6 Legal Drama Series Better Than The Lincoln Lawyer

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Sasha Alexander as Agent Ruth, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller in episode 410 of The Lincoln Lawyer.

Published Jul 5, 2026, 8:01 PM EDT

Cher Thompson is a Senior Staff Writer at Screen Rant, where she covers everything from explosive reality TV moments to cast interviews about the twists and turns of scripted dramas. With a background in creative writing, marketing, and teaching, Cher knows how to spot both the storytelling genius and the guilty pleasures in pop culture. Her work blends wit with insight, making readers feel like they’re chatting with a friend who just happens to know way too much about TV.

Netflix may have its best legal drama in the streaming platform's history with The Lincoln Lawyer, but there are many other legal shows that outshine the streamer's hit. As one of the best shows on the platform, The Lincoln Lawyer adapts a series of novels by Bosch author Michael Connelly. Following lawyer Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) who often works out of his Lincoln instead of in his office, the series has episodic and serialized elements running through each of its four seasons. While The Lincoln Lawyer season 5 is set to be the show's last, the show's been incredible.

While legal dramas can be tough to make work, the best have a blend of mystery and procedure that allows them to toe the line between being a procedural and a greater mystery show. With The Lincoln Lawyer coming from a well-known book series, the show's ability to adapt the source material is only one of its best aspects. Taking lessons from great legal dramas that came before it, The Lincoln Lawyer has to give credit where it's due when it comes to being so high quality. The show's been preceded by some iconic legal dramas that are even better.

6 How To Get Away With Murder

How To Get Away With Murder, which ran for six seasons from 2014 through 2020, followed the world of criminal defense professor Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) as a group of law students become entangled in investigations and conspiracies that involve her. The show worked both within the courtroom and outside of it, giving it a specific, signature touch from producer Shonda Rhimes. With a personal slant for the characters, How To Get Away With Murder blended legal stories with personal drama throughout its run.

Although the show's consistent blend of personal and professional is similar to The Lincoln Lawyer's, How To Get Away With Murder was an incredibly specific series that had a complicated, ambitious foundation layered beneath its week-to-week stories. While the Netflix series often focuses on a big case each season, How To Get Away With Murder built intricate stories that unfolded through multiple timelines, spanning over seasons. The ABC series was also quick to go into intense legal theory, which went far beyond typical legal procedural storytelling.

Release Date 2014 - 2020-00-00

Showrunner Shonda Rhimes

Directors Shonda Rhimes

Writers Angela Robinson

5 The Practice

bobby donnell (dylan mcdermott) and helen gamble (lara flynn boyle) in court in the practice

A legal drama that aired for eight seasons throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, David E. Kelly's The Practice followed a group of attorneys working at a Boston law firm. With a wide-ranging clientele, the cases on The Practice were never too similar, and offered up an interesting array of stories throughout the show's run. Relying more on moral and ethical dilemmas that lawyers faced than ripped-from-the-headlines cases that felt sensationalized, the series, which starred Dylan McDermott as Bobby Donnell, was grounded.

The realism behind The Practice is what has always made it stand out against the crowd. The show features stories that are deep, refusing to pull its punches or make its audience feel like the show is spoon-feeding them. Tackling difficult legal questions without offering cut and dry, simple answers, the series was able to show its ensemble cast having to compromise for their legal careers. The Practice is a great precursor for The Lincoln Lawyer, as it was wonderful at moving through the morally gray area that attorneys need to feel comfortable with.

Release Date 1997 - 2004-00-00

Dylan McDermott

Bobby Donnell
Kelli Williams

Lindsay Dole
Lara Flynn Boyle

A.D.A. Helen Gamble
Steve Harris

Eugene Young

4 Goliath

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Gabriel Ortega looking angry in Goliath season 2

Goliath, which stars Billy Bob Thronton as Billy McBride, is another David E. Kelly led legal drama that aired for four seasons from 2016 through 2020. The series takes on McBride after his prime, following him after being disgraced for letting a murderer walk free. Throughout the show's run, McBride takes on powerful corporations and influential figures, taking a swing for his clients despite some fairly overwhelming odds against him at every turn.

The series, which features Garcia-Rulfo in a recurring role during the show's second season, is similar to The Lincoln Lawyer in its premise. Both shows focus on a lawyer who has fallen from grace and is trying, sometimes with great difficulty, to claw their way back into favor with the public. Goliath is often a far darker show than The Lincoln Lawyer, though, and its seasonal stories tended to revolve around similar themes without being as character driven as other legal shows.

