The Lincoln Lawyer

In his line of work, Mick has learned that almost everyone is guilty of something. However, he does differentiate between innocence and evil. More specifically, he fears not being able to see innocence amidst all the evil he encounters on a daily basis. This is a common fear in his profession: Levin also wonders whether in representing Roulet, Mick “may have found the innocent man” (113); meanwhile, Mick’s own father used to say, “the scariest client a lawyer will ever have is an innocent client. Because if you fuck up and he goes to prison, it’ll scar you for life” (113). His father was right: sending Jesus to prison ends up haunting Mick. But in his obsession with spotting innocence, Mick misses is the importance of looking for evil. Levin and Mick are blind to evil, so they don’t recognize it in Roulet or in Mary Windsor until she is aiming a gun at them.

The police detectives and prosecutors who represent the victims of heinous crimes like rape and murder have a better sense of innocence versus evil. Not only does Maggie represents the innocent, she also has compassion for the corrupt, and can spot evil almost instantly.