Characters / Better Call Saul: Lawyers

Main Character Index | Breaking Bad
Lawyers (Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman, Kim Wexler, Chuck McGill), Law Enforcement, Juarez Cartel, Los Pollos Hermanos, Omaha, Petty Criminals, Other Characters

Wexler McGill / Saul Goodman & Associates

Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman

See his page.

Kim Wexler

See her page.

Francesca Liddy

Francesca Liddy

"And who is this 'Saul Goodman'? You?"

Portrayed By: Tina Parker

Appearances: Breaking Bad | Better Call Saul

"I was thinking of going over to Cracker Barrel, because they've got such great air-conditioning."

Jimmy and Kim's new secretary after they start their own firm.

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• Break the Cutie: Immediately starts breaking bad when Jimmy forces her to make a fake phone call to a retirement home, as best shown when she coldly rejects Jimmy's demand to clean up after an unruly client.
• Call-Forward: She'd previously appeared in Breaking Bad, still Jimmy's secretary in his new life as Saul.
• Dramatic Irony: Her pleasant, warm personality and friendly relationship with Jimmy is a far cry from the Francesca we'll come to know in Breaking Bad, in which she's bitter, apathetic, opportunistic and makes no secret of her dislike for Saul.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: As Jimmy slides into cynicism in his transformation into Saul, his behaviour and that of his clients have the same effect on Francesca.
• Small Role, Big Impact: During her last phone call with Gene, she mentions to him that she spoke with Kim Wexler briefly. This information sets off a chain of events that lead to Gene/Saul/Jimmy's arrest, as well as Kim's confession of her and Jimmy's actions toward Howard, in itself leading to Jimmy in jail, but with Kim in his life and more hopeful than he's been in years.

Viola Goto

Viola Goto

Portrayed By: Keiko Agena

A paralegal that Kim hires after her car accident.

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• Beleaguered Assistant: Kim tasks her with doing jobs that aren't in her job description, like driving her (Kim) around town.

Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill

HHM is a prominent Albuquerque law firm.

Chuck McGill

See his page.

Howard Hamlin

Howard G. Hamlin

Portrayed By: Patrick Fabian

Appearances: Better Call Saul

"You've mistaken my kindness for weakness. I’d like to think that tonight made a difference. I’d like to think that this ends it... Probably not."

"Want to know what I believe? I believe that you're way out of your depth in this matter. So the next time that you want to come in here and tell me what I'm doing wrong, you are welcome to keep it to yourself. Because I don't care."

Howard Hamlin is a name partner toeing the company line for hugely successful Albuquerque law firm Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill. Howard is one of life’s effortless winners, his position as the unyielding avatar of the legal establishment attracting respect and hostility from everyone in his field. Despite his cold exterior, Howard does have a soft spot for hard workers and people trying to better themselves... as long as they don't tarnish the firm with his name on it.

