Lawyers, Guns and Money: An Occasional Series on Movies, TV and Other Stories About Lawyers and the Law

Michael Clayton (2007, Dir. Tony Gilroy)

When we first meet Michael Clayton, the title character of Tony Gilroy’s sinister and cynical 2007 thriller, he’s standing in the kitchen of a grossly entitled man who has committed a hit-and-run. The perpetrator snivels that Michael’s law firm, Kenner, Bach & Ledeen, has promised a “miracle worker.” Michael, played by a weary George Clooney, stiffens. “I’m not a miracle worker,” he tells the man, “I’m a janitor.” Michael’s days of practicing law are behind him.

Once upon a time he was a prosecutor for the Queens County district attorney’s office. Now he’s a fixer, cleaning up extralegal messes for his firm. “You have a niche,” explains his boss and friend, Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack). These days, however, Michael doesn’t much care for his niche.