One of the throughlines in Netflix’s “The Lincoln Lawyer” examines the ethics of being a defense attorney. In many ways, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo’s Mickey Haller is forced to reckon with where he draws the line when it comes to representing someone who actually did commit a heinous crime.
“Everyone deserves a defense,” he tells his daughter Hayley (Krista Warner) when she asks what he would do if he knew his client was guilty. She doesn’t let that answer fly, and presses him to think about where he would draw the line, if he even would.
For Garcia-Rulfo, the complex debate was one that he struggled to grapple with himself as he took on the role of the charismatic Los Angeles defense attorney who inherits a high-profile case defending a tech mogul who is accused of murdering his wife.