As “Reasonable Doubt’s” Jax Stewart becomes the newest Black woman lawyer to grace our television screens, TheWrap wanted to take a trip down memory lane by listing the most iconic Black woman TV lawyers our time.
For fans, these roles may just be the characters we show up to watch in our favorite shows weekly, but for the actresses that play them and the writers that write them, their existence has impacted on-screen representation for Black women as well as the careers of Black Hollywood actresses.
That rings true for Kerry Washington’s role in “Scandal.” While we primarily recognize Olivia Pope as a crisis manager in the series, she was a former lawyer who often exhibited those tactics from her legal career. Until Washington signed on for the role — which ABC originally suggested a non-Black actress take — there hadn’t been a drama series with a leading Black woman on TV for 37 years. And it ultimately paved the way for future Black actresses to get their shot.
And on the flip side, Black actresses have pointed out how these roles can sometimes box Black, specifically darker-skinned, actresses in with these type of authoritative positions.
“After a while you get known for your ‘power.’ People see your power, your strength, and they want you to play that all the time,” Erika Alexander told TheWrap while discussing her character Coraline from Cord Jefferson’s Oscar-winning “American Fiction.” “Even with ‘Living Single.’ Maxine Shaw has a certain brilliance to her and strength when she comes into a room. She’s her own force of nature. You can sort of get locked in from there … By the way, I wasn’t the only one. Most dark-skinned Black women play those types of roles. DAs, captains, all that, [we’re] not there to be sort of delicate and drop the groceries and be cute, and have Jeffrey Wright help you pick them up and then drink wine and talk about who you are.”
The complexities of the roles and the Black women who have given themselves to them are why we love them, and why we’ll show up to watch them every time.
Check out our list of the nine most iconic Black woman TV lawyers.
Clair Huxtable — “The Cosby Show” (1984)
Phylicia Rashad starred as the stylish, poised and witty Clair Huxtable in NBC’s hit sitcom “The Cosby Show.” While we never got to see her work her magic in the courtroom, she always laid down the law when it came to wrangling her five children — and her husband, Dr. Cliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby), sometimes — in the household. It’s no wonder she eventually made partner at her New York City firm Bradly, Greentree & Dexter where she practiced as a legal aid attorney. In a 2014 interview, author of the Cosby biography “Cosby: His Life and Times, Mark Whitaker, said that Cosby originally suggested Clair’s character be a Latina plumber or carpenter.
Maxine Felice Shaw — “Living Single” (1993)
Every lawyer has a way with words, but there’s no one topping the sharp-shooting Maxine Felice Shaw (Erika Alexander). She did lose her job working for the large firm Evans & Bell, but she ended up becoming the best public defender in Brooklyn when she pivoted her practice. Fun fact: Alexander said she helped create Maxine’s look. During an interview with “The Breakfast Club,” the actress said she’d just gotten her faux locs right before she auditioned for the part and it ended up working for the character.
Sad fact: When asked if executives “fought” her over the natural, cultural hairstyle, Alexander said no, because the show’s creator and showrunner Yvette Lee Bowser had already “fought” for the character’s existence.
@breakfastclubam Did you know there might have been a world without #MaxineShaw on #LivingSingle?! Listen to hear @erikaalexanderthegreat ♬ original sound – The Breakfast Club
“They asked her to get rid of it. They didn’t want Max, and she said, ‘No, if you get rid of Max, you get rid of me, because I identify most with her. I wanted to be a lawyer.’ She went to Stanford. So she said, ‘OK, I’ll put her across the street,” Alexander explained, saying some execs felt the character was “too Black, too strong.” “They said the character’s too strong … And so that was the compromise. That’s why you always saw her coming across the street. She was supposed to live in the apartment with the girls.”
Bowser spoke on the incident during a 2023 interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“I said to take Maxine Shaw out of the show is to take me out of the show and I’d rather not do the show at all,” the showrunner said. “So I stood my ground and the show wouldn’t be the same without all four of those women and those two guys.”