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• The Ace: Part of the reason why Jimmy hated him in Season 1 before the big reveal was due to his belief that Howard's wild success is one that he doesn't really deserve. He's not entirely wrong: Big Pappa Hamlin did pull strings to get his little boy to be the perfect partner for the firm... but, Howard may well not have as much joy out of the whole package as Jimmy originally assumed, given he was most likely railroaded into it.
• Alliterative Name: Howard Hamlin
• Amoral Attorney: Jimmy believes that Howard is willing to do anything to prevent Chuck from exercising his right to sell his share of the firm. Jimmy is also convinced that Howard has a personal grudge against Jimmy and repeatedly goes out of his way to hold him back. In reality, Howard may be quite a bit of a jerk, but he's only actually doing Chuck's bidding in holding Jimmy back. By the end of the series Howard is the only main character to have ethically practiced law.
• Anguished Outburst: Howard's final conversation with Jimmy and Kim is him throwing off any of his tolerance and affability he had and drunkenly ranting at the two for ruining his life. In addition to anger and disappointment, it's clear that he is also sad and broken, especially when he outlines that Kim is worse than Jimmy in that regard...
  Howard: You two are soulless. Jimmy, you can't help yourself. Chuck knew it. You were born that way. But you? [to Kim] One of the smartest and most promising human beings I've ever known... and this is the life you choose.
• Arch-Enemy: Jimmy despises him and is convinced that a personal vendetta between the two of them is the source of most of Jimmy's problems. In reality, it's Chuck who is pulling Howard's strings. Howard admits at the end of Season 1 that he's actually fond of Jimmy and helps him land an interview for a good job. At least until the commercial fiasco and Mesa Verde forgery. He becomes this for Kim and Jimmy for Season 6.
• Armor-Piercing Response: To Kim in Season 5, "You know who really knew Jimmy? Chuck.".
• The Atoner: Is fully aware of how much Bystander Syndrome he had with Chuck constantly hurting Jimmy, and makes various attempts to shield Jimmy from Chuck’s wrath. Of course by season six he’s had enough and decides Chuck was right and Jimmy’s just doomed, but he still tries a “you never hit Chuck, hit me instead.”
• Bait the Dog: After telling Kim a sincere story about his Control Freak father and adding on a "good luck", he attempts to steal Mesa Verde as soon as she's out the door.
• Barefoot Suicide: His death is staged as a suicide by drowning in the ocean, with his shoes planted on the beach to make it look like he took them off before entering the water.
• Bearer of Bad News: He's rather anxious about having to tell Chuck about Jimmy being at Davis and Main, and how he didn't get in the way of that happening.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Howard lets Chuck get away with so much shit because he feels indebted to this Parental Substitute, and is forced to realize that Chuck will use that feeling to control him and treat him like the Fall Guy.
• Being Good Sucks: Howard's not the most lovable guy around, but he does seem to keep quiet and take the heat for Chuck's keeping Jimmy out of HHM at least in part out of consideration for Jimmy's feelings. Even if it leads to Jimmy antagonizing him at every turn, he never really lets it get to him given the circumstances. When he helps Jimmy get a job at Davis & Main, Jimmy screws it up almost immediately, making HHM and Howard look bad professionally. He repeatedly and subtly tries to get Chuck to see that Jimmy isn't the all-mighty, corrupting Svengali-on-legs he likes to think of him as. Howard's not as insistent as he could be, however: and, Chuck isn't about to start listening, anyway. This means he repeatedly gets to see Chuck try to undermine his brother (and Kim) and gets caught up in it, even though he'd probably rather not be.
  • His gesture of good faith (a bottle of Macallan and a warning) to Jimmy and Kim after they destroy his career is rewarded with a bullet to the head from Lalo Salamanca.
• Benevolent Boss: Not always, but the best example would be when he willingly puts himself into debt to buy out Chuck, in order to force him to leave and save HHM's employees.
• Beneath the Mask: Howard has a very cultivated, calculated persona in professional environments that can come across as nearly robotic at times. Patrick Fabian imagines that Howard's interest in sports like swimming and biking (which is shown in the photos of him at his memorial) is largely because he doesn't have to interact with anyone in this manner and just has to pay attention to the activity. It's only really after season three when we start to see glimpses of him without this persona and how he acts in private, first when he's in the throes of guilt and depression following Chuck's suicide, and then when he appears to have returned to a fairly mentally healthy state by the later seasons. While he comes across as more likable when not in his work persona, there's still a level of presentation in how he speaks, if his strained interaction with his wife and inebriated confrontation between Jimmy and Kim are anything to go by.
• Berserk Button:
  • Impugning the firm's (and by extension, Howard's) reputation. He lets Kim knows how mad he is wine and dining all his clients for damage control after the whole chicanery with Chuck's trial and send her to the cornfield when she can't keep the Kettleman in the firm despite her best effort.
  • He does not like being questioned about his decisions, particularly not by those that aren't senior partners as the top quote illustrate. He also gives Kim the silent treatment when Chuck brings her back from the cornfield after he sent her there, feeling like she went over his head when as partners there shouldn't be someone above.
• The Beautiful Elite: Is an upper-class Sharp-Dressed Man who is classically handsome and noted as such by several characters.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Howard may have been affable and even tried to give Jimmy chances in becoming a better person, but once pushed enough, he invites Jimmy to have a boxing match against him. It really doesn't go so well for Jimmy, though Jimmy does land some hits Howard even lampshades the situation, thinking that Jimmy has "consistently mistaken his kindness for weakness".
• Big Brother Worship: Unlike Jimmy, he’s not actually Chuck’s sibling. But he looks up to Chuck like a parent or a big brother, got demeaned and used by him, and while he better dealt with his feelings through therapy, he still carried the guy to his grave (they even play Chuck’s theme when he’s buried), terrified that Chuck wouldn’t approve of whatever he’s doing.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: An inversion, as it turns out Chuck is the real one. But then played straight when Kim leaves the firm and tries to take Mesa Verde with her; Howard subtly manoeuvrers Chuck into doing everything possible to retain them. In his defense, it is his job to retain big clients by any (legal) means necessary, and Kim did bring them on board while working for the firm.
• Blaming the Victim: In season three, he tells Chuck to stop fixating on his brother "because Jimmy's not worth it". Slightly justified, as Howard at this point still wants to believe Chuck is a Knight in Shining Armor, and if Chuck is hurting Jimmy, then he'd have to reckon with the awful way he’s been treated too. By season six he's decided Chuck was right and Jimmy was doomed from birth, but that's seen as an understandable if wrong reaction to getting Jimmy's brother issues dumped on him for two and a half seasons.
• Broken Ace: As of Season 4, the death of Chuck and his belief that it was his fault seems to be taking a serious toll on Howard. HHM is on hard times and he himself is a nervous wreck, plagued by insomnia and seeing his therapist twice a week Season 6 reveals that his marriage to wife Cheryl has also been on the rocks for some time.
• Boom, Headshot!: Courtesy of Lalo.
• Bourgeois Bohemian :
  • Aspires to be humble and zen but gets everything amusingly wrong. He has a depiction of the Buddha in his office—in the form of an expensive-looking original artwork. He orders plain, simple, healthy meals—as a regular customer of one of Albuquerque's most expensive restaurants. Best of all, he has a Vanity License Plate which reads "NAMAST3"... on his Jaguar XJ8.
  • It is hinted that his new-found kind and forgiving attitude towards Jimmy in season 5 is insincere, and may be motivated more by guilt, or by the suggestion of his therapist. In any case, that hug looks extremely awkward.
• Butt-Monkey: From Season 2 onwards, Howard has to endure, in order:
  • Jimmy tricks Chuck into making a clerical error that costs Howard's firm a major client, Mesa Verde.
  • Howard is humiliated at Jimmy's bar hearing when Chuck's electromagnetic sensitivity is publicly revealed to be a mental illness.
  • Howard's firm is being slapped with a rate hike by their malpractice insurer when they learn that Chuck, with his untreated mental issues, is practicing law.
  • Chuck threatening to sue Howard when he suggests retiring from the firm to appease their insurer, which necessitates Howard being forced to buy Chuck out of his own pocket in order to save the firm. In large part because of this, Chuck commits suicide.
  • Howard blames himself for Chuck's death and baring his soul to Jimmy and Kim, who ends up throwing the guilt back in his face. He begins suffering from insomnia as the firm struggles to pay off Chuck's estate and is forced to lay off staffers.
  • After stabilizing the firm, Howard gives a sincere job offer to Jimmy (by now practicing as Saul Goodman), only for Jimmy to subject him to a series of humiliating pranks in response, first by throwing bowling balls at his car, then sending prostitutes to approach him during a business lunch with Cliff Main, and going on an over-the-top tirade at him in the courthouse. Then when Howard tells Kim about Jimmy's actions in a condescending tone and states that he thinks Chuck knew him best, Kim laughs in his face and resolves to destroy Howard's career via the Sandpiper case.
  • Jimmy and Kim proceed to subject Howard to a series of frameups that leave Cliff with the impression that Howard is a drug addict. The scheme culminates in them engineering an incident where Howard has a public meltdown during a mediation session in the Sandpiper lawsuit that all but ruins his reputation. And Howard can't even get through his "Reason You Suck" Speech to Jimmy and Kim afterward before he is unceremoniously shot in the head by Lalo in Kim's living room.
  • Even in death the guy can't catch a break, being buried in a meth lab next to the man who killed him. To add insult to injury, his death is staged by Mike as a suicide that will publicly confirm Jimmy and Kim's untrue depiction of him as a cocaine addict.
• Cain and Abel: The Abel to Jimmy's Cain. Gould compared both of them to being like Chuck's sons, who shifted them into that dynamic, and Jimmy ends up tormenting Howard (along with Kim, who has her own issues) resulting in Hamlin's death.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': For the most part, Howard repeatedly tries to steer Chuck away from his vendetta against Jimmy. However, the one time he attempts to use it to his advantage for the sake of the firm keeping Mesa Verde, it backfires massively.
• Cassandra Truth: He is, of course, telling the truth: the whole incident at the mediation — everything from the fake photos to the condition of Howard's eyes to the sudden disappearance of his private detective — has indeed been engineered by Jimmy. But thanks to Howard's agitated behavior, it comes across as nothing more than paranoid conspiracy theories to Cliff, Schweikart, and everyone else in the room.
• Character Development: Howard goes through quite a lot despite Commuting on a Bus. He starts off as a slightly smug lackey of Chuck who isn't necessarily a bad guy, but he is something of a condescending doink. As seasons 1-3 progress, he gradually becomes disillusioned with Chuck, eventually standing up to him and ultimately ending their professional relationship and friendship. He then spends much of Season 4 in a haze of intense depression, having been humbled and ripped apart with needless guilt, but with therapy, he comes back in Season 5 stronger than ever. He shows himself to be more sincere, is standing on his own without Chuck, and no longer blames himself for Chuck's death. Comments that would have destroyed him previously roll off him, as do Jimmy's horrible pranks. By season six, there are hints of Howard eventually becoming somewhat vindictive towards Jimmy as he exasperatedly attempts to deal with Jimmy and Kim damaging his reputation and career.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: He often wears blue articles of clothing, particularly after he learns how to deal with his grief from Chuck's death at the end of season three.
• Commuting on a Bus: Though he remains a series regular, his role in seasons 4 and 5 is essentially this. He's noticeably the only main cast character whose personal life we never see outside of work, at least not until near the midway point of season 6.
• Conflict Ball: His habit of antagonizing a couple who respond vindictively (Jimmy and Kim) leads to his own demise and their respective starts of darkness.
• Conspicuous Consumption: His expensive suits certainly send out a message, as do his classic Jag, Big Fancy House, and taste for fine single-malt Scotch^note a bottle of 35-year-old Macallan would set you back a five-figure sum- and that's if you can even find one for sale. It certainly doesn't go unnoticed by Jimmy:
  Jimmy McGill: (to Chuck)"She worked her butt off to get Mesa Verde while you and Howard sat around sipping scotch and chortling!"
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Hank Schrader:
  • Both are antagonists towards their respective Villain Protagonists; however, Hank is a straight Hero Antagonist, while Howard is more of a Villainy-Free Villain due to going along with Chuck's schemes. Additionally, Hank takes on the chase for Heisenberg willingly, while Howard is only acting on Chuck's behalf and gets dragged into the resulting feud against his will.
  • Hank is a highly respected DEA agent who rises through the ranks of his agency due to his skill and work ethic. Howard is already at the top of his field as a senior partner of a successful law firm, is a highly respected lawyer, and is an expert in client management, but it's indicated that he's largely as successful as he is due to his father's influence.
