"Why did I become a lawyer in the first place...? Because someone has to look out for the people who have no one on their side."
— Phoenix Wright, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
The Crusading Lawyer is sympathetic to your problems and will help you, though they may need some prodding or screentime before taking your case. Whether suing a MegaCorp because they poisoned the water supply or defending a client's innocence in a murder trial, that's the lawyer you want. Money will be a decidedly secondary worry for this type, and if you can't afford a crusader's services, there is always pro bono work* In some cases, a Crusading Lawyer becomes a prosecutor who takes on the most hopeless cases so that justice can be served and will never forget that they serve the people, the law, and the victim. Defense attorney examples are also common.
In legal dramas, The Protagonist usually fits this trope if he's a Hero Protagonist (a Villain Protagonist may be crusading for another cause and be opposed by a Hero Antagonist who more closely fits this trope). If you're in a Crapsack World or the protagonist is an Anti-Hero, they may have started as a Crusading Lawyer before turning into the Well-Intentioned Extremist version of an Amoral Attorney. If a Crusading Lawyer lives in a Crapsack World but continues to live up to this trope, expect them to have at least become a Knight in Sour Armor. If the character happens to be "quirky" as well as a competent lawyer, you have a (literal) Bunny-Ears Lawyer. The two tropes aren't mutually exclusive, and a Bunny-Ears Lawyer may turn out to be a Crusading Lawyer despite using Unconventional Courtroom Tactics. If the crusader loses and goes beyond the bounds of the law, they've crossed the line and become a version of the Well-Intentioned Extremist. This can be permanent, a form of Character Development (particularly when done in reverse), or temporary.
Contrast this trope with other lawyers who are Only in It for the Money. These kinds don't care who you are or what they are represent at court as long as the bill gets paid. You can also contrast with amoral attorneys who will do anything to win, regardless of the broader impact and with no concern for what's "right."
Compare to Good Lawyers, Good Clients. A Crusading Lawyer can appear outside of criminal cases — civil litigation is hugely expensive, so the crusader may decide to fight for a nobody in a police brutality case. In criminal law, crusaders may defend the obviously guilty to uphold the right to a fair trial, if the letters of the law do not fully suit the situation, or because of broader issues related to the case. Depending on where the work in question falls on the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism, it's possible to see two crusaders in head-to-head battle.
No Real Life Examples, Please!
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Case Closed: Ran's mother Eri Kisaki is a lawyer and, when she's actually shown at her work, she has strong traces of this. i.e., a filler case has her defending a guy who's been accused of murder because she's sure that not only he isn't the culprit, but because she believes he's Taking the Heat. She's right.
- Monster (2004): Fritz Verdemann is devoted to defending people he believes to be innocent, due to his conviction that his father was wrongly accused of being a communist spy. Hired by sympathetic former patients, he ends up defending the neurosurgeon Dr. Kenzo Tenma, who is accused of crimes he didn't actually commit and is hunting for the true perpetrator.
Comic Books
- Animal Man: The alternate future miniseries The Last Days of Animal Man shows Buddy Baker's son Cliff growing up to become a lawyer who is so passionate about providing legal council for those who need it that he barely has time for his personal life.
- Batman: Harvey Dent was a District Attorney in Gotham City and ally of Batman before a Gangster throws acid in his face and he becomes Two Face.
- HARD Time... has Julius and Truth Rosenberg, a pair of these portrayed in a bad light — as the Distant Finale reveals, they were only interested in Ethan's hot-button case as a way to grab headlines. The second they thought associating with Ethan might reflect badly on them, they abandoned him. Ethan never heard from them again, and ended up serving his full 50-year sentence.
- The latest, pre-New 52 incarnation of Manhunter (No, not the green one) shows one of the more extreme versions of this trope, as she is a prosecutor willing to bring criminals justice as vigilante if it isn't found in court.
- From the Marvel Universe, Matt Murdock and She-Hulk both bring the same sense of work ethics and morality into their day-job as they do the courtroom. And as hard as it is to believe, given how much the good guys seem to love fighting each other in comics, it took until 2014 before the two opposed each other on opposite sides in a case.
