The Lincoln Lawyer

Mick recounts the criminal history of his client, Sam Scales. Scales set up a Ponzi scheme to steal people’s credit card information and identities, got caught, and reached a plea bargain through Mick’s defense. Now, he has been arrested after another scheme to steal credit cards through a tsunami relief fund. He was caught when he sold the stolen identity information to an undercover sheriff.

Mick feels no sympathy for Scales, and has only agreed to represent him with the understanding that Scales will plead guilty and serve time. Mick asks Scales for $8,000 to cover his legal fees; Scales will get the money from his mother’s retirement account. Scales pleads guilty and will serve four years in prison and five years probation afterward. Mick does not like working with Scales and refuses to shake his hand after they are finished. Scales insults Mick by telling him that he is a con man too, just a legal one. 

Outside the Civic Center in Van Nuys, Mick angrily confronts Roulet about lying about law school. Mick is on his way to a meeting with the prosecutor who is hoping to send Roulet to a super max prison. If Roulet continues to lie to his own lawyer, he is sure to end up there. Roulet explains that he didn’t exactly lie about law school—he just didn’t correct anyone when they claimed that he attended. His mother and Cecil Dobbs both think he spent a year at UCLA law; in fact, he was lying around doing nothing and contemplating what he wanted to do with his life. He decided he wanted to be a writer, not a lawyer. But he was unsuccessful, so he returned home and began working for his mother’s real estate company.

After Louis admits this, Mick gets him to open up about the secret Mick is actually concerned about: that Roulet was paying Reggie Campo for sex. Mick imagines the case as a man spinning plates; Mick’s job is to get the right piece of evidence that will cause all the spinning plates to crash and smash the case to pieces. If Reggie is a sex worker, the prosecution’s case is shattered: It is far more believable to a jury that a prostitute would frame a rich client for a crime he didn’t commit to extort money from him, than to argue that Roulet committed this crime. Hearing this, Roulet is amazed and grateful. Mick tells him the whole ordeal will probably be over in a few days.

After Roulet leaves, a homicide detective named Howard Kurlen approaches Mick. Kurlen worked against Mick on the Jesus Menendez trial; he takes this chance encounter as an opportunity to harass Mick about his work as a defense attorney. He asks Mick how he can sleep at night. Then he tells Mick a joke: “What’s the difference between a catfish and a defense attorney [...] One’s a bottom-feeding scum sucker and one’s a fish” (163). Kurlen tells him that at the end of his life, Mick will have to decide if he contributed to society, or simply took. 

Mick meets with prosecutor Ted Minton, a young, inexperienced trial lawyer. Minton tells Mick that he read about Mick’s father in law school. Minton hands over the discovery file, and Mick is surprised at how thin it is. Mick tells Minton that there will be no plea bargain, and that the defense wants to move straight into trial. Next, Mick reveals that Reggie is a prostitute. Minton already knows, but he didn’t expect Mick to have found out so quickly. He reminds Mick that having Reggie followed could qualify as witness intimidation, a disbarrable offense. In response, Mick shares the security DVD showing Reggie coming on to Roulet in the bar. Surprisingly, though, Minton offers a plea bargain, good only until Monday: seven years prison time for assault with a deadly weapon and attempted battery. Mick doesn’t understand why Minton is still pursuing the case. He realizes there must be something in the discovery file that he doesn’t know about.

Mick leaves Minton’s office and runs into Maggie. She tells him that their daughter had a wonderful time with him. Maggie invites Mick to meet for a St. Patrick’s Day drink after work at a bar called Four Green Fields. Mick agrees. Outside, he searches through the discovery file to see what he is missing. He finally realizes that the knife that Levin showed him is completely different from the knife in the prosecutor’s file. Mick calls Levin and tells him to meet him at Roulet’s office immediately. He is angry because he has been embarrassed in front of the prosecutor and has shown Minton the video, giving away his best evidence. 

Mick arrives in the richest section of L.A., where Roulet sells multi-million-dollar real estate. Levin and Mick wait in the lobby until Mick can stand it no longer and barges into Roulet’s office. Mick slams down a photocopy of the actual knife used in the crime: It is covered in blood and has Roulet’s initials carved into the handle. Mick argues with Levin about getting set up and they realize that “the runner” (178) Levin relies on for access to police reports has been compromised. They were set up with false evidence.

Roulet argues that he didn’t lie; when they showed him the photo of the first knife, he said it wasn’t his, which is true. Mick explodes, angry that Roulet did not tell him he had a knife in his pocket when he went to Reggie’s house. Mick yells that Roulet is clearly guilty, as the cops have his knife, fingerprints, and blood. Roulet continues to insist that he is innocent and was set up. Mick gives Roulet the plea offer from Minton, but Roulet refuses, explaining that he didn’t go to Reggie’s with a knife to commit a crime—he simply forgot that he had the knife on him because he always carries it. Four years ago, Roulet’s mother was attacked and raped in an empty house that she was showing to clients. Roulet is the one who found his mother tied up after the attack; ever since then, he has carried a knife for protection. Mick decides that if Roulet’s mother testifies to this story then they have a chance at winning in trial.