  • Both of their rivalries with Walt/Jimmy are based on deception; Walt keeps his double life as Heisenberg a secret from Hank, while Howard hides Chuck's true hatred of Jimmy to direct the latter's ire onto him.
  • Both have a partner in their profession that they've worked with for years. Howard has Chuck, but their relationship degrades over the show before Chuck kills himself. Hank has Steve Gomez, and their friendship remains so tight that Gomez goes rogue with him in the Heisenberg investigation, which causes them to die together.
  • Both of them struggle with mental illnesses due to the events of their shows; Hank suffers from PTSD from killing Tuco, while Howard suffers from depression due to his role in Chuck's suicide.
  • Both of them recognize how intelligent their opponents are, but while Hank despises Heisenberg even before learning his identity, Howard still respects Jimmy as a person and even helps him land another job.
  • Hank is Happily Married to Marie, while Howard's marriage is so broken that he's sleeping in another part of the house.
  • Both are ultimately shot in the head by villains that they didn't know existed and wouldn't have encountered if it weren't for Jimmy/Walt, both of whom are shocked by their deaths; they're also both Killed Mid-Sentence. However, while Hank ultimately knew the risks of his profession, refuses to beg, and faces his death with dignity, Howard has no idea what he's stumbled in on until it's too late and is killed while trying to reason with Lalo for his life.
  • Both of their deaths ruin the lives of Jimmy and Walt respectively, but in different ways - Hank's death soon becomes public knowledge and leads to Walt's identity as Heisenberg being exposed, while Howard's death being covered up as a suicide is what drives Kim away from Jimmy, cementing the latter's turn into Saul Goodman and thus his eventual exile to Omaha.
  • Hank is fairly remembered postmortem as a hero who died taking down a powerful drug dealer, while Howard is falsely remembered as a disgraced drug addict thanks to Jimmy and Kim's scheme.
  • Both men are buried in places undisclosed to their loved ones, but while the location of Hank's body is revealed by Walt to Skylar and this allows him to have a proper burial, Howard's body isn't discovered by the end of Better Call Saul, most likely never will be, and thus Cheryl presumably never gets full closure even after learning the truth about his death. They're also both buried alongside someone else, but while Hank is buried with his partner, Howard lies eternally next to his killer.
  • While Hank came from a regular background and worked his way up to his job as a DEA Agent on his own, Howard came from a very privileged background and, as much as he may not want to admit it, got his role at the firm partially due to his father. And while Hank had a fairly normal higher education in contrast to Walt having attended the more prestigous Caltech, Howard is all but stated to have attended an impressive law school while Jimmy went to a correspondence school while working in the mailroom.
  • Their aesthetics and lifestyles are also polar opposites, both to one another and their main rivals. Hank is a regular kind of guy with a comfortably middle-class lifestyle in sharp contrast to the more refined Walt, who is a highly skilled scientist and has an immense secret fortune, while Howard is very wealthy and loves showing it off with his nice car and taste in expensive clothing in contrast to Jimmy who struggles with money at the start of the series. And while Hank is very physically capable due to his line of work and more than able to handle himself against the criminal element he encounters and was involved with the cartels and dealers on a daily basis, Howard is very much a Non-Action Guy whose only direct and unintentional encounter with the world of the drug cartel ends in his death.
• Create Your Own Villain: Whereas Chuck does this to Jimmy, Howard does this to Kim, primarily through his actions toward her in Season 2. He demotes her to document review because of Jimmy's actions in producing and airing a TV commercial without permission, leaves her there even after she brings in Mesa Verde as a client, and when Chuck goes over his head to re-instate her to her previous position, Howard flatly tells her not to plan on ever advancing beyond that position. This ends up driving her out of the company, and his general attitude of smug condescension over the next few seasons — combined with her blaming him for Chuck's death — results in her being determined to utterly ruin him by the end of Season 5 (by contrast, Jimmy's content to just troll him and do whatever it takes to speed up the resolution of the Sandpiper Crossing case).
• Cruel to Be Kind: He repeatedly dashes Jimmy's hopes of ever being a part of HHM because he doesn't want Jimmy to know it's really his brother who doesn't want him there.
• Daddy Issues: His father was controlling, getting Howard to join HHM instead of letting his son go his own way like he wanted, and then he looks up to Chuck and does whatever he thinks that man would want. Even after Chuck’s death he's still torturing himself trying to live up to his expectations.
• The Dandy: Very much so. He very rarely appears without a perfectly tailored suit and a few flashy accessories.
• Dead Sparks: Howard and his wife Cheryl are evidently no longer in love but are not separated, and Howard claims that Cheryl refuses to discuss divorce or try to salvage the relationship. Instead, they just continue to go through the motions as a couple, sharing purely functional conversation and appearing at social events together when they both deem it appropriate.
• Death by Origin Story: He's shot dead by Lalo for being at the wrong place at the wrong time during his drunken rant against Kim and Jimmy. His tragic death ends up traumatizing both Kim and Jimmy, indirectly leading to Jimmy's final transformation into the amoral Saul Goodman.
• Death Glare:
  • Gives an epic one to Chuck after he declares, "I'm not CRAZY!".
  • Blink and you'll miss it, but after not allowing Jimmy in at HHM during "Pimento", he gives a tired, annoyed side-eye when Chuck plays the supportive older brother.
• A Death in the Limelight: "Plan and Execution" is probably the most Howard-heavy episode of the series. It ends with him getting murdered.
• Demoted to Extra: In Season 4 and 5, although he still gets main cast billing. The few scenes that he does have in these seasons are almost always very memorable, however. Averted in Season 6, where he once again becomes a prominent character.
• Despair Event Horizon: Averted, surprisingly enough. Despite his reputation and career getting ruined almost beyond repair by Jimmy and Kim in "Plan and Execution", he remains absolutely resolute, completely assured that he will get past through his current situation and make sure that those two will be exposed for what they have done. His confidence and belief after all he's been put through is so strong and clear to see that one can honestly believe his words. Too bad Lalo chose to appear there and then...
• Desperately Craves Affection: He tries little loving things to help his marriage that Cheryl never notices, and Chuck was a parental figure, so even after his suicide, Howard is constantly afraid he's disappointing him.
• Desecrating the Dead: Howard's Undignified Death gets worse in 'Point and Shoot'. His reputation is irrevocably trashed as a man who got addicted to cocaine, cheated on his wife with prostitutes, messed up his career and then committed suicide because it's a story that's convenient for everyone else. Then he's buried in an amateur unmarked grave, which he's forced to share with his killer because digging two graves would be too much trouble for Mike.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • When steering Chuck into taking back the partners from Kim, he evidently didn't foresee that Jimmy would be reckless enough in his revenge against Chuck regarding the forgery scheme. He most certainly never imagined that Chuck would be so cruel as to threaten the firm itself, either.
  • He clearly didn't foresee Lalo Salamanca coming to Jimmy and Kim's house, which results in his death. To be fair, neither did Jimmy and Kim.
• Dies Wide Open: After being shot by Lalo, we see Howard's lifeless body with his eyes open and his mouth ajar from having been killed mid-sentence.
  Patrick Fabian: Some advice for my fellow actors on playing a corpse: If possible, die with your mouth and eyes closed. You'll thank me for this.
• Disney Owns This Trope: Rightfully points out that Jimmy's new brand infringes his practice's trademarks due to matching many elements very closely, but still gets in on this trope through their legal use of "Hamlindigo Blue". You can almost hear the "registered trademark" afterward.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Is both the giver and recipient of this trope:
  • He holds Kim totally responsible for Jimmy's commercial screw-up and basically refuses to trust her at all anymore because of this. When Chuck asks that she be brought back to the forefront, Howard refuses to talk to her — at first.
  • Kim and Jimmy in season six start a harassment campaign towards him in which he is railroaded as a coke head, has his car stolen by Jimmy, and is drugged without his knowledge or consent by the pair. It's heavily implied that Kim is so insistent on doing this to Howard because of a deep-seeded resentment of him she's developed over the series.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • Chuck treats Howard rather poorly, dragging him kicking and screaming into his feud with Jimmy and disregarding Howard's concerns with thinly-veiled condescension. But after Chuck threatens to sue HHM, Howard goes the extra mile to call his bluff and sends his ass packing, taking the opportunity to humiliate him by having the entire office applaud his 'retirement' while he’s at it.
  • After repeatedly having to deal with Jimmy's harassment in seasons five and six, he challenges him to a boxing match that he easily wins and delivers a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech to him and Kim after all the humiliation they've caused him.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Downplayed. Howard's implied to still hold feelings for Cheryl in his appointment with his therapist, making a visibly pained expression as he describes their relationship as "deadlocked." He attempts to repair his relationship to her but is rebuffed in a scene where he makes a latte for her with a peace sign drawn on its surface. His facial expressions during this strained interaction (which he makes specifically when he knows she's not looking at him) indicate he's hurt by her cold demeanor and apparent disinterest.
• Driven to Suicide: Averted. Howard's murder is staged as a suicide due to his alleged drug problem and personal life.
• Drowning My Sorrows: He's heavily drunk when he meets Jimmy and Kim for the last time. It's because of just how much damage the two of them had done to him on a mental and emotional level throughout the show and figuring out that Kim is complacent with Jimmy's scams, he decides to tell them exactly what he thinks of them, with his drunk nature having a large influence on his anger.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: He is deeply hurt that after years of working together and being a loyal partner to Chuck, Chuck would rather treat Howard like a disloyal upstart and threaten to destroy HHM if he does not get his way. Howard feels that he deserves Chuck's respect and instead Chuck treats him like an unruly child that needs to be put in his place. Prior to this, Howard also fully supported Jimmy at HHM but acquiesced to Chuck's veto. When Chuck's revealed to be behind Jimmy's failed attempt to hire on at HHM, Howard points out that he always liked Jimmy.
• Dying Curse: Much like Nacho to Hector a few episodes ago, he tells Jimmy and Kim that their lives won't be okay after this. He's more correct than he knows. Jimmy ends up a paranoid meek colorless man in Omaha before eventually being caught and sentenced to 86 years in prison, while Kim ends up with a decent but horrifically mundane life, wracked with guilt over her involvement in Howard's death, and later confessing her crimes to Cheryl, who is heavily implied to make sure Kim will suffer through all of it.
• Everyone Has Standards: Wrongly believing that Jimmy and Kim are the ones in danger from Lalo rather than himself, he attempts to de-escalate the situation with his last words, and there seems to be some genuine concern in his voice when he asks "What's this about?" (as well as his glance at them when he realizes Lalo has a gun). He wanted them to pay for what they'd done, but he didn't want to see them hurt or killed.
• Exact Words: "The partners have decided."
• Exiled to the Couch: The degree to which Howard's marriage to Cheryl Hamlin has deteriorated by season 6. He actually sleeps in a guest bedroom separate from the main part of the house.
• The Face: It is strongly implied that Howard is not a skilled litigator and would never have been made a name partner of a law firm if it wasn't for his father's nepotism. His main role at HHM is client development, which generally involves him wearing expensive suits and charming potential clients over expensive lunches — or, in the Sandpiper cases, soothing his senior citizen clients' concerns over the lengthy legal process. Jimmy curtly tells him to use this when HHM threatens to go under:
  Jimmy McGill: You're a shitty lawyer, Howard, but you're a great salesman. So get out there and sell.
  Howard Hamlin: Fuck you, Jimmy!
• Fall Guy: For Chuck in season one, as he has to play the bad guy in not wanting Jimmy to use his own name or be at HHM, while Chuck plays the comforting brother.
• Foil:
  • To Chuck.
    • Chuck is idealistic, eloquent, and soft-spoken. He is also a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. Howard, on the other hand, is smug, superior, and egotistical. However, he makes it clear that everything he does, he does it for the sake of the firm. He doesn't keep Jimmy out of his law firm out of some idealistic belief or the fear that such a hire might be construed as nepotism like Chuck — he merely follows Chuck's direction, since he views Chuck's loyalty and friendship as paramount.
    • Chuck is a brilliant man and a talented lawyer but seriously lacking in charm and social skills. Howard is less talented as a litigator but charming and confident with a knack for wooing new clients.
    • Chuck pretends to be on Jimmy's side whilst secretly sabotaging him professionally. Howard makes no such pretenses, but actually does seem to want Jimmy to succeed.