Fan Works
- Better Bones AU: Lizardstripe is an example in the afterlife due to participating in Judgment Of The Dead, managing to get her friend Bluestar into StarClan while making her enemy Thistleclaw and his supporters look horrible in the process.
- Mortified: Advocates are an interesting case, in that most of them are this not due to any innate sense of justice but rather because their Obsessions are related to arguing and winning cases. As such, most firms don't really charge anything for their services, instead offering them for free for the sake of more exposure and thus chances for more cases.
- Turnabout Communication: Athena Cykes (who is already on her way to become an example in canon), shows her credentials as this when she decides to lead Hitohito Tadano's defense personally, simply because he helped her find her lost badge and because she can hear the distress in his heart.
Films — Animated
- When superheroes were started to be sued and banned by the government in The Incredibles 1, daytime-lawyer/nighttime-hero Gazerbeam fought as hard as he could for the rights of his masked compatriots.
Films — Live-Action
- James Donovan in Bridge of Spies becomes this, taking the case of accused Soviet spy Rudolf Abel because he believes even those working against the United States deserve protection under the Constitution.
- Ari Josephson in The Chase (1994) was this for Jack Hammond pre-film, though he failed at it (the one crucial piece of evidence for his defense was disallowed). He tries to talk Jack out of running but is unsuccessful. By the end of the movie, he's rooting for Jack to get away.
- John Travolta's character Jan Schlichtmann in A Civil Action was this type of lawyer. He ended up going bankrupt because of his dedication to the cause.
- The kung-fu film Dragons Forever has its protagonist Jackie (played by Jackie Chan, no less!) who is originally hired by an evil industrialist to steal the rights of a fishing village, but ultimately ends up helping the village folk.
- Father of the Bride (2022): Billy is appalled that his daughter Sofia and her soon-to-be-husband Adan want to move to Mexico to work for a nonprofit helping immigrants at the border when they could get any job they wanted as NYU Law grads. He sees it as a downgrade to their comfortable lives in America and the gains that Billy's generation has made. Adan clarifies that Sofia wanted to do it because she had Immigrant Parents.
- Craig, from the film In This Our Life, doesn't make much money with his law firm, but he's willing to help his clients whenever he can even if they don't have to money to pay him. He even rejects Uncle Fitzroy's offer to help with the legal side of his business (something that would bring him a lot of money) because he disagrees with Fitzroy's practices. He even gives Parry Clay, the Timberlake's African American helper, a job as a clerk because he wants to become a lawyer (this being the 1940s, it was a rare and very progressive gesture.)
- Fred Gailey in Miracle on 34th Street (renamed Bill Schaffner in the 1973 version and Bryan Bedford in 1994 one) is this; after his law firm tells him to drop the case in fear of bad publicity, Gailey quits, claiming he'll start his own simply to help guys like Kris.
- In Spotlight, Mitchell Garabedian is the only lawyer in Boston who will bring cases of sex abuse against the Catholic Church in court rather than settling them quietly.
- In Town Without Pity, Major Steve Garrett regards his clients as reprehensible human beings and even describes them as "stupid, savage and sick". However, he believes that everyone deserves a fair trial and that it is his job to provide them with the best defense possible, regardless of his personal feelings. Knowing that an acquittal is extremely unlikely, he does everything in his power to get the death penalty taken off the table.
- Trapped: The Alex Cooper Story: One of these, Paul C. Burke, gets teenage lesbian Alex free of the Simms (who run a brutal conversion therapy camp) and her fundamentalist parents (who sent her there) in the end. He has since become a part of Alex's extended family.
- The Turning Point (1952): John Conroy wants to use his position as prosecutor to eliminate corruption in his city.
- In Victim (1961), Mel morphs into one after the death of Barrett.
Literature
- 2666: Klaus’s lawyer. The fact that they're sleeping together gives her an incentive.
- Behind the Sandrat Hoax: R.J. Rocklash and J. Harrington Savage sue Bancroff for pettily trying to prevent Cathcart from receiving an award after it's proven that eating sandrats prevents dehydration. They also file a class-action suit on behalf of the families of 162 people who died of thirst in various deserts after Bancroff's media campaign falsely claims that eating sandrats increases the chances of dying of thirst.
