History Series / HarrysLaw

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: ''Jenna.''

* RevolversAreJustBetter

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Tommy's case in '''And The Band Plays On'''. He keeps suggesting the client to drop the case because he allowed it to happen. The client point blatantly asks him if he would be saying the same thing if the genders were reversed.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: One case involves a woman suing the fast food industry for making her fat. A similar case was brought before a court in recent memory when the episode first aired. Of course RealityEnsues, in that Harry refuses the case because it's stupid, but GloryHound Tommy Jefferson takes the case because he doesn't care about the client or the case, only that he is well known. [[spoiler:Tommy then develops sympathy for the woman and ends up winning the crucial part of the suit not by his typical theatrics, but by good old-fashioned legal ass-kicking (because he cared enough to come CrazyPrepared).]]

* PeaceConference: Harry decides she's going to act as a {{mediator}} between two local gangs. Thanks to her {{Jerkass}} front, they do manage to agree on one thing: she sucks as a mediator.

* PeaceConference: Harry decides she's going to act as a {{mediator}} between two local gangs. Thanks to her JerkassFacade, they do manage to agree on one thing: she sucks as a mediator.

A LawProcedural starring Kathy Bates by Creator/DavidEKelley.

* OnceAnEpisode: Jenna storming into storage, and slamming the door (sometimes twice or more!).

* DrivenToSuicide: A girl is charged with murder for doing this to another girl in "Queen of Snark". The girl killed herself because of things the defendant wrote on her blog. The defendant is ultimately acquitted because the jury doesn't consider her actions to be the direct cause of the victim's death. (In LaymansTerms, killing herself was ultimately the victim's choice, so the defendant isn't criminally responsible.)
* {{Expy}}: Tommy Jefferson of [[Series/BostonLegal Denny Crane]].
** Heck, the entire ''series'' seems to be a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Series/BostonLegal'', with Harry taking the place of Alan Shore. Both shows are Creator/DavidEKelley productions.

* HiddenDepths: Despite Tommy's brash nature, he actually used to be really nervous in court. The only reason he acts the way he does now is to get people (namely jurors) to like him.
** This show loves this trope. Damien seems like a thug at first, but he really just wants to protect people. Jenna acts like a bubbly ditz because that was how she dealt with being molested, and now she feels a responsibility to everyone to keep it up even when it's driving her nuts. Rachael seems like a controlling ex at first, but her actions turn out to be out of love and concern and intimacy. Puck is actually a caring and sensitive, very sad person just trying to do right in the world. Even the street gang stepped up to the plate to offer organ donations for the ex-gang member.

* KnightTemplar: DA Josh Peyton is a non-evil example. Always goes for the maximum penalty, seems to totally scorn plea bargaining and doesn't seem to know the meaning of the terms "extenuating circumstances" or "reasonable doubt"

* OnlySaneEmployee: Tommy's secretary Ivy.
** Harry herself, when compared to DoggedNiceGuy and TroubledButCute Marcus, KnightTemplar Damien, Adam, who always brings his personal problems to work, and ManicPixieDreamGirl Jenna.
* OpenHeartDentistry: Harry is the legal equivalent. As a patent lawyer she is in a very specialized subfield of law (which barely exists in Cincinnati) that requires a technical degree to practice as well as a law degree. Furthermore it's so specialized that basic skills in criminal law are non-existent. It's one thing to go to doing civil suits for the poor, it's another to suddenly start doing criminal law after an entire career of career of civil cases that average 5 years on each...

* PutOnABus: [[spoiler: Jenna]] and [[spoiler: Malcolm]]. Given the new direction of the show, they are likely on a LongBusTrip.

* ReTool: Mostly, the 'street level' approach was jettisoned when season two began, and it went from helping the people the big lawyers pass over to being more of a standard law show. Much of the season one cast goes away, with the standard-law-show type characters who were their nemeses becoming the supporting cast (yes, Tommy Jefferson was a "bad guy" at first.) and the shoe store is traded for a big pretty office. Seasons one and two may as well be two different shows.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: One case involved a woman suing the fast food industry for making her fat. A similar case was brought before a court in recent memory.
** Of course RealityEnsues in that Harry refuses the case because it's stupid but GloryHound Tommy Jefferson takes the case because he doesn't care about the client or the case only that he is well known.
*** [[spoiler: Subverted in that Tommy develops sympathy for the woman and ends up winning the crucial part of the suit not by his typical theatrics, but by good old-fashioned legal ass-kicking (because he cared enough to come CrazyPrepared).]]
* StepfordSmiler: [[spoiler: Jenna, in a way. When she had an encounter with her CreepyUncle, she retreated into a fantasy world where everything was happy and perfect. She never really came out.]]

** Heck, the entire ''series'' seems to be a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Series/BostonLegal'', with Harry taking the place of Alan Shore. Both shows are DavidEKelley productions.

A LawProcedural starring Kathy Bates by DavidEKelley.

* [[OnceAnEpisode (At Least) Once An Episode:]] Jenna storming into storage, and slamming the door.

* GenreSavvy: Harry herself, but especially Tommy Jefferson. He doesn't just know courtroom theatrics -- he also knows the inherent advantages and disadvantages of intangibles like what his client looks like to the media and the court, and how to capitalize on them fully. Other characters find it annoying, but as he shows, it's effective.
** When he squares off against Adam upon his introduction, Tommy warns him: [[spoiler: "Listen. A lot of people have written me off as a loudmouthed buffoon in the courtroom. And a lot of people have paid for it."]]

* WhatTheHellHero: In one episode, Harry's firm ends up indirectly defending China's one child policy. For one thing, the situation leading to the court case is non-sensical. More importantly, seriously?! You're defending a policy imposing massive cultural distortions, forced abortions, abortion or abandonment for millions (possibly even hundreds of millions) of infant girls? Apparently, to a radical liberal, the phrase "reproductive rights" exclusively means the right *not* to reproduce. Actually wanting to have children is evidence of some kind of perversion.

* InherentInTheSystem: The entire point of the series seems to be to shine a light on everything that's broken in American society, though there is a clear liberal viewpoint being expressed.

** Well we do live in a world where some particularly militant child-free by choice people call parents "breeders" and children "crotch droppings." So that viewpoint is, unfortunately, a very real one that some people have. Whoever wrote that episode just might be one of them.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/harryslaw_2055.jpg

* {{Expy}}: Tommy Jefferson of [[BostonLegal Denny Crane]].
** Heck, the entire ''series'' seems to be a SpiritualSuccessor to ''BostonLegal'', with Harry taking the place of Alan Shore. Both shows are DavidEKelley productions.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Never released on DVD at the moment after NBC cancelled it.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Despite decent ratings, NBC canceled the series, because it was apparently pulling in the demographics the network didn't want.

* ActorAllusion: In the first season finale, Josh Peyton (played by [=Paul McCrane=]) sings the song "Is It Okay If I Call You Mine?" at a lawyer gala. The song was written and performed by [=McCrane=] originally in ''Film/{{Fame}}''.