    • His treatment of Kim in Season 2 further underlines his difference with Chuck. Not only does he make his contempt painfully obvious to people who he thinks have wronged him, he actually has a professional reason to do so (Kim is the one who talked him into recommending Jimmy to Davis & Main, and so Jimmy's conduct reflects badly on Howard). Contrast this to Chuck, who prefers to slowly poison the career of those who he thinks have crossed him, and whose reasons for doing so are mostly personal.
    • Unlike Chuck in "Pimento", who has to be cornered to say his true feelings, Howard has no problem telling Jimmy to his face exactly what he thinks.
    • For all Chuck's bluster at protecting HHM, Howard's the one who puts himself on the line for the firm, taking out loans and paying out of his own pocket to buy out Chuck's share. At the first hint that Howard disagrees with him, however, Chuck attempts to force himself on the firm, even if it leads to crippling insurance hikes.
    • Both of them die when they're at their most demoralized, with Jimmy unwillingly having played a part in some way. Chuck committed suicide out of madness born from a combination of factors, including his mental sickness, being fired by Howard, and being defeated by Jimmy in a proper trial. Howard is killed by Lalo very suddenly when the latter shows up in the middle of Howard chewing out Jimmy and Kim, becoming collateral damage as far as Lalo was concerned.
    • A version of Chuck's theme also plays while Howard is being lowered into the grave underneath the superlab.
  • To Jimmy McGill:
    • Jimmy and Howard are of a similar age and both look up to Chuck as an older brother and as an older colleague and mentor, respectively. The difference is that Chuck actually respects Howard and his abilities as a lawyer, while he refuses to see Jimmy as anything more than a "chimp with a machine gun" and repeatedly sabotaged his chances as a lawyer.
    • Howard is very well off financially at least until he has to put himself in debt to make Chuck leave HHM and has a wealthy background, while Jimmy's very much in dire straits at the beginning of the series and has to struggle repeatedly to earn enough money.
    • Both Jimmy and Howard have a flair for eye-catching clothing, but while Jimmy is a Fashion-Victim Villain who prefers loud, tacky, and cheap-looking suits and ties, Howard is a Sharp-Dressed Man prone to overdressing and Conspicuous Consumption.
    • Howard is significantly more emotionally honest with himself and introspective, and seeks therapy to cope with Chuck's suicide, while Jimmy sees it as a waste of time, and suppresses his emotions in any way he can as a coping mechanism to the point of becoming Saul Goodman.
    • Jimmy and Howard both function as the performer to Chuck as the technician at times, being more personable and sociable than the latter. However, Jimmy comes across as more genuine and likable while Howard can seem nearly robotic in his interactions with people. Ironically Howard is, for the most part, genuinely confident in himself in all the ways Jimmy isn't. It's implied that Howard's not a particularly talented lawyer but is "a great salesman", while Jimmy's shown to be very competent and knowledgeable in law despite his underhandedness.
    • Jimmy uses increasingly shadier and more underhanded tactics as he further embraces the Saul Goodman persona, and was never entirely above manipulating people to get what he wants even early into the series. Howard, meanwhile, never even gets close to considering such tactics and strongly adheres to legal means of adapting to and overcoming situations. He even rents a boxing ring to challenge Jimmy to a fight so he can, as Jimmy states, "beat the shit out of him legally".
    • Both men are married, but while Jimmy and Kim have a warm and lovingly sexually active (albeit somewhat toxic) relationship, Howard and Cheryl have an icy and strained relationship and only go through the motions of presenting themselves as a couple when necessary and despite Howard's attempts at improving the relationship.
• Gaslighting: Is the recipient of this several times in the series by Jimmy and Kim.
  • In season five, Jimmy denies the harassment he's subjected Howard to and calls him "unhinged" for correctly suspecting Jimmy.
  • Cliff Main incorrectly believes Howard is gaslighting him about his supposed coke and hooker problem due to his experiences with his son having a drug problem, unaware that this was entirely engineered by Jimmy and Kim to damage Howard's reputation.
  • When Howard confronts them after the mediation, Jimmy and Kim of course deny orchestrating a plot to humiliate him and behave like he's unjustifiably angry at them. Howard doesn't buy this for a second, and understandably calls them a pair of sociopaths afterward.
• Gilded Cage:
  • HHM itself. While Howard is professionally successful and fabulously wealthy, it is implied that his talents don't really lie in the law and that he may have drifted into the family line. He didn't even have the freedom to start his own firm, as his father insisted on him forming HHM with him.
  • Howard may own a Big Fancy House, but within its walls, he is living an Awful Wedded Life. The house has two separate wings- in which he and Cheryl live two separate lives.
• Gone Horribly Wrong:
  • Howard wanted to retain Mesa Verde and used Chuck's vendetta against Jimmy to help him do it. It results in Jimmy defrauding his firm, and leads to the professional and mental collapse (and eventual suicide) of his law partner.
  • He wanted to give Jimmy a second chance at his firm. This results in Jimmy and Kim targeting him for petty revenge, resulting in his defamation and his death at the hands of Lalo.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Subverted. While it took him a bit to wrap his head around it, Howard quite brutally and accurately summarizes exactly why Jimmy and Kim went out of their way to ruin his reputation. They might deny it and try to justify what they've done to themselves, but the audience knows that Howard is speaking nothing but facts.
  Howard: I thought you did it for the money, but now it's so clear: screw the money, you did it for fun. You get off on it. Your like, Leopold and Loeb, two sociopaths!
  Jimmy: Okay, that's enough!
  Howard: Ah you know its true, you just don't have the guts to admit it.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Howard has light blonde hair, and is revealed to be the most moral of the series' main characters and actively tries to improve himself by the latter half of the story.
• The Heart: Howard is easily the most moral member of the cast and as such serves as the moral center of the legal side of the story, with even his only "bad" acts (lying to Jimmy on Chuck's behalf and sending Kim to the cornfield) being done to protect Jimmy's feelings as well as his firm. Once Kim decides to ruin his life for a petty slight, it becomes clear that both she and Jimmy are crossing the line of no return, and the scheme getting Howard killed ruins both of their lives for good.
• He Knows Too Much: He just so happened to be at the very worst place at the worst time when Lalo comes to pay Saul and Kim a visit. Howard is met with a bullet to the head for this as Lalo wants to make sure no one knows about his affiliation with Saul and Kim.
• Hero Antagonist: He is opposed to Jimmy, and the trope is played straighter than with Chuck. Most of Howard's actions are for business and what any reasonable lawyer would do in his situation.
  • In Season 1, Jimmy is actually the one antagonizing him and Howard simply responds in kind. All of Jimmy's assumptions about Howard (blocking Jimmy's career and taking advantage of Chuck's condition) are also untrue.
  • In Seasons 2 to 3, he works with his partner Chuck to try to maintain Mesa Verde as a client, and helps Chuck try to disbar Jimmy when he actually commits a crime (breaking and entering and destruction of property). When Chuck turns on Howard and tries to force the buyout of his shares to bankrupt the firm, Howard chooses to go into debt to protect the firm and it's employees. Once Chuck is pushed out of HHM, Howard stops antagonizing Jimmy and Kim and tries to bury any hostilities, though both reject him.
  • In Season 6, Jimmy and Kim target Howard's reputation by framing him as a drug addict to his colleagues. Howard only hires a private investigator (and challenges Jimmy to a boxing match, which he was allowed to walk away from) after he discovers this harassment campaign. Even after Jimmy and Kim outwit him and do permanent damage to his reputation, he only comes to their apartment to chastise them. There is no threat of doing anything illegal or violent, and in his last moments, even tries to defuse tensions with Lalo before being killed.
• Hidden Depths: Turns out, Howard is pretty athletic. He's a very good boxer (which has some real-life basis, as boxing is a popular sport for people in white-collar jobs who need to relieve stress) and knocks Jimmy on his ass in the ring, and the pictures at his funeral reveal that he was also a recreational triathlete (with those pictures coming from Patrick Fabian's Instagram account). Patrick imagines that Howard took up swimming and cycling because they're exercises that don't require him to interact with people and put on his work persona.
• Hookers and Blow: Jimmy and Kim attempt to frame him as a user of both. It’s not remotely true, but it works anyway.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: His final appearance highlights this in a somber and depressing tone, with Howard having lost his prestigious reputation and positive connections with his fellow co-workers. Even worse, his fall from grace ends with him getting unceremoniously killed off whilst in the middle of a drunken rage against Saul and Kim for conspiring to ruin his life.
• Hypocrite: The flaw in the solid argument that Jimmy couldn't be hired due to nepotism is that Hamlin was dragged by his father into the firm, which gives precedent and shows that Chuck was the one forcing his hand. Notably, when Kim calls him on this during Jimmy's disbarment hearing, Howard looks genuinely impressed with her for pointing it out, indicating that he realizes the issue with the argument as well.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: After the jab at his nepotism argument Howard is ready to comment on how he recommended Jimmy to Cliff and Main which Kim wisely declines. Howard was hired into the firm because of his dad but he took the responsibilities seriously. Jimmy, for his part, didn't last a month before ruining all the goodwill his references gave him.
• Innocent Bystander: Despite being a major character for the entire show up until his last appearance, Howard's death is as sudden and anticlimactic as it is a bleak display of how he was collateral damage to Lalo's scheme and battle against Gus Fring.
• Innocently Insensitive: His incredibly privileged and sheltered upbringing has left him unable to relate to those less fortunate than himself, and he genuinely can't understand why the struggling likes of Kim and Jimmy often find his words so insulting.
  • He considers his pet name for Jimmy, "Charlie Hustle" a compliment and can't see why Jimmy finds it so belittling to be referred to as essentially a scrappier, dodgier version of his honest and successful older brother.
  • When Kim lays onto him how humiliating Chuck's will is to Jimmy and asking if Howard discussed his "theories" with Rebecca as well, Howard genuinely looks shocked at the implications of Kim's rant.
  • When he asks Kim if her decision to quit Schweikart and Cokely was influenced by Jimmy she asks him "Do you have any idea how insulting that is?". He genuinely doesn't.
• The Insomniac: Begins to suffer from insomnia along with depression after Chuck's suicide.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When Kim grills him on the stand and demonstrates that it's true that Chuck didn't want to hire Jimmy for reasons personal to him, Howard counters that he did consider hiring Jimmy, and even after Chuck vetoed it, he helped get Jimmy a great job that he quickly screwed up. Kim backtracks as she realizes that this statement is true and not helping her case.
  • He's 100% correct in realizing that Jimmy is just trying to get the Sandpiper case settled quickly because all he cares about is his own payday since Jimmy later resorts to petty manipulation and dirty tactics to trick the Sandpiper residents into settling as soon as possible. It doesn't help that at the time he was also busy trying to deal with Chuck's threats of legal action.
  • He's absolutely right when he surmises that Jimmy's harassment of him in season five is largely due to the latter's inability to deal with his emotions over Chuck's death, and he's right to tell Kim that she should be concerned about the behavior Jimmy's exhibiting.
  • Howard's final moments have him tell off Jimmy and Kim for trying to ruin his life, saying they did it for nothing but kicks and saying they're both terrible and perfect for each other. It's brutal, but both of them know it's also completely accurate and both eventually confess with no self-justification. Howard might be wrong about them being sociopaths, but he’s got every right to feel like that at this point.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In the first couple of seasons, he is a Mean Boss to Kim, frequently butts heads with Jimmy, and seems more interested in his firm's future than Chuck's rights. The reality is a bit more complicated. His Pet the Dog moment in the Season 1 finale also shows that some of his actions thus far had not been of his own choosing and that he's actually more sympathetic to Jimmy than he'd seemed. The heart of gold is shown again when he wipes Kim's scholarship debt in a Pet the Dog moment. It's demonstrated further in the careful, sympathetic way he treats both Jimmy and Kim in the wake of Chuck's death.
• Kick the Dog:
  • He crushes Jimmy's hopes of becoming successful by bringing the Kettlemans back into the fold.
  • Also crushes Jimmy's dream of working as a lawyer in his older brother's prestigious firm — while eating a piece of Jimmy's "Congratulations" cake, no less. While it was actually Chuck who didn't want Jimmy working at HHM, Howard's timing was rather tactless.
  • After the stubborn and ignorant Kettlemans walk out on Kim, he blames her and takes away her office, relegating her to the dreaded "Corn Field."