Release Date 2016 - 2021-00-00

Network Prime Video

Directors Dennie Gordon, Alik Sakharov, Anthony Hemingway, Bill D'Elia

Writers David E. Kelley, Jonathan Shapiro, Andrew Matisziw

Billy Bob Thornton

Billy McBride
Dominic Hoffman

Judge Walter Strauss

3 Suits

Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) smiling at Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) in Suits season 7, episode 16.

A legal drama that follows college dropout Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) as he works with renowned attorney Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), Suits has a fascinating combination of character-driven story and legal drama. Running for nine seasons from 2011 through 2019, the series saw Ross working at a prestigious law firm after flubbing his legal degree, and working with bright minds like paralegal Rachel Zane (Meghan Markle) and legal secretary Donna Paulsen (Sarah Rafferty) while keeping his secret.

While Suits is often remembered for its relationships and dynamics, the series is a legal drama at its core that was able to expertly balance intrigue and legal strategy with long-term character arcs. The series, much like The Lincoln Lawyer, was able to balance these stories and extend the legal pieces of the plot far beyond the individual cases they impacted. Despite being fairly comprable, Suits has a much longer run than The Lincoln Lawyer will wind up with, which made for far more story to be told.

Release Date 2011 - 2019

Network USA Network

Showrunner Aaron Korsh

Directors Anton Cropper, Michael Smith, Christopher Misiano, Kevin Bray, Roger Kumble, Silver Tree, Cherie Nowlan, John Scott, Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams, Emile B. Levisetti, Félix Enríquez Alcalá, Valerie Weiss, James Whitmore Jr., Jennifer Getzinger, Kate Dennis, Terry McDonough, Maurice Marable, Adam Davidson, David Platt, Dennie Gordon, Gregor Jordan, Julian Holmes, Kate Woods

Writers Aaron Korsh, Genevieve Sparling, Daniel Arkin, Ethan Drogin, Sharyn Rothstein, Jon Cowan, Erica Lipez, Justin Peacock, Nora Zuckerman, Lilla Zuckerman, Chris Downey, Garrett Schabb, Kristin Rusk Robinson, Sean Jablonski, Ian Deitchman, Paul Redford, Michael L. Kramer

Gabriel Macht

Harvey Specter

2 The Good Wife

Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies ) on The Good Wife

A CBS series that ran for seven seasons, The Good Wife followed Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) resuming her law career after 13 years, on the heels of her husband's political scandal landing him in prison. As the series moved through its stories, The Good Wife went from being a legal procedural with a phenomenal ensemble cast to being a series that examined the intricacies of politics and law, looking at the way media and power influence cases.

Considered one of the greatest legal dramas of all time, The Good Wife has the reputation it does because it's able to fire on all cylinders season after season. A sophisticated series that didn't hold back for the sake of its viewers understanding, The Good Wife tackled contemporary stories at every turn. While The Lincoln Lawyer does a great job at being consistent and intellectual, The Good Wife was a complex series that earned massive praise throughout its run, even into its spinoff, The Good Fight.

Release Date 2009 - 2016-00-00

Showrunner Robert King

Directors Robert King

Writers Robert King

Julianna Margulies

Diane Lockhart

1 Better Call Saul

As one of the best legal dramas of all time, Better Call Saul aired for six seasons from 2015 through 2022. The series, a companion to Breaking Bad, follows Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) as he transforms into criminal lawyer Saul Goodman. Jimmy, a former con artist, is shown shifting through the series into the character that Breaking Bad viewers recognize him as. While the show is often more of a crime drama than a legal procedural, it incorporates a fair amount of legal storytelling throughout the series' run.

Throughout the run of Better Call Saul, the series was praised heavily for its writing, character development, and attention to detail when it comes to the legal side of the series. Rather than taking things to the courtroom consistently, Better Call Saul explores the law from a variety of perspectives, examining public defenders, corporate attorneys, and solo practitioners. Legal ethics are a major part of the show's story, and while The Lincoln Lawyer has a similar scope, Better Call Saul doesn't focus on solving cases as much as the legal system as a whole.

Release Date 2015 - 2022-00-00

Showrunner Peter Gould

Directors Vince Gilligan, Thomas Schnauz, Peter Gould, Michael Morris, Adam Bernstein, Colin Bucksey, John Shiban, Michelle MacLaren, Daniel Sackheim, Jim McKay, Minkie Spiro, Terry McDonough, Larysa Kondracki, Melissa Bernstein, Gordon Smith, Andrew Stanton, Bronwen Hughes, Giancarlo Esposito, Keith Gordon, Michael Slovis, Nicole Kassell, Norberto Barba, Rhea Seehorn, Scott Winant

Writers Ann Cherkis, Marion Dayre, Ariel Levine, Jonathan Glatzer

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