Part of what made it good was that it was set in Pittsburgh rather than New York, the protagonist wasn’t a criminal lawyer, and he was kind of a dick.
Simon Baker played a hotshot corporate lawyer/drug addict who got busted and had to represent poor people in guardianship cases pro bono as community service on the side while working for his father’s firm.
One of his colleagues at his father’s firm was a nice guy, and offered to sue some college lout (IIRC) who insulted a fat admin or paralegal or something in the office.
He digs up some archaic legal principle about how you can’t insult a lady, goes to court and gets shot down. He tries other legal tacks and then fail too.
In the end, he gives up on court, swaps his suit for casual clothes and a disguising ball cap, buttonholes the offender walking out of a building, and decks him.
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Re lawman William Peterson’s ludicrously expensive beachfront house in Manhunter, KMG notes Michael Mann is a stylist who likes large, sunlit spaces.
Mann was apparently self-conscious enough about this that he added a bit of dialogue in Heat where Al Pacino’s character mentions his house came from his wife’s ex-husband.