  • When Jimmy's commercial stunt ends up making him and the firm look bad, Howard puts the heat on Kim, relegating her to menial duties and refusing to reinstate her (even after she wins them an incredibly lucrative deal) until Chuck intercedes on her behalf. Even then, he's still incredibly cold to her.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Howard encounters Lalo Salamanca in Jimmy and Kim's household, whilst Howard is in the middle of a drunken, angry rant and unaware that Lalo has now just seen him as someone whom he can't leave alive. He only realizes something is off when Lalo pulls out a gun, but Lalo offs him without letting Howard finish his speech...
  Howard: I uh... I think I'm in the middle of something... There's really no need to— (bang)
• Last Disrespects: He ends up buried next to his own murderer. Under a meth lab, no less.
• Manipulative Bastard: When Kim leaves HHM and seems ready to take the Mesa Verde clients with her, Howard deliberately "forgets" to tell Chuck that she's not actually law partners with Jimmy, knowing that Chuck will do everything possible to undermine their "joint" practice.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Played with. Howard's suits may be eye-wateringly expensive and exquisitely tailored, but with their Hamlindogo Blue™ fabric and bold pinstripes they are a little on the loud side- and that's before he overaccessorizes them with his contrast collar shirts, cufflinks, knit ties, and collar pins. He's generally overdressed even by the standards of a white-shoe law firm^note when working with less well-off clients it may even be inappropriate for a lawyer to wear such conspicuously expensive clothing- for example, a client who has shoplifted food they couldn't afford to buy may feel intimidated by such an outfit. He also drives a classic Jaguar SJ8 but the "NAMAST3" Vanity Licence Plate isn't such a classy touch. Overall his tastes border a little on Conspicuous Consumption.
• Mean Boss: His treatment of Kim falls into this. He threatens to demote her because she loses the Kettlemans as clients when it is clear they are total idiots divorced from reality and that nothing Kim could have done would have satisfied them. He basically reassigns Kim to the other side of the office for something that was pretty much out of her control. She is then demoted to the Cornfield because of something that Jimmy did and then lied to her about. Mind you, he's not a totally irredeemable bastard: he does give her a good parting package when she leaves the firm and acknowledges her worth to her face, to boot — but it doesn't stop him undercutting her via Chuck, of course.
• Mistaken for Junkie: A large portion of Kim and Jimmy's plan to damage Howard's career in season six is to cause his colleagues to believe he has a cocaine addiction. The plan is so effectively executed that Cliff refuses to believe Howard's correct assertions that they're responsible as just a way to excuse this apparent problem.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He's near tears when he greatly laments kicking Chuck from the firm, believing that it led directly to his suicide.
• Nepotism: Downplayed, he is a qualified lawyer and in fact would have preferred working for himself, but his dad forced him to found HHM and be one of the bosses. This makes Howard very protective of the firm.
• Never Found the Body: The implication by the end of the series. His death is staged by Gus’ men as a drug-influenced suicide by drowning. His car is taken to a beach far from New Mexico, his shoes are thrown in the ocean, his wallet and wedding ring are left on the dash, and cocaine is scattered throughout the car - when he’s really buried under Gus' super lab in Albuquerque. By the end of the series, his and Lalo's bodies still haven't been found and are highly unlikely to ever be as anyone who knew about their location are now themselves deceased.
• Nervous Tics: Howard has a tendency to rub his thumb in circular motions on his index finger as a subtle indication that he's nervous or distressed about something, most notably after Kim literally screams at him for telling Jimmy about Chuck's suicide.
• Nice Guy: When not being Chuck's puppet, Howard is actually a helpful, compassionate stand-up guy. Howard fully grows into this by Season 5 where he lets bygones be bygones and even outright offers Jimmy a job at HHM as an olive branch. Unfortunately for Howard, the bitter conman is way too broken from his feud with Chuck to even consider it. Howard doesn't retaliate to Jimmy's pranks, only responding by saying he's sorry that Jimmy's in pain about Chuck's death.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
  • On the receiving end of this when he and Kim recommend Jimmy to Davis and Main, only for the Ungrateful Bastard to screw up and air a commercial behind Cliff's back and make HMM look bad by association.
  • Later in Season 2, Jimmy humiliates Howard and HHM as collateral damage in his forgery scheme to 'help' Kim and get back at Chuck.
  • In Season 3 he very kindly and politely suggests to Chuck that he retire from active legal practice and move on to a teaching position. Chuck's response is to sue HHM.
  • Then in Season 4, when he bares his soul to Jimmy and Kim about the role he thinks he played in Chuck's suicide, Jimmy coldly piles on the guilt with the episode's Wham Line.
  • And finally, in Season 5, another attempt to offer Jimmy a job within HMM leads to petty revenge plots to humiliate Howard, Kim helping to up the ante in Season 6, and ultimately him getting killed by Lalo in the middle of ranting about how awful they are when Lalo unexpectedly pays the two a visit as well.
• No Social Skills: While he has the perfect partner persona perfectly nailed he comes across as condescending and snobbish even when he isn't trying to. It doesn't help that the other characters like Jimmy and Kim take really poorly his advices no matter how sensible because he comes across as the privileged boss that gave them griefs by Chuck's order or just to punish them. Even his wife hates his attempts at being charming.
• Not Me This Time: Howard has demonstrated some Jerkass behavior toward Chuck and Kim, but it isn't entirely his fault that Jimmy can't get hired at HHM.
• Nothing Personal: While he's not alright with Jimmy being inducted into HHM, Howard approaches this front professionally, unlike Chuck, stating that Jimmy isn't an ideal choice for the firm, although Howard acknowledges that he has the capability to be a good lawyer. It's not until Howard, begrudgingly with Chuck's insistence, antagonizes Kim's career that he and Jimmy become more hostile with one another.
• Only Sane Man: Definitely qualifies by Season 3. He has his firm stuck in a crossfire between two brothers and just wishes to move on and practice law. He's also the only one of the cast from season four who actually goes to therapy (Mike just tends to glower) and tries to make himself better, compared to Jimmy and Kim who have terrible coping strategies and get worse.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Chuck's claim that Howard betrayed him first makes Howard so angry that he outright aggressively calls it "bullshit", stunning Chuck into silence.
  • In his season 4 appearances the normally calm, unflappable and immaculately dressed Howard seems stressed and even a little disheveled, and he reveals he is in therapy. The stress and guilt over Chuck's suicide are obviously taking their toll. In the season 6 episode "Plan and Execution" he turns up at Kim and Jimmy's apartment drunk and extremely disheveled, signifying that things have gone seriously wrong for him.
• Out of Focus: Season 4, despite still billing Patrick Fabian as a main cast member, has Howard's role dropping away to virtually nothing after the first couple of episodes, largely due to the show's focus moving away from the world of corporate law (outside of Kim's sub-plots) and more towards the various criminal activities of Jimmy, on the one hand, and Mike and Gus on the other. It becomes more clear in season 5 when he runs into Jimmy at the courthouse while Jimmy is waiting for a meeting with ADA Ericsen.
• Outside-Context Problem: Lalo, someone he has no idea even exists, ends up killing him. While Howard is a major part of the legal side of the story, he has no connection to the Cartel side - up until Lalo happens to visit Jimmy and Kim while Howard is at their apartment. He only realizes the kind of thing he's stumbled in on after Lalo has clearly decided he has to go, and he's killed only about a minute later while still having no idea what's going on.
• Parental Substitute: Gould called Howard like Chuck's surrogate son too, and Howard has some hidden resentment towards his actual father controlling his path, but openly looking up to Chuck.
• Pay Evilunto Evil:
  • Calling Jimmy transparent and pathetic is a bit crass, but still more than justified given the dastardly Alpha Bitch-like plan Jimmy enacts later on in that episode.
  • Instead of giving Chuck a retirement party, he loudly announces to his employees that Chuck is retiring, prompting loud applauding and flashy cell phone photos as Chuck is subtly led out of the building.
  • Attempts to do this to Jimmy and Kim, who have ruined his credibility by framing him as a drug addict, and swears to expose them for the conmen they are, but Lalo and his gun soon put a stop to that.
• Pet the Dog: Several times. For a certified pain-in-the-rear, Howard gets a lot of fluffy moments.
  • When he barks at Kim about not caring what she thinks, he immediately feels guilty and calls her back into his office to explain the truth of the situation. It's clear that the only reason he went off on her in the first place is that he was overwhelmed by having to play the bad guy on Chuck's behalf, especially in front of one of his most beloved protegees.
  • The "Pimento" Kick the Dog example above is actually a subversion of that trope — Hamlin is actually trying to spare Jimmy's feelings and respect Chuck's wishes, even though it makes him look bad by covering up the real reason that Jimmy can't advance — his brother's mistrust. Moreover, after losing his temper with Kim for pressing him on the issue, he immediately realizes that he is being an ass and she is trustworthy, and then tells her the truth with nothing to gain by doing so.
  • Played straight in the first season finale. He expresses awe when Jimmy hands him the list of all of Chuck's needs and provisions, marveling at the lengths to which Jimmy went in order to successfully provide for Chuck by himself for over a year. He's quick to assure Jimmy that Chuck will be cared for properly. In fact, he and Kim had a hand in asking Davis & Main to consider taking on Jimmy.
  • In Season 2, when he stops by Chuck's house on a grocery run, Howard tells Chuck that he gave Davis & Main an honest description of Jimmy, including his past and diploma, but he also tells Chuck that he didn't bash him to a law firm that wanted to recruit him.
  • He wiped out Kim's scholarship debt as a parting gift and expresses that he kind of envies her working solo. Granted, he did start the meeting off a little prickly (when he thought she was jumping ship to another firm), but seemed to genuinely warm up when what she was actually up to became clear. Then came the pat on the head.
  • He also gives Chuck some good tactical advice on not taking the stand in the court case against Jimmy; sadly (sort of), Chuck doesn't listen.
  • He puts himself into debt to cash out Chuck in order to save HHM.
  • He urges Jimmy not to look at Chuck's body in the coroner's van, phones Jimmy to have him approve the gushing obituary HHM plans to print before Chuck's funeral, and finally confesses to Jimmy and Kim about the role he thinks he played in Chuck's suicide. The last act quickly turns into an example of No Good Deed Goes Unpunished when Jimmy throws Howard's guilt back in his face.
  • When Cliff Main confronts Howard about his supposed drug problem, he still thanks Cliff for caring about his well-being despite being clearly upset at wrongly being called out.
  • Despite everything Jimmy and Kim has subjected him to in season six, he still attempts to negotiate with Lalo for a peaceful resolution upon seeing his gun, incorrectly believing Lalo is threatening them.
• The Pollyanna: With Chuck at first, spouting clichés over how he’ll beat his illness and come back to work like nothing ever happened. He still doesn’t like being the Fall Guy though, and by season three his optimism has soured considerably.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • Chuck threatening to sue HHM is what finally gets Howard to take the gloves off.
    Howard: In what world is that anything but the deepest betrayal of our friendship?
    Chuck: I could argue that you're the one who betrayed me.
    Howard: That's bullshit. And you know it.
  • Taken further when Jimmy insults him for moping around in the aftermath of Chuck's death.
  Howard: Fuck you, Jimmy.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: He's fond of this tactic whenever he blames Kim.
  • He sends her to the east wing of the firm, which Jimmy dubs "The Cornfield," after the Kettlemans fire her for not keeping up with their impossible standards in court, extending her career progression by years.
  • After Jimmy runs his unauthorized advert and makes HHM look bad in front of Davis & Main, he assigns Kim to doc review for her role in pushing Jimmy as a law firm partner.
• Red Herring: He's set up to be Jimmy's polar opposite and Arch-Nemesis. In reality, Jimmy's brother Chuck is the one who's been holding him back, not Howard. After the truth comes out and Kim and Howard help Jimmy get a job at Davis & Main, the two of them seem to be on better terms. Until Jimmy transfers all his brother issues onto Howard anyway.
• Replacement Goldfish: It's implied, until he starts talking back anyway, that Howard is a replacement for Jimmy in Chuck's eyes. Howard's number is the only contact information the first hospital visit has despite Jimmy being Chuck's caretaker, and Chuck will treat him like a surrogate son/brother who he can appreciate (but still use) because Howard is both very clean and successful but also does what he’s told and idolizes the older man.
• Sacrificial Lion: After spending five and a half seasons as one of the most important characters in the legal side of the show, the first half of Season 6 culminates with Lalo shooting Howard in the head, underscoring just how much danger Jimmy and Kim are in. His death also completely changes the lives of everyone left — Lalo dies a few hours later, thus allowing Gus to complete the superlab uninhibited, while Jimmy and Kim end up divorcing due to the trauma, driving Kim to Florida and Jimmy into Saul Goodman.
