History Film / MichaelClayton

** One of the top partners of the firm revealing that he has a mental condition by undressing and rambling incoherently during a pretrial testimony is bad enough, but the same partner actively searching for evidence that undermines the position of one of the best clients of his law firm in a multibillion-dollar high-profile case and planning to share it with the opposing party? Arthur has committed the most serious breach of the lawyer-client fiduciary relationship that could arguably be conceived [[note]]Lawyers are allowed to resign or ask the Court's permission to withdraw from a case for reasons of conscience, but they are never entitled to actively subvert their clients' cases under any circumstances <span class="spoiler" title="you can set spoilers visible by default on your profile">(one of the very few exceptions being if their client tries to physically harm them, as Karen discovers at the end)[[/note]]. This is something that would undoubtedly ground a serious malpractice case and immediately destroy the reputation of any law firm, sinking its practice in an heartbeat. Marty has good reasons to be in a panic mode.

** One of the top partners of the firm revealing that he has a mental condition by undressing and rambling incoherently during a pretrial testimony is bad enough, but the same partner actively searching for evidence that undermines the position of one of the best clients of his law firm in a multibillion-dollar high-profile case and planning to share it with the opposing party? Arthur has committed the most serious breach of the lawyer-client fiduciary relationship that could arguably be conceived [[note]]Lawyers are allowed to resign or ask the Court's permission to withdraw from a case for reasons of conscience, but they are never entitled to actively subvert their clients' cases under any circumstances [[spoiler:(one of the very few exceptions being if their client tries to physically harm them, as Karen discovers at the end)]][[/note]]. This is something that would undoubtedly ground a serious malpractice case and immediately destroy the reputation of any law firm, sinking its practice in an heartbeat. Marty has good reasons to be in a panic mode.

---> '''Michael:''' I was good at it!
---> '''Marty:''' So are a lot of people. At this, at what you do, you're ''great.'' For Chrissakes, Michael, you've got something everybody wants: you have a niche.

* MurderIsTheBestSolution: [[spoiler:Crazy lawyer? Sleuthing friend? Best call in a hitman!]]

%%* ObfuscatingInsanity: Arthur.
* OhCrap:
** Karen gets two massive ones in the same scene. [[spoiler:First when Michael - whom she believes is dead - confronts her in the hotel. Then again when she realizes Michael was wearing a wire and just incriminated herself for a long list of crimes.]]

->''"The truth can be adjusted."''
-->-- '''{{Tagline}}'''

It centers on [[ProtagonistTitle Michael Clayton]] (Clooney), a "fixer" -- a person who solves difficult situations by tampering with the legal system -- at the UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity law firm Kenner, Bach, & Ledeen. Clayton finds himself embroiled in a case involving his mentally-unstable colleague, Arthur Edens (Wilkinson), and the agricultural conglomerate his firm is representing in a class-action lawsuit.

* ArcSymbol: Horses.

-->'''Michael Clayton:''' I'm not the enemy.
-->'''Arthur Edens:''' Then who are you?

-->'''Marty Bach:''' You know what? We've got six hundred attorneys in this building. Let's find out which one of them knows the most about psychiatric commitment statutes.
-->'''Michael Clayton:''' I can tell you that right now. It's Arthur.
* TheAtoner: Arthur.

* DefaultToGood: Several examples.

* EngineeredPublicConfession: The film ends with [[spoiler:Michael tricking Karen into doing one of these]].

* HollywoodLaw: The ending is completely dependent on an aversion of this trope in regards to state law. [[spoiler: Michael's recording of his conversation with Karen without her knowledge would be illegal and inadmissible in court in some states but not in a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_call_recording_laws#United_States one-party consent state]] like New York.]]
* HowWeGotHere and InMediasRes: The opening sequence is followed by going back four days earlier.
* IdiotBall: Karen, don't keep in constant communication with U-North about what they're going to do about Michael (namely, offer him $80k and a three-year contract in return for him signing an NDA about everything he knows about the case) so that you can be reassured that he will be silent. Instead, [[spoiler: assume they're going to do nothing and order his death,]] thereby '''really''' getting his attention.

* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Averted, since the main character is a graduate of St. John's University and Fordham Law School.

* LeaveTheCameraRunning: The end credits scene of Michael in the back of a cab.

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: [[spoiler:Well, like a suicide.]]
* MagicRealism: The scene with the horses: it comes [[spoiler:directly from an illustration from Michael's son's fantasy book and it saves Michael from the car bomb.]] [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane Divine intervention?]]
** Mere coincidence. Michael's son Henry is a fan of the book and so is Arthur, who likes Henry and who has late-night phone calls with him. Arthur's bipolar disorder makes him mildly obsessed with the book and his copy of it is heavily highlit and annotated (and is also where he keeps the crucial clue of the copy shop receipt.) Perhaps as a result of this, he uses to Michael the odd phrase ''You think you got the horses for that?'' So, when Michael sees some horses in a field that stand in a way that resembles the illustration in the book, he's struck by the coincidence and gets out of his car.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler: Karen ordered the hit on Michael, because he saw Arthur's incriminating memo. But Michael had already been effectively bribed by his own firm to stay quiet, even being forced to sign a Non-Disclosure agreement. The attempted car bombing ends up giving Michael an escape, as an attempt against his life nullifies the NDA and any duty of confidentiality he may have under the lawyer-client relationship, and gives him the opportunity to bring down both the firm and U-North. Michael pretty much lampshades this for Karen in their final conversation.]]
** Also the above-mentioned hit-and-run driver. Had he stayed at the scene and called the cops immediately, he might've been cleared of any charges in what was genuinely an accident--he wasn't drunk, speeding, etc. Unfortunately, him fleeing the scene and his desperate attempts to cover up his actions all but guarantees he's going to face some kind of punishment.

* OmnidisciplinaryLawyer: Subverted. Michael's specialty at the firm is using his contacts and experience from his past as a prosecutor to mitigate occasional problems with the criminal-justice system for the firm's corporate clients that the other lawyers would be incapable of handling.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Arthur to the fullest.]]

* WhamLine: [[spoiler:Michael, to Karen: "You're so fucked."]]

* OnlySaneMan: Marty Bach is this for the U-North/Law firm side as the only one who truly knows both how important Michael is to the company as their 'fixer', with his partner Barry not fully aware what Michael does and thus suspicious when he makes demadns and Karen Crowder instantly deeming him an unimportant cog [[spoiler:and orders him killed.]]