- Ben Safford Mysteries: The Attending Physician features two such lawyers.
- Murder victim Sidney Karras initially seems like an Ambulance Chaser out to cash in on a Medicaid scandal using stolen documents to make his case. However,r it turns out that Karras had nothing to do with the theft and has dedicated his decades-long career to social justice issues and helping low-income clients who can't pay him much. The lawsuit which costs him his life is driven by a desire to help a young mother whose husband has multiple sclerosis.
- Michael Isham is from a bigger, more successful firm, but he is motivated by a genuine desire to help his client (a blind man on welfare) get his life in order, and he also ends up representing Karras's client after his death.
- Allan Vaughan Elston:
- In Hit the Saddle, Linda Warren is a passionate and loophole-seizing courtroom advocate known for getting the innocent acquitted and the guilty to show genuine contrition and get good deals for it (with Slowly Slipping Into Evil reluctant outlaw Red Costain becoming a pilar of the community after serving a shorter sentence she got him). She maintains this zeal for justice outside the courtroom and is introduced ridding into the middle of some cowboy bullies attacking Craig Harlan to drive them off with a quiet and warn them she will tell their boss what they did.
- Ricardo Gonzalez in Arizona Skyline takes in two cases: too clear a Wrongfully Accused killer and to prove a young woman rightfully owns a mine, and does both jobs for little money despite not being able to afford a secretary, quickly and correctly guessing who the real killer is for the first case and refusing to be deterred or turn a blind eye in the other matter.
- The Fragility of Bodies: Federico is a lawyer who fully supports Verónica's work as an Intrepid Reporter, doing constant legal favors for her not only due to their romantic connection, but over a mutual desire to see justice done.
- Let Me Call You Sweetheart features two notable examples:
- Kerry McGrath, a prosecutor and aspiring judge who believes strongly in getting justice for victims and their loved ones, and refuses to accept job offers from law firms even though they pay better because she's more interested in justice.
- Geoff Dorso, a defence lawyer who feels compelled to advocate for people affected by mitigating circumstances, or who he believes to be innocent.
- Mickey Haller:
- Margareth McPherson a.k.a. Maggie McFierce is a prosecutor who is more interested in justice than in winning cases.
- Her ex-husband, Mickey himself, fits the trope in a roundabout fashion. He spends the majority of his career as a criminal defense attorney, and his clients are usually guilty of something, if not necessarily the crime they're accused of. While he isn't above hunting for lucrative cases and cashing in on publicity his usual clientele comes from the lower echelons of society and he views himself as standing up for the little guy against a large, unwieldy, and often flawed judicial system.
- Might as Well Be Dead: Peter's lawyer Albert Freyer is a determined and intelligent advocate for his innocent client even though Peter doesn't have enough money to adequately pay him.
- Rage of Angels: The protagonist, Jennifer Parker, is passionate about the law and dedicated to giving all of her clients a fair trial, and truly cares for each one she takes on. She runs into the risks of instead turning into an Amoral Attorney, however, when she ends up defending members of the mafia.
- To Kill a Mockingbird: Atticus Finch didn't want the case but works to the best of his abilities anyhow, being dedicated to justice.
- In the X-Wing Series we have Nawara Ven. While a Pilot for Rogue Squadron he was originally a lawyer defending non-humans in the very humanocentric Galactic Empire. Later he defends one Squadron mate who is accused of killing another.
"You would have hated me if you were trying to make a case against one of my clients - whether he was lying about his innocence or not."
Live-Action TV
- Ally McBeal and John Cage are also often emphatic about their clients' troubles and determined to help.
- Laurel Lance from Arrow works for a legal aid office and seems to take great delight in taking on cases where people have been abused by the system.
Laurel: If we can't win a class-action suit against a man who swindled hundreds of people out of their homes and life savings, then we're not fit to call ourselves a legal aid office.
- In the first episode of Blake's 7 the titular Blake has this kind of lawyer as representation, who got executed for his troubles.
- In Boston Legal, most lawyers at Crane, Pool & Schmidt, given the right case. Especially Alan Shore (after some Character Development), who is always willing to stand onto his soapbox for the underdog, bends this and Amoral Attorney together into a nice pretzel.