• Shadow Archetype: By Season 4 and 5, he ends up as one to Jimmy. Both of them take Chuck's death harshly despite cutting ties with their former idol, with Howard believing he mainly caused the suicide while Jimmy silently lives with the guilt of playing a role through the insurance hikes he incited. Despite looking worse for wear, Howard eventually moved on and was able to grieve in a healthy manner after seeking professional help, while Jimmy bottled all of his feelings and let them push him into adopting the name of "Saul Goodman". Much of Jimmy's frustration with Howard throughout Season 5 stems from envy at seeing Hamlin being able to reconcile while he could not, despite their struggles sharing the same cause.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Howard is almost always seen in his expensive suits, and is always very well turned-out. In particular, he favors knitted ties. The one time that he is not seen wearing anything prestigious is when he boxes Jimmy.
• Silent Scapegoat: It was actually Chuck who insisted that Jimmy never be hired as a lawyer for HHM while Hamlin makes it look like he's responsible. He later turns himself into a scapegoat for Chuck's death, believing it had everything to do with the way he pushed him out of HHM. He doesn't mention that Chuck's vindictive actions motivated Howard to do so, putting himself out of pocket in the process. He frames himself as a straight-up villain who drove Chuck to suicide, seemingly out of a genuine belief that this is what happened. To make matters worse, Jimmy allows Howard to take all that guilt on by himself, essentially making Howard into a scapegoat for a second McGill brother.
• Silver Fox: He's well into middle aged and as Rick points out, he's not exactly the worst looking guy.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: Howard and Jimmy develop into this by the later seasons, at a point where Jimmy is heavily involved with incredibly dangerous criminals. After the whole disbarment attempt by Chuck is over and HHM is now run by Howard alone, he offers Jimmy a position at HMM. This draws Jimmy's ire, who starts to pull pranks on Howard such as wrecking his jaguar car with bowling balls and embarrassing him in front of his business partners.
• Slave to PR: Howard's extremely vain, and takes his reputation and that of HHM very seriously. He tries to avoid seeing Chuck committed or retired since it can mean debt-heavy payouts, hiked insurance costs, and loss of clients.
• Smug Snake: He often comes across as a smarmy and self-important rich guy, though this dissipates somewhat as the series progresses. Patrick Fabian states that, when playing Howard, he added the subtext that Howard is often judging others by how they dress and thinks about how the suits he wears are worth more money than other people's monthly salaries.
• The Social Expert: As The Face of HHM his people skills are indispensable, especially as his law partner Chuck isn't so hot in that department.
• Spear Counterpart: Essentially one to Kim. Both are blonde professional lawyers who put a lot toward their image and careers, and while they disapprove of their respective McGill's antics, they'll let it slide whenever it's convenient for them.
• Stepford Smiler: He tells Kim (while trying to remain smiling) that he wanted to work solo too until his dad forced him to be the second H of the company. You get the impression he's 100% on the up and up at that moment, no "perfect partner" mask. He also keeps trying to talk some sense into Chuck, but Chuck clearly sees his feud with his brother as more important than anything (up to and including their firm) and seems to increasingly treat Howard as just another employee in the vein of Ernie. When Howard fails to talk Chuck out of personally testifying against his brother, beneath it all Howard is clearly becoming angrier and angrier.
  • His general demeanor towards everyone is that of a professional, friendly but not familiar lawyer, and his insincere attempts to connect with people are often what alienates others in the first place. In season 6, we see that even his wife gets this treatment, meaning that he can't take off his lawyer demeanor, even for the people he's closest to. It's telling how the few moments he lets it slip and expresses his true feelings (usually anger) serve as turning points in his character.
• Stuffed into the Fridge: Literally. Howard's body is stuffed into Kim and Jimmy's fridge by Mike's men to move the body from their apartment without suspicion. The last time Jimmy ever sees Howard is when he sees some of Mike's men literally folding his body into the fridge's tight space.
• Suicide by Sea: How Mike covers up Howard's death. He has his men leave Howard's car several states away with his wallet and wedding ring on the dashboard and cocaine residue on the upholstery, staging it to look like Howard drowned himself after being exposed as a drug addict. He notes that it's simply continuing the lie that Jimmy and Kim have already been spreading.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Or at least very smart people acting like idiots. He just wants to practice law, and he's stuck in the middle of Jimmy and Chuck's escalating pissing match, though that's mostly Chuck's doing.
• Take a Third Option: Presented with the options of letting Chuck back in, letting Chuck bankrupt the company via the severance pay, and dragging HHM's name through the mud by litigating the case, he pays Chuck's severance pay out of his own pocket instead. All nine million dollars.
• Tempting Fate: Before Jimmy's bar hearing, Howard tries to dissuade Chuck from testifying, reasoning that they already have a good case with his own witness testimony and reminding Chuck that HHM's reputation is on the line if he does take the stand. Chuck's testimony is disastrous thanks to Jimmy's Batman Gambit.
  • After confronting Jimmy and Kim for playing him for fools and ruining his reputation, Jimmy expresses hope that Howard will be ok, Howard notes he has bounced back from worse and will bounce back again. Then Lalo comes and shoots him before he gets the chance to.
• This Is Unforgivable!: He only truly turns against Jimmy when he finds out through Chuck's cassette tape that, yes, Jimmy did forge the Mesa Verde documents. He is also done with Chuck's orders when he has the audacity to sue the firm because Howard asked him to retire after being clearly past his prime.
• Together in Death: Played with in that Howard and Lalo have no relationship before the latter murders the former. Howard is buried in the same pit as Lalo Salamanca, his murderer, in the floor of Gus Fring's meth lab. The location of their shared grave isn't discovered by the remaining characters by the end of the series, and presumably never is.
• Too Dumb to Live: Downplayed. Even after seeing Lalo openly brandish a gun while standing right next to him, he makes no effort to heed Kim's warnings to leave and instead tries to talk his way into de-escalating the situation; in truth, he was still a liability as far as Lalo was concerned, so Lalo still probably would have shot him even if he had tried to run. Howard being intoxicated and terrified while trying to keep calm (as stated by the description of the scene in the script) both probably contributed to his inaction as well.
• Took a Level in Kindness: By season five, he is a lot more charitable to Jimmy and even offers him a position at HHM, and has slowly shed the Smug Snake demeanor he possessed in the earlier seasons.
• Tough Love: He feels like he has to be the firm father figure to Kim because of her past, pushing her harder than anyone else because he believes in her. Unfortunately he's just a little too condescending too often, and in her mind this gives her an excuse to ruin his life.
• Tragic Hero: Howard can be a bit of a pretentious dick at times, but at the end of the day, he just wants to run his law firm like he always has. What he gets for this is a series of professional disgraces, the guilt of a friend's suicide potentially being his fault giving him insomnia and depression, extreme financial debt, Jimmy and Kim ruining his life even while he thought they were on good terms, an ignominious death at the hands of a villain he had no reason to ever meet, and his legacy being that of a suicidal drug addict. Between one of the franchise's most moral characters and the series of traumas that causes him, he's a top contender for the most tragic character in the entire franchise.
• Tranquil Fury: Jimmy's billboard and commercial stunts both left him very upset. There's also the look on his face when Chuck plays Jimmy's confession tape for him. He's angry at Jimmy... but he also seems aggravated with Chuck for cutting him out of the loop to make his reaction to Chuck's 'resignation' more genuine. Howard has by this point realized that the rivalry between the brothers is beginning to affect his firm.
• Trauma Conga Line: As the series goes on, Howard's luck and reputation are constantly being pushed to the breaking point, courtesy of Jimmy, Chuck, and Kim later on, with Howard having to face being antagonized and belittled. By the very end, he's a mental and emotional wreck, with his marriage being deteriorated and his reputation in HHM being in shambles. All Howard could do is give out a scathing speech towards Jimmy and Kim. And as if this wasn't bad enough, Howard is then shot dead by Lalo when he suddenly walks in.
• Turn the Other Cheek: In season 5. After asking Jimmy to join HHM, he gets his car destroyed, a surprise visit from prostitutes during a business meeting, and Jimmy blames his personal problems on him. Howard is willing to ignore all of that, as long as Jimmy gives him an answer—even if it's a no.
• Undying Loyalty: To Hamlin, Hamlin, McGill. Demonstrated when he paid Chuck's debt owed to him both out of pocket and via loans rather than let the law firm his father started going under.
• Undignified Death: He dies with a gunshot to the head unceremoniously. That, and with him being in a drunken, raging rant towards Jimmy and Kim, it's especially pitiful when considering that Howard was a well-respected, most dignified, and impressionable man to the public.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Jimmy believes that Howard has been purposefully exploiting Chuck by riding on Chuck's reputation for years while Chuck sits uselessly at home with a neurotic condition. In reality, Howard isn't quite aware of how bad Chuck's condition is.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Believes himself to be one after Chuck's suicide, thinking that his decision to force Chuck out of HHM was what triggered it. That may be true for the wrong reason, as it was Howard's decision to talk Chuck into luring Mesa Verde away from Kim that escalated the McGill feud to begin with.
  • Is definitely this when asking Kim if her decision to quit Schweikart and Cokely is influenced by Jimmy. Kim becomes so furious with this that along with Jimmy, she ruins his career by framing him as a drug addict, which eventually results in his death at the hands of Lalo.
• Villainy-Free Villain: Howard is this throughout most of the show. He's not malicious by any means and he genuinely wants what's best for his law firm, but he finds himself at odds against Jimmy on countless occasions. Also, while not a bad guy, he can be pretty boorish at times, which rubs Jimmy and Kim the wrong way at several points.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Implied as part of his backstory mentioned above under Stepford Smiler.
• What the Hell, Hero?: To both McGill brothers. He calls Jimmy out about trying to force a settlement with Sandpiper;
  "All you care about is your share of the payout. It's like talking to Gollum. You're transparent. And pathetic. You want a handout? Here. Huh? Next time why don't you bring a tin cup? It'd be more honest."
  • He then goes on to give a devastating one to Chuck after he attempts to sue HHM. He even follows it up in a way that is somehow both classy and vindictive: announcing Chuck's retirement, thanking him in front of everyone, and allowing him to leave the building to a chorus of applause all while knowing Chuck is in emotional turmoil over the fact that Howard has proven himself the morally superior and called his bluff.
    Howard: 17 years. 18 in July, actually. All those years we built this place together. And all that time I've supported you. Looked up to you, deferred to you. Because I always thought you had the best interests of the firm in mind.
    Chuck: I have!
    Howard: Mnh. You did. For a long time. But you've let personal vendettas turn your focus away from what's best for HHM. You've put your needs first. To our detriment.
    Chuck: I don't think that's accurate.
    Howard: And the moment that I mildly suggest, with empathy and concern, that maybe it's time for you to consider retirement... the first instinct you have is to sue me?! To sue the firm? Well, I I-I don't even know I-In what world is that anything but the deepest betrayal of everything we worked so hard to accomplish? In what world is that anything but the deepest betrayal of our friendship?
  • He also gives a particularly scathing one to Jimmy and Kim in Season 6, after the two enact an elaborate plan to make him look like a drug-addled lunatic and force HMM to settle on the Sandpiper case. He ultimately agrees with Chuck's assessment of Jimmy, says that Kim has "a piece missing" from her, and calls them both sociopaths.
• Worthy Opponent: For all that he may mistreat Kim and Jimmy, he clearly respects them as people, and even when they're on opposite "sides", he's the first person to admit to their brilliance with their jobs. Notably, Howard indicates that he wanted to take Jimmy into the firm after he heard Jimmy bootstrapped his way into a law degree, and he's clearly very impressed when Kim manages to force him to admit to the double standard of Howard being a partner at his father's firm while denying Jimmy entrance due to "nepotism". Of course, when Jimmy and Kim respond to this by ruining his life as thoroughly as they possibly can, any trace of respect for them vanishes and he outright calls them sociopaths.
• Yes-Man: Jimmy starts seeing him more as this after season one, as he does a lot of Chuck's bidding for the sake of the firm, while he tries objecting, as long as Chuck can sell his shares, he can't shut him down. That is, until the last episodes of season 3 when Chuck's vendettas begin to hurt HHM financially.
• Zero-Approval Gambit: Howard willingly plays the part of the bad guy to Jimmy and Kim to keep the truth from them about Chuck. Downplayed in that he's only purposefully being an ass on this one issue, but he certainly doesn't have to do it for Chuck's sake.

