The time may definitely come when you need a lawyer. Until that time comes, you’ll just have to watch them on TV! Okay, okay, watching attorneys on television is no substitute for finding your own local lawyer. Still, there’s no denying that lawyers on television can be highly entertaining. That’s why today we’re looking at some of our favorites.

Who Are Your Favorite TV Lawyers?

Marvel’s Daredevil is hitting the screen again, thanks to Netflix. The television show is about a vigilante by night who happens to be an attorney by day. And that got me thinking: that’s not a really great depiction of a lawyer. Matt Murdock is, if nothing else, quite the ethically challenged attorney. So I started thinking about what might be some of my favorite TV Lawyers.

These are lawyers who exemplify what, you know, good lawyers are supposed to do and how they’re supposed to behave. I will admit that my knowledge of television judicial shows is not encyclopedic. So this list isn’t going to be comprehensive (in fact, if I’ve missed any important lawyers, make sure to note that in the comments).

So let’s take a look at some my personal favorite TV lawyers!

Jack McCoy, Law and Order

All right, we’re going to start this list off right, with Jack McCoy, portrayed by Sam Waterston on Law and Order. I have to admit that I grew up watching Law and Order reruns. It was especially formative in my college years, when it was literally on some channel somewhere at every time of day.

Assistant District Attorney McCoy was an interesting character because he demonstrated simultaneously the two different goals of any prosecutor: justice and victory. You want to win the case. That’s important–that victory. But Jack McCoy never (or almost never) lost sight of the bigger picture, he never lost sight of how important justice was.

It wouldn’t be a TV show if McCoy didn’t go rogue occasionally or bend the rules or whatnot. But his heart was always in the right place.

Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation

Stay with us for a moment here. I told you that my knowledge of TV-show attorneys was not encyclopedic. And it’s not. So here I’m relying on my knowledge of another television genre: science fiction. There are two particular episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which Captain Jean-Luc Picard is forced to act as an attorney (“The Drumhead” and “Measure of a Man”). And they are both classic episodes.

But they’re classic episodes because of how Picard conducts himself: with unfailing honestly and integrity. And he has this fantastic quote: “Your honor, the courtroom is a crucible. In it, we burn away irrelevancies until we are left with a pure product, the truth. For all time.” It’s a heavy quote, when you think about it (and it’s not always true, either–hence, the appeals process).

You definitely get the sense, though, that Picard recognizes just how important courtrooms are, how sacrosanct their duties. In other words, Picard would make one heck of a lawyer.

Alicia Florrick, The Good Wife

Okay, I have to confess, I haven’t watched much The Good Wife. But I’ve heard a lot about it, and many critics and fans alike have praised Julianna Margulies’s performance in the role.

As a defense attorney, Florrick helps innocent people avoid prison. And there’s something incredibly noble about that, especially when one finds meaning in the work. The Good Wife aired for seven seasons, and has been followed up by the CBS All Access series The Good Fight, a spinoff following one of the other characters from the original.

Both shows tend to show women attorneys in challenging situations–and I think that’s laudable.

Lots of Good Lawyers on TV

Ultimately, there are a ton of good attorneys on television these days. And there are plenty of bad ones–or, at least, interesting ones (I’m from Minnesota, that’s what we say instead of “bad). The problem is that good lawyers don’t always make for interesting TV. (You can tell by how popular Saul Goodman of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul fame is.)

That’s okay. The bad lawyers will be there to entertain us. The good lawyers will be there to inspire us.