- Burden of Truth: Joanna becomes this after quitting her job with a huge corporate law firm that represented corporations being sued, taking up the claims of the weak and vulnerable instead.
- The Closer has Peter Goldman, Brenda Johnson's attorney in the Turrell Baylor lawsuit. At first, he won't work without pay but in the end, he is willing to work pro bono (and publicity).
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend:
- Given that the protagonist is a lawyer, many of the lawyers at her firm are neutral-leaning-towards-amoral. The truest example is Paula, who becomes a lawyer after starting as a paralegal. She pushes her firm to open a pro bono arm where she helps underprivileged people.
- Played for Laughs in "Don't Be A Lawyer". Jim sings about how law in general is a terrible profession and says that lawyers in "crusading" positions like environmental, human rights, or immigration law make no money.
Jim: Plus, [immigration law]'s a bummer.
- In Daredevil (2015), being this trope is a prerequisite to working at Nelson & Murdock. Matt Murdock lives his double life as a lawyer and as a vigilante with the interest of making Hell's Kitchen a better place. And even though she's just a secretary, Karen Page's investigating and exposing Wilson Fisk through the law and the press drives the plot just as much, if not more, than Matt's work.
- For Life: Aaron is dead-set on winning his exoneration, helping fellow prisoners then people in general he feels were screwed by the system, and removing corrupt attorney Glen Maskins, the man who prosecuted him.
- Both the prosecution and defence in For the People often see themselves as fighting for justice, though Sandra takes the cake as she gets very emotionally invested in defending the downtrodden.
- Usually averted in The Good Wife, where Amoral Attorney is usually the norm (in the sense that they try to provide the best possible defense for their clients regardless of guilt or innocence, not that they're necessarily corrupt). There are exceptions, though:
- One episode has a case nearly go constitutional when a businessman client of protagonist Alicia Florrick tries to claim Spousal Privilege on his husband, colliding with the Defense of Marriage Act. This attracts the attention of a noted constitutional law attorney who is on a mission to get DOMA struck down, an approach Lockhart & Gardner disagrees with on ethical grounds: they could hope for a conviction to be overturned on appeal under equal protection grounds, but at present, their job is to defend their client as best they can. Ultimately their client is acquitted.
- Alicia manages to significantly irritate a judge while working as a bar attorney by simply acting in accordance with her professional ethics, i.e. trying to provide each of her dozens of petty crime clients individually with the best representation she can, which slows down the court proceedings.
- One episode has a case nearly go constitutional when a businessman client of protagonist Alicia Florrick tries to claim Spousal Privilege on his husband, colliding with the Defense of Marriage Act
- In How I Met Your Mother, we have Marshall Eriksen, a man who seems completely devoted to the idea of saving the planet by becoming an environmental lawyer... Some day. This extends to the point that, as stated by Future!Ted in narration, he succeeds.
- JAG veers into this sometimes, as they go to some lengths to win their cases, like firing a submachine gun in the courtroom.
- Judge John Deed: The title character himself, who very much believes in doing what is right, and refuses to be influenced by the government and big business.
- Pretty much every lawyer on L.A. Law is this, but particularly Michael Kuzak. Harry Hamlin even said that his character ofttimes reminded him of Crusader Rabbit.
- The Law According to Lidia Poët: Lidia, and Enrico to a lesser extent, are absolutely dedicated to helping clients in spite of all obstacles. Fourneau, the prosecutor who they face, truly tries to serve justice, having a friendly relationship with them, even sometimes working beside Lidia to solve cases.
- Law & Order has its share. A lot of them tend more towards the morally gray area of this trope, skirting into Knight Templar or Amoral Attorney territory sometimes.
- Jack McCoy is probably the most prominent of them, with his methods letting him skirt into Amoral Attorney territory occasionally.
- Alex Cabot from SVU is also willing to interpret the law somewhat creatively in order to bring justice.
- Also from SVU: Casey Novak slips off the slippery slope in her crusade against a child-raping police officer and violating due process, ending with her getting censured and losing her license for 3 years (getting disbarred before a Retcon). There was also a famous incident where she subpoenaed the US Secretary of Defense.