Francis Scheff

Francis Scheff

Portrayed By: James Dowling

An older lawyer working at HHM and participating in the Sandpiper case.

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• Damned by Faint Praise: Jimmy bumps into him in the series premiere but only comments that he's 'well groomed.'

Ernesto

Ernesto "Ernie"

"I miss the mailroom."

Portrayed By: Brandon K. Hampton

A junior employee at HHM who is moved out of the mailroom to become Chuck McGill's personal assistant.

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• Cool Car: Drives a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII. Which seems a bit odd for a mere paralegal to have, even if HHM might pay all their employees well (with Ernie probably getting a little extra for being Chuck's caretaker, but still...), coming off as a slight Big-Lipped Alligator Moment
• It's All My Fault: Blames himself for Jimmy getting arrested for the break-in, unaware that Chuck was manipulating him and Jimmy all along.
• Morality Pet: His main reason for existing seems to be showing Jimmy (Kim too) as kinder than his brother, who is only ever condescending to Ernie at best, openly cruel at worst.
• Nice Guy: A pretty friendly and easy-going guy much like Omar, which Jimmy and Kim seem to pick up on and treat him accordingly. Which makes Chuck using and firing him come across as even more of a dick move.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ernesto breaking confidentiality led to Jimmy breaking into Chuck’s house and his license being suspended and a number of other bad things.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Downplayed. Chuck fires him despite being a good caretaker.
• No-Respect Guy: Only Jimmy and Kim show him much in the way of personal respect. Chuck is polite enough, but also a little harsh and condescending to him. Chuck also fires him as soon as he has outlived his usefulness to him. Ernesto was assigned by HHM in a job way outside his comfort zone.
• Put on a Bus: He gets fired after executing Chuck's plan of letting Jimmy know about the tape, and hasn't been seen since.
  • The Bus Came Back: Not chronologically, but he appears in the opening of Season 4's Episode 10, "Winner," during the flashback of Jimmy being sworn in as a lawyer.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: A rare Nice Guy example but still ultimately counts. After previously being told by Chuck to not reveal what he heard on Chuck's tape, he told Kim about it, who then told Jimmy, who then confronted Chuck. Even though this was all part of Chuck's plan to entrap Jimmy and Ernesto did exactly what Chuck wanted, Ernesto was still fired for violating Chuck's orders.
• Sucksessor: Chuck makes it patronizingly clear that he'd prefer his brother caring for him than Ernie.
• Undying Loyalty: To Jimmy, even to the point of risking and ultimately losing his job.
• Unwitting Pawn: Chuck manipulates him into telling Jimmy about the confession tape, leading to Jimmy breaking in with witnesses.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Chuck fires him as soon as he serves his purpose in the plot to entrap Jimmy.

David Brightbill

David Brightbill

Portrayed By: Jackamoe Buzzell

A private investigator hired by HHM to monitor Chuck and witness anything Jimmy tries to do to him.

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• Chekhov's Gunman: Seen in the The Teaser for "Witness" speaking with Chuck, before turning a lantern off for the night. His role as a PI is only mentioned later, and it's revealed that Chuck anticipated Jimmy's attempted break-in and wanted to make sure there was a witness to it.
• Hidden Depths: We get a peek at his career as a private investigator, passing the time with playing cards with holes punched through them. He mentions that they look that way to prevent getting reused in cheating attempts.
• Living Prop: Only seen lounging around the background until Chuck needs to point out how there was a witness to Jimmy's attempt to destroy the tape. Besides that, he has no extensive character.
• Nice Guy: While monitoring Chuck at the beginning of the episode, he appears polite and respectful to him and appreciating his offer of letting him sleep in his bed.
• Private Detective: His official job, hired by Chuck. Unofficially, it's just to make sure someone can verify what happened besides Chuck.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Only antagonistic towards Jimmy since Chuck paid him to bear witness, even willing to testify at the Bar Hearing if necessary.
• The Quiet One: Doesn't talk much. He just listens and observes.
• Spear Carrier: Only says a few lines and appears in two episodes with little prominence, and is mainly used as a part of Chuck's gambit against Jimmy.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Even though Chuck is ultimately right in the end that Jimmy would break into his house, it takes a long time before it happens, and Howard mentions that the fees for a PI are beginning to stack up.

Gesualdo

Gesualdo

Portrayed By: Anthony Escobar

A custodian working at HHM.

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• Horrible Judge of Character: Keeps letting Jimmy bluff his way into the office despite not having any actual business there.

Cary Anderson

Cary Anderson

Portrayed By: Sam Li

An intern working at HHM.

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• Dramatic Irony: After Howard tells him a little about Chuck's achievements after Anderson inquires over a portrait of him, he says he wants to be just like him, oblivious to his monstrous nature. Howard, contemplating over what he just said, muses there are perhaps more important things in life.
• The Klutz: He is introduced by dropping a carton of sodas and spilling them everywhere.

Julie

Julie

Portrayed By: Audrey Moore

A secretary.

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• Beleaguered Assistant: She winds up as this when Howard self-destructs and she is given increasingly unhinged orders by him.

Genidowski

Genidowski

Portrayed By: Lennie Loftin

A P.I. hired by Howard to follow Jimmy. In reality, he's a con man that Jimmy tricked Howard into hiring to make it look like he's following Jimmy.

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• Private Detective: He serves as one for Howard by spying on Jimmy at Howard's behest... except it turns out he was working for Jimmy the whole time and only showed Howard what Jimmy wanted him to see.

Davis and Main

Davis & Main is a law firm in Santa Fe that makes recurring appearances in Better Call Saul.

Cliff Main

Clifford "Cliff" Main

"Howard told me you were a little eccentric, he didn't tell me you were a goddamn arsonist!"

Portrayed By: Ed Begley Jr.

"I'm not thinking about Jimmy. I'm thinking about the time, the expense, the uncertainty. I'm thinking about our clients!"

One of the founding partners at the law firm of Davis & Main.

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• Armor-Piercing Question: The only thing he asks Jimmy is how he wronged him, and Jimmy regretfully admits that Cliff did nothing to deserve that and it's his own fault for accepting a job despite knowing that he wouldn't fit in.
• Ascended Extra: Downplayed. He appears in just about every episode in the first half of Season Six and is a crucial part of the show's storyline. Prior to that, his appearances are more irregular.
• Being Good Sucks: Cliff is a good man, but it doesn't help him when it comes to dealing with Jimmy. He's willing to look past Jimmy's sketchy history and even after Jimmy humiliates the firm, Cliff still gives him a second chance. The result of his efforts? The office is run through with chaos and unprofessional behavior.
• Benevolent Boss: Although as tough as the bosses at HHM, Cliff does treat his employees better than HHM, and suggests to Jimmy that he should find a way to vent his stress. He even gives Jimmy a second chance even when the associates were voting 2 to 1 in favor of terminating Jimmy over running the commercial without authorization.
• The Bus Came Back: After being mostly absent for three seasons, Cliff returns to serve as the unwitting pawn in Jimmy and Kim's plan to ruin Howard.
• Cool Old Guy: Cliff is chill, genial, and even plays acoustic guitar in his office.
• Good Is Not Soft: He's the kind of guitar-playing, hip, and understanding boss that you'd expect from a character played by Ed Begley Jr, but he's not a pushover and gets understandably upset when Jimmy goes behind his back to run a homemade Davis & Main ad without authorization. He also doesn't care about Jimmy's attempts to apologize since he is still taking his bonus from him.
• Jerkass Has a Point: It may seem harsh to some viewers for him to threaten to sack Jimmy for the commercial but it's not so much the content that's the issue, but the fact that Jimmy aired it without consulting Cliff or the partners, undermining their authority.
• Nice Guy: Clifford is very friendly and does his best to make Jimmy feel at home at Davis & Main. Unfortunately, the niceties fly out the window when he learns that Jimmy aired a commercial for the firm without his permission.
  • He seems genuinely concerned for Howard's well-being due to his supposed drug problem, even begging him to seek rehabilitation.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He overlooked Jimmy's checkered past to offer him a position at Davis & Main. He gave Jimmy expensive perks, including a $7000 desk. He gave Jimmy a second chance after Jimmy aired an unauthorized commercial that could have damaged the firm's reputation. And Jimmy repaid him by purposely acting so obnoxiously that Clifford was forced to fire him but let him keep his signing bonus just to get rid of him.
• Pet the Dog: Despite Jimmy irritating him to the point of forcibly firing him and telling him off for being an asshole, he still shows up at Chuck's funeral and offers Jimmy his condolences.
• "Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Jimmy that he honestly deserved.
  Jimmy: For what it's worth, Cliff, I think you're a good guy.
  Cliff: For what it's worth, I think you're an asshole.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Jimmy defends himself by showing results and interpreting his open-mindedness to a commercial as justification for working behind his back, Cliff has none of that and points out that 30 seconds before leaving the building is not an agreement. Sure Jimmy didn't do it for evil but he didn't even get why what he did was wrong.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Cliff admits that Jimmy is new to the whole teamwork thing, but doing things behind the company's back and jeopardizing the company's image over one case did not make him happy.
  Jimmy: You and I did discuss the possibility of a commercial.
  Cliff: The possibility in the abstract, for a grand total of 30 seconds when I was halfway out the door!
  • Subverted in his dealings with Howard in Season 6, especially after the disastrous Sandpiper mediation. While under normal circumstances Cliff would be justified in calling out Howard for allowing his purported drug issues to derail the case, the fact is that Howard is telling the truth that Jimmy set him up and that Cliff has been manipulated into thinking Howard has a drug problem.

