker Morant
...And Justice for All -
An attorney is forced to defend a guilty judge, while still helping other innocent clients, and trying to find punishment for the guilty and provide justice for the innocent.
Length: 119 minutes
Director: Norman Jewison
Stars: Al Pacino, Jack Warden, John Forsythe
Watch Movie: ...And Justice for All
The Medusa Touch -
Psychological thriller about a telekinetic author who can cause disasters simply by thinking about them.
Length: 105 minutes
Director: Jack Gold
Stars: Richard Burton, Lee Remick, Lino Ventura
Watch Movie: The Medusa Touch
Conduct Unbecoming -
At a British Regimental party in Colonial India, the widow of a captain is assaulted, and she accuses one of the newly arrived junior lieutenants of committing the crime.
Length: 107 minutes
Director: Michael Anderson
Stars: Michael York, Richard Attenborough, Trevor Howard
Watch Movie: Conduct Unbecoming
The Paper Chase -
A 1L law student at Harvard has trouble balancing his schoolwork and his relationship with the daughter of his toughest professor.
Length: 113 minutes
Director: James Bridges
Stars: Timothy Bottoms, Lindsay Wagner, John Houseman
Watch Movie: The Paper Chase
Bananas -
When a clumsy New Yorker is broken up with by his activist girlfriend, he ventures to a small Latin American country and becomes involved in its latest rebellion.
Length: 82 minutes
Director: Woody Allen
Stars: Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Carlos Montalbán
Watch Movie: Bananas
Hostile Witness -
When a successful barrister's daughter is killed, in what seems to be a hit and run, and the police cannot find the culprit, he swears that he will find the driver of the car, and have his revenge.
Length: 101 minutes
Director: Ray Milland
Stars: Ray Milland, Sylvia Syms, Felix Aylmer
Watch Movie: Hostile Witness
In Cold Blood - A rural family is brutally murdered during a botched robbery attempt, and the two drifters who committed the crimes elude police, though in the end they come to terms with their own mortality and the repercussions of their horrible crimes.
Length: 134 minutes
Director: Richard Brooks
Stars: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe
Watch Movie: In Cold Blood
The Fortune Cookie
-
A dishonest attorney sways his brother-in-law to fake a serious injury. Length: 125 minutes
Director: Billy Wilder
Stars: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ron Rich, Judi West
Watch Movie: The Fortune Cookie
Twilight of Honor -
A difficult murder case is assigned to a young defense attorney. He asks his old dying friend, a lawyer legend, for consulting help on the case.
Length: 104 minutes
Director: Boris Sagal
Stars: Richard Chamberlain, Nick Adams, Claude Rains
Watch Movie: Twilight of Honor
To Kill a Mockingbird -
Atticus Finch, a kindhearted lawyer in the Depression-era South, helps defend a black man against an untrue rape allegation, while protecting his children from prejudice.
Length: 129 minutes
Director: Robert Mulligan
Stars: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy
Watch Movie: To Kill a Mockingbird
Judgment at Nuremberg -
In this 1948 courtroom drama, an American court in occupied Germany takes four Nazi judges to trial for war crimes.
Length: 186 minutes
Director: Stanley Kramer
Stars: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark
Watch Movie: Judgement at Nuremberg
Inherit the Wind -
Based on the real-life Scope Trial, two esteemed lawyers argue the case for and against a science teacher accused of the crime of teaching evolution.
Length: 128 minutes
Director: Stanley Kramer
Stars: Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly
Watch Movie: Inherit the Wind
Anatomy of a Murder -
In a murder trial, the defendant says he only killed the man after suffering temporary insanity when the victim raped his wife.
Length: 160 minutes
Director: Otto Preminger
Stars: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara
Watch Movie: Anatomy of a Murder
I Want to Live! -
A prostitute, sentenced to death for murder, pleads her innocence.
Length: 120 minutes
Director: Robert Wise
Stars: Susan Hayward, Simon Oakland, Virginia Vincent
Watch Movie: I Want to Live!
12 Angry Men -
Taking place almost entirely in a jury deliberation room, a jury holdout forces his colleagues to reconsider the evidence after realizing the defendant isn't as guilty as the other jurors think.
Length: 96 minutes
Director: Sidney Lumet
Stars: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam
Watch Movie: 12 Angry Men
The Wrong Man -
An innocent man named "Manny" Balestrero is taken into custody after being mistaken for an armed robber.
