The Lincoln Lawyer

(By Mariana marschner)

(Reviewer Gabrielle S. Raupp)

The movie is about the life of a criminal lawyer, called Mickey Haller who is looking for easy money, defending prostitutes, gangsters, immigrants and drug dealer. His wife is a prosecutor and has never appreciated Haller representing guilty clients, because her job is, off course, the opposite of his.

The lawyer takes a case about a young millionaire, called Louis Roulet, who has been accused of brutally beating Regina Campo, a prostitute, and the client insists he is innocent. However, after Mr. Haller analyze some photos, he notice how similar it is to one of his past cases, which resulted in a life sentence for his previous client, Jesus Martinez, who was accused of murdering a woman. Jesus Martinez swore he was innocent, but Mickey didn’t believe him, and suggest  a deal with the prosecutor if he confess, to avoid the death penalty.

Later, Haller visits Martinez on prison, and shows him a picture of Mr. Roulet, which makes Martinez agitated when he saw it. Now, Mickey Haller believes that Roulet is the killer in the Martinez case, but he is unable to reveal what he knows, because of the attorney client confidentiality.

After all, obligated to do his best for his client Roulet, guilty or not, Heller discredits the victim Regina Campo in the Jury’s eyes. The lawyer sets up a known prison informant with information about the previous murder, and Haller also discredits him. The state’s attorney dismiss all charges.

Roulet is now free to go, but the police arrest him immediately for the previous murder, based upon testimony from the informant. The District Attorney will seek the death penalty against Roulet.

For me, the most emotional moment in the movie was when Haller said  “my biggest fear was that I wouldn’t be able to recognize innocence”, because for the most of the lawyers all what matter is the number of the cases they win. And sometimes they forget listening what their clients have to say.

In law school we  are taught that is better a guilty free, than an innocent on prison. An innocent client is the most difficult for a lawyer, because if he doesn’t do a good job, a innocent goes to the jail.

Like in the movie, Haller wasn’t interested on Martinez case back then,  so he didn’t believe in what he was saying, and because of that an innocent went to prison.