- Also from SVU is Kim Greylek, who had the in-universe nickname "Crusader" while working at the Department of Justice. However, this (at least during her tenure at SVU) turned out to be more of an Informed Attribute.
- Rafael Barba is this as well, though much more pragmatic than any of his predecessors.
- On the defending side we have Danielle Melnick, whose belief in the right to have counsel goes to the point where she (a Jewish woman) defends a neo-Nazi in court.
- See also Shambala Green.
- Like Melnick, Barry Moredock of SVU defends the worst of human scum (unapologetic rapists, Neo-Nazis, etc) whose opinions he absolutely loathes because he's is a Constitutionalist who believes that everyone is entitled to a competent defense — and if he has to defend human scum to make sure the Constitution isn't trampled on, well, then, he'll defend them. He doesn't have to like them.
- Who can we get on the case? We need Perry Mason, who takes on hopeless cases and fights until victory.
- Shore was first a character on The Practice, off of which Boston Legal was spun off. The firm of Donnell, Young, et al tended toward fighting for the little guy, sometimes with questionable methods, and even more often methods that get them yelled at. Shore, introduced in the final season, is more of an Amoral Attorney in context, but even with him it's more a matter of method, as deep down he cares as well.
- Prison Break: Veronica Donovan is a real-estate lawyer by training, but when no one else will defend her Wrongfully Accused childhood friend Lincoln in a capital case, Veronica steps up, risking her livelihood and her life to try to frame the conspiracy that framed Lincoln.
- One Samuel T. Cogley, introduced in the Star Trek: the Original Series episode "Court Martial". Had a reputation even amongst his fellow lawyers for being able to save anyone under prosecution. Though he did need some help in defending Kirk, Cogley fought hard for his client. At the end of the episode, Kirk was informed that Cogley would be defending Ben Finney (the man who had framed Kirk for being responsible for his supposed death), and was confident he could get an acquittal for him as well.
Tabletop Games
- In Nomine: Koriel, the Angel of Equal Justice, has dedicated herself to defending those who, by virtue of poor means, unpopularity, or bad luck, would not be given fair hearings in courts of law. Notable here is the weight that Words carry in the setting and for the celestials that bear them — when Koriel took on the Word of Equal Justice, defending the unwanted and unpopular from unfair treatment ceased to simply be what she did and became her core purpose for being. She is often the last hope of outcast angels seeking to return to Heaven, and her superior Dominic, the Archangel of Judgement, has taken to calling her the Devil's Advocate — which he means very literally. She serves as an important NPC ally in The Final Trumpet, where she's the only major figure in Heaven willing to defend the outcast archangel Khalid or the disgraced Malakite Maximillian — and, if the PCs were exiled at the end of the previous adventure, she's also their best chance of getting back into Heaven.
Video Games
- Aviary Attorney's Jayjay Falcon works out to be this in all but one ending. The player can choose repeatedly to have him want to abandon a case when it gets dangerous or refuse one, But Thou Must!. Aside from those moments, he tries to be entirely valorous, especially in 4C (Fraternité). His rival Severin Cocorico is a lot less friendly and rarely sympathetic, and used to be an Amoral Attorney, but now pursues justice, not punishment.
- The female protagonist of Fallout 4 is shown in deleted material (which can be brought back by mods) to have a streak of this, getting ready to defend a client that she knows is innocent of what he's being accused of.
- Takayuki Yagami of Judgment as well as its sequel used to be a defense attorney until a defendant of his that he got off of a murder case ended up getting caught for killing his girlfriend, disgracing him and causing him to switch careers to that of a private detective. Despite this, he still maintains a strong sense of justice and during the climax of his games will don his suit and enter the court to make sure the guilty pay.
- Paper Perjury: Although Ferris doesn't specialize in criminal cases, she provides legal representation to several people who can't afford a private lawyer or want someone they know and trust to handle their defense. Most of those people aren't worthy of her unyielding faith in them, but Ferris wouldn't be one of the city's most powerful real estate magnates if she let failure get her down for long.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney:
- Phoenix Wright might be one of the best examples of this trope. Yes, he is the universe's Butt-Monkey, and his methods may sometimes be unorthodox, but he will fight for a client he knows is innocent no matter the odds, and he will make sure that the guilty pay for what they did.