Length: 105 minutes
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle
Watch Movie: The Wrong Man
Trial - Trial is
about a Mexican boy accused of rape and murder, who becomes a pawn of his communist defender, whose propaganda purposes would prefer to see a guilty verdict.
Length: 105 minutes
Director: Mark Robson
Stars:
Glenn Ford, Dorothy McGuire, Arthur Kennedy
Watch Movie: Trial
The Caine Mutiny -
When a Naval captain shows signs of mental instability that could negatively impact the ship and crew, the first officer relieves him of command and faces court martial for mutiny.
Length: 124 minutes
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Stars: Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson
Watch Movie: The Caine Mutiny
Count the Hours! -
An attorney defends a migrant worker falsely accused of two murders.
Length: 76 minutes
Director: Don Siegel
Stars: Teresa Wright, Macdonald Carey, Dolores Moran
Watch Movie: Count the Hours!
Awaara (The Vagabond) -
Awaara centers on the intertwining lives of poor Raj and privileged Rita.
Length: 88 minutes
Director: Raj Kapoor
Stars: Prithviraj Kapoor, Nargis, Raj Kapoor
Watch Movie: Awaara
The Magnificent Yankee -
Biographical depiction of celebrated American Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Length: 89 minutes
Director: John Sturges
Stars: Louis Calhern, Ann Harding, Eduard Franz
Watch Movie: The Magnificent Yankee
Adam's Rib -
Professional and domestic tensions arise when a husband and wife work as opposing lawyers in a case featuring a woman who shot her husband.
Length: 101 minutes
Director: George Cukor
Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday
Watch Movie: Adam's Rib
The Winslow Boy -
In pre-WWI England, a young boy is expelled from the naval academy over a small theft, and his parents raise a political furor by demanding a trial.
Length: 117 minutes
Director: Anthony Asquith
Stars: Robert Donat, Cedric Hardwicke, Basil Radford
Watch Movie: The Winslow Boy
The Paradine Case -
A happily married London barrister falls in love with the accused murderer he is attempting to defend.
Length: 125 minutes
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Charles Laughton
Watch Movie: The Paradine Case
A Matter of Life and Death -
A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court.
Length: 104 minutes
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Stars: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Robert Coote
Watch Movie: A Matter of Life and Death
A Woman's Face -
A female blackmailer with facial scarring meets up with a plastic surgeon who offers her the possibility of looking normal again.
Length: 106 minutes
Director: George Cukor
Stars
: Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas, Conrad Veidt
Watch Movie: A Woman's Face
Young Mr. Lincoln -
A fictionalized account of the early life of Abraham Lincoln as a young lawyer getting ready for his most important court case.
Length: 100 minutes
Director: John Ford
Stars: Henry Fonda, Alice Brady, Marjorie Weaver
Watch Movie: Young Mr. Lincoln
Wives Under Suspicion -
A prosecutor trying a case where a husband kills his cheating wife begins to think that his own wife is having an affair, and starts to have his own ideas about killing her.
Length: 69 minutes
Director: James Whale
Stars: Warren William, Gail Patrick, Constance Moore
Watch Movie: Wives Under Suspicion
They Won't Forget -
A politically ambitious DA, crooked tabloid journalists, and regional prejudice all come together to charge a teacher with the murder of his student.
Length: 95 minutes
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Stars: Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, Edward Norris
Watch Movie: They Won't Forget
Fury -
When a wrongly accused prisoner survives a lynch mob attack and is presumed dead, he decides to fake his own death and frame the mob for his supposed murder.
Length: 92 minutes
Director: Fritz Lang
Stars: Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy, Walter Abel
Watch Movie: Fury
The Witching Hour - A gambler with clairvoyant and hypnotic powers, accidentally hypnotizes a young man, who then kills an enemy of the gambler. No one believes that the young man didn't have any murderous intent, so the gambler teams up with a retired lawyer in hopes of saving the young man from death row.
Length: 69 minutes
Director: Henry Hathaway
Stars: Guy Standing, John Halliday, William Frawley
The Kiss Before the Mirror -
When a renowned doctor kills his cheating wife, he is defended by his best friend, a lawyer--who suspects that his own wife might be having an affair.
Length: 69 minutes
Director: James Whale
Stars: Nancy Carroll, Frank Morgan, Paul Lukas
Watch Movie: The Kiss Before the Mirror
For the Defense -
A lawyer's ethics are put to the test when the woman he loves hits and kills a pedestrian while out driving with another man.
Length: 65 minutes
Director: John Cromwell
Stars: William Powell, Kay Francis, Scott Kolk
Watch Movie: For the Defense