Rebecca Washington — “The Practice” (1997)
LisaGay Hamilton starred as Rebecca Washington, the receptionist-turned-lawyer who was known for keeping everyone in check in David E. Kelley’s legal drama “The Practice.” While she started off doing administrative duties for the Boston law firm, she began secretly studying for the bar exam and eventually became an attorney.
Joan Carol Clayton — “Girlfriends” (2000)
Tracee Ellis Ross was the hilarious, sometimes a little judgy, but always ambitious attorney Joan Carol Clayton in Mara Brock Akil’s “Girlfriends.” After years of chasing a junior partner position at her firm Goldberg, Swedelson, McDonald, and Lee, she was never promoted and so instead she pivoted into a career as a restaurateur with her colleague William Dent (Reggie Hayes).
Jessica Lourdes Pearson — “Suits” (2011)
Gina Torres plays the tough, no-nonsense cofounder and managing partner of the prestigious law firm Pearson, Specter, Litt, which is based in New York City. The character went on to nab her own spinoff series, but it was short-lived as it was canceled after just one season. Nevertheless, the character will remain in our hearts as one of the sharpest attorneys in the game. And Torres has kept a little bit of Jessica with her in the form of a pair of high fashion shoes.
“I did take one thing from the ‘Suits’ set,” Torres told Entertainment Weekly. “They were a pair of Louboutin heels, and they still have my character’s name labeled on the inside of them.”
Olivia Pope — “Scandal” (2012)
Olivia Pope is likely the most iconic TV attorney/lawyer of this time, and Kerry Washington did one hell of a job playing her in ABC’s “Scandal.” However, the character was formerly a lawyer and served as a crisis manager at her management firm, Olivia Pope & Associates in Washington, D.C. She also assisted the White House communications director. Olivia Pope was known as ambitious and professional, but with a manipulative side.
Beloved by many, Washington never minds giving fans a dose of “Scandal” every now again. She recently showed up at the Democratic National Convention alongside her costar Tony Goldwyn. Fun facts: Olivia is the only character who was in every episode of the series and Gabrielle Union also auditioned for the role. In addition, ABC initially wanted to give the role to Connie Britton, but the show’s creator Shonda Rhimes told executives she crafted Olivia Pope to be a Black woman.
Annalise Keating — “How to Get Away with Murder” (2014)
From her varying looks to that iconic walk that everyone online loves to imitate, Viola Davis’ portrayal of the Annalise Keating in ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder” is truly one for the books. She’s self-sufficient, widely-respected and a little terrifying when she steps into the courtroom. On the outside she seemed to have a perfect life, but behind closed doors she struggled with alcohol addition. Davis said the role helped her develop growth within herself.
“We have to be allowed to have our mess as women. I don’t think that it makes us any less valuable. It makes us very human,” Davis said in a previous interview. “This character has helped me in a lot of ways to tap into those parts of myself … Getting older helps you to say no [too,] it really does. Not to get too morbid or too deep, but, you don’t feel like you have the time for it.”
Molly Carter — “Insecure” (2016)
There’s no better friend than Issa’s homegirl Molly Carter (Yvonne Orji) in Issa Rae’s hit HBO series “Insecure.” She’s funny, smart, the life of the party and very much so about her business, but love life didn’t come easy for her. She also represented on the show as a member of the first historically Black American sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. In the series, Molly works as a corporate lawyer and the character is based on Rae’s real life best friend.
Jax Stewart — “Reasonable Doubt” (2022)
Last but certainly not least is the new attorney on the TV block, Jax Stewart, who is played by Emayatzy Corinealdi. She’s a stunning, confident and intelligent civil and crime defense attorney and partner at her firm Binder, Hurwitz and Stewart. And while some of the decisions she makes in her personal life are questionable, there’s no doubt that she’ll always get the answers she needs in the courtroom. The series was created by former “Scandal” writer Raamla Mohamed, and the character is loosely on the life of real life attorney Shawn Holley, who also serves as a producer on the show.
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