- Phoenix's successors, Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes, follow the same path.
- His mentor, Mia Fey, might even be more of a crusader than Phoenix. In what little time we see her alive, we find that she dedicated her career to taking down villains such as Dahlia Hawthorne and Redd White. The latter of these led to her death, but even after she dies, she repeatedly comes back to help Phoenix and co. by temporarily inhabiting the bodies of her spirit medium family members Maya and Pearl. Even death itself does not stop Mia Fey from taking down evil.
- Apollo's foster father, Dhurke Sahdmadhi, was the exact same as Mia. Even down to outwitting "death itself".
- Miles Edgeworth used to be a smug, ruthless prosecutor, but by the time the first game ends, he's able to truly look inside himself now that the DL-6 case has been laid to rest and his father's killer has been brought to justice; he leaves for a year to find himself, and by the time he comes back, he's undergone some deep Character Development and resolved to become the prosecutor version of this. His two spinoff games show how far he's come, both as a prosecutor and a human being, revolving around him solving cases outside the courtroom and learning what it means to always seek the truth. Post-Character Development, he sees himself as a sort of partner to Phoenix; he wants the guilty to be punished, Phoenix wants the innocent acquitted, so there's no real contradiction; if they both do their jobs well, then they can ensure justice works for everyone.
- Miles's late father, Gregory Edgeworth, is yet another example, a defense attorney committed to getting the innocent acquitted and making sure no one twists the truth, refusing to tolerate any foul play during investigations and trials. As seen in, the second Investigations game, he was able to expose a forced confession and forged evidence during Samson Tangaroa's trial, and would have appealed for a retrial on these grounds if not for his untimely murder.
- Morgan, the playable protagonist of of the Devil, is a complicated case. She's a full-time criminal defense attorney who completely throws herself into every case she works, but it's clear that her motive is less any desire for (or belief in) justice and more that she's a sadistic Troll with an anti-authority streak who enjoys trying to get one over on the state. She does, however, show a much more crusader-y streak in Episode 1, in which she goes against absolutely everyone in her society to defend a young android woman due to seeing a lot of herself in the girl and wanting to know the truth about what happened to the victim, an old friend.
Webcomics
- Darths & Droids: Late in the story, Pete's Hidden Depths are revealed to be that he's a defense attorney who cares deeply about making sure every client gets their constitutional right to a fair trial.
Pete: The state is trying to lock someone in a cage against their will. It has huge resources at its disposal. The defendant has me. The state doesn't get to lock up citizens if it can't establish guilt within the law. I'm there to make sure the rules are followed.
- Celia from The Order of the Stick is technically still at law school, but shows hallmarks that this will be the kind of lawyer she'll be.
- Laurel Olsen from Rhapsodies is a quixotic idealist and believer in "legislation through litigation". She's toned it down a bit since the free legal clinic she was working out of got its funding cut and she found a more stable position.
Web Novel
- Can You Spare a Quarter?: Timothy is willing to do his lawyer job for Graham and Jamie without expecting payment, having been moved by the sight of the scars on Jamie's back.
Web Video
- Economy Watch: Matthew Stratton is hired to get David's apartment back in one of the Season 2 episodes, and has no problem with helping David with his case.
Western Animation
- Back and forth on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. While the firm Harvey works for, Sebben & Sebben, is constantly engaged in criminal behavior, a lot of it not even attorney-related, Harvey himself seems to believe in his clients. Notably in one episode when he defended a plastic surgeon for a botched Botox injection, Harvey feels so bad for the plaintiff Droopy that he leaves all his money on Droopy's front door.
- Todd McFarlane's Spawn: Deconstruction. Wanda Blake's presented with a case with fraudulent evidence against a client for the murder of several children and finds out the evidence was falsified by Jason Wynn and others like a US Senator to cover up the fact the Senator's serial-killing pedophile son Billy Kincaid was responsible to help the Senator's presidential campaign. Even when Wanda has enough evidence to vindicate her client she still digs deeper to find out all the ones responsible despite warnings from others to stop while she's ahead, which gets her daughter, husband, and herself attacked by Wynn and his associates to silence them and they would have been most certainly killed if not for Spawn's intervention.