Cordova

Cordova

Portrayed By: Lucinda Marker

A senior partner at Davis & Main.

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• Icy Blue Eyes: Has cold grey eyes, and these reflect her no-nonsense attitude and her ability to see how unprofessional Jimmy’s behavior is.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While it may seem excessively harsh from Jimmy's perspective, the partners are still in the right about his rash move to leave them out of the loop and endanger the firm's reputation by going off on his own.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Jimmy is trying to defend himself about making this Sandpiper Crossing faster, she rebuts that this isn’t the only case that Davis & Main is dealing with right now.
• What the Hell, Hero?: She and her colleagues denounce Jimmy for doing an end-run around the senior partners when he ran an unapproved commercial.

Doug Lynton

Doug Lynton

Portrayed By: David Grant Wright

A senior partner at Davis & Main.

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• Armor-Piercing Response: When Jimmy is trying to point out how professional his commercial is, Doug points out that Davis & Main has other clients who wouldn't want to be associated with this type of material and image presented in the ad.
• Covered in Gunge: As part of Jimmy's antics at Davis & Main's workplace to get fired while also keeping his bonus, this is one of them. He brings a juicer or the office, much to Doug's annoyance. But Jimmy then intentionally squirts fruit juice all over Doug's suit and tie, making him even more annoyed.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While it may seem excessively harsh from Jimmy's perspective, the partners are still in the right about his rash move to endanger the firm's reputation with a flashy commercial.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: To Jimmy: “Exuberance is no excuse.”
• What the Hell, Hero?: Along with Cliff and Cordova, he's angry with Jimmy for running an unapproved commercial.

Erin Brill

Erin Brill

"I meant every word I said."

Portrayed By: Jessie Ennis

A junior lawyer at Davis & Main LLP, charged with supervising Jimmy.

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• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Jimmy can't when she's handling him. She stops him from doing anything that even comes close to toeing the line of ethics.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: After Jimmy airs an unauthorized commercial, Erin is assigned to 'babysit' him.
• Go-Getter Girl: Erin devotes everything she has to her career with gratingly endless enthusiasm.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's a grating, overachieving pain in the ass, but she's still a good person who prides herself on being an ethical Rules Lawyer.
• Rules Lawyer: She follows the rules to the very letter, allowing no wiggle room whatsoever. Erin is even a stickler for the formatting of briefs; she often acts like she knows more about Davis & Main than Davis or Main. And she probably does.
• Saying Too Much: When she says to Cliff, "and we're not talking about a number one", after Jimmy refuses to flush the toilet.
• Stepford Smiler: Erin rarely lets her big bright smile drop in spite of what she's feeling. Jimmy does manage to wipe that smile off her face once or twice, however.
• Yes-Man: Very much so to Clifford Main, to Jimmy's annoyance when she's supervising him.

Brian Archuleta

Brian Archuleta

Portrayed By: Luis Bordonada

Another junior lawyer at Davis & Main LLP who is working on the Sandpiper case.

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• One-Steve Limit: Averted within the Breaking Bad-verse. Brian shares a surname with Hugo Archuleta, a janitor who is fired after being wrongly suspected of Walter White's drug crimes.

Omar

Omar

Portrayed By: Omar Maskati

Jimmy's office secretary during his tenure at Davis and Main.

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• Hidden Depths: It turns out, he has kids.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Not only is he good at his job, he saves Jimmy by pointing out how if Jimmy quit from Davis and Main in less than a year, Jimmy would lose the bonus he got from joining them.
• Nice Guy: A really polite secretary with a positive attitude. Truly goes above and beyond when he helps Jimmy move his stuff from Davis and Main, in the middle of the night, and refuses to take any compensation for doing so.
• Only Friend: After Jimmy's commercial, Omar is the only employee of Davis & Main who genuinely still likes him and likes working with him.
• Secret-Keeper: Regarding Jimmy's desire to leave Davis and Main. Had he told Cliff Main about it, it might be considered cause to take Jimmy's signing bonus away. He still keeps it, even as Jimmy starts his campaign of getting himself fired rather than quit.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: By pointing out that Jimmy would need to be fired without cause to keep his bonus, he unintentionally gives him the idea to get himself fired by donning what would become his Saul Goodman persona.

Schweikart and Cokely

A large law firm working for Sandpiper Crossing, a nursing home accused of defrauding its elderly residents.

Richard Schweikart

Richard "Rich" Schweikart

"You want them to have your back."

Portrayed By: Dennis Boutsikaris

"Kim, I am not trying to protect the firm. I am trying to protect you."

Founding partner and Kim's boss at Schweikart & Cokely.

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• Affably Evil: He's a little amoral in his tactics on behalf of Sandpiper Crossing and is certainly vicious enough in the courtroom, but he's also a genial, soft-spoken, professional guy who respects his opposition and doesn't hold a grudge. He's also very polite and kind to Irene, the most visible senior in the lawsuit against his client, showcasing that it's strictly business.
• Amoral Attorney: After Sandpiper's fraud is discovered, he tries to bury opposition lawyers in mountains of paperwork that will prevent them from mounting an effective argument. Not illegal, but certainly not ethical.
• Benevolent Boss: He turns out to be a very supportive boss, who gives Kim chance after chance whereas Howard would have dropped her like a grenade.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has a rather sharp sense of humor, snarking that next time Jimmy uses toilet paper for litigation he should use double-ply.
• Friendly Enemy: Even though Schweikart is opposing council in the Sandpiper case (and opposed Jimmy personally when he first started investigating it), he's likable and pleasant. Jimmy gets off on the wrong foot with him a little ("Blow my magic flute") but grows to like him well enough, is happy that he offers a job to Kim. He also offers his condolences to Jimmy when he attends Chuck's funeral, calling Chuck "a hell of a lawyer", and later holds the same respect for Howard Hamlin, saying that no one could relate to and care for clients like Howard could and calling him a "hell of a guy".
• I Let You Win: A variation using this tactic. He and his firm throw softballs at Jimmy and Chuck when the Sandpiper Case is on, purposefully. By drowning the enemy side in paperwork and many trials that S&C knows it can't win, a small force of just Jimmy and Chuck won't have any time to surmount any reasonable defense and case.
• Innocently Insensitive: In the midst of gushing over Chuck, he says he figured he’d be arguing in front of the Supreme Court one day, seemingly unaware of how much Chuck feels he’s wasted his whole potential.
• Pet the Dog: While he's a lawyer on Sandpiper's behalf, he's still nothing but polite to Irene and makes it clear that there's nothing personal in anything he's doing - he has to fight for his client, it's his job.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He acts like an attack dog on behalf of Sandpiper Crossing, a company that is cheating retirees out of their money, because it's his job and he legally has to represent them to the best of his abilities. Off the clock, he's a relatively friendly guy who respects his opposition, treats his employees well, and holds no grudges for past cases.
• Saved by Canon: Schweikart's appearance in the American Greed episode, set after the fall of Heisenberg, indirectly reveals that he survives the events of Better Call Saul.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His casual mention that Sandpiper Crossing is a firm with a dozen facilities during his initial meeting with Jimmy and Chuck ends up having surprisingly wide-ranging effects throughout the rest of the show's run:
  • Firstly, it clues Chuck in that the case is potentially far more lucrative than he or Jimmy had initially realized, causing Chuck to abandon their initial strategy (which would have gained them somewhere between a quarter and a half-million dollars) in favor of escalating it to a full-on federal class action case, dragging Sandpiper Crossing into a much bigger and more costly legal quagmire.
  • Secondly, Jimmy and Chuck have to take the case to HHM in order to feasibly fight it, leading to the truth of Chuck's disdain for his brother coming out into the open, destroying their relationship, and playing a major role in Chuck's having his reputation ruined, being forced out of HHM, and then committing suicide. For added measure, it also leads to the trainwreck of Jimmy's brief employment at Davis and Main.
  • Thirdly, the case ending up at HHM results in Howard being on the receiving end of Jimmy's and later Kim's attempts to speed up its resolution, eventually resulting in Howard getting his own reputation destroyed even more thoroughly than Chuck's was, before getting killed by Lalo after he has the misfortune to show up to Jimmy's and Kim's apartment at the wrong time and HHM being crippled.
• Villain Respect:
  • He mentions several times how he has a great deal of respect and admiration for Chuck's abilities as a lawyer. He says as much to Jimmy at Chuck's funeral.
  • When he is interviewed for an American Greed episode about Jimmy, set after the events of both Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad, Rich still expresses respect for Jimmy and Kim's abilities as lawyers despite his experiences with them.
  • Despite witnessing Howard's apparent drug-addled breakdown at the Sandpiper mediation, Rich still goes out of his way to compliment Howard at his memorial service.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Rightly tells Kim in "Wexler vs Goodman", that it's fine if she airs any grievances in his office but not outside in front of other employees, as it's bad for morale and undermines his position.
• Villain Takes an Interest: In Kim Wexler, after seeing her legal talent in action, as well as seeing her put into an unwinnable situation without any support from HHM. In the next season, Kim ends up becoming a partner in his firm and bringing a big client along.
• You Remind Me of X: Tells Kim that a courtroom scenario she was placed in (trying to argue against a motion that a judge is nearly certain to rule against her on, without any support from the higher ups at her firm while the opposing legal side has all its big gun lawyers taking her on) reminds him of a similar situation he had to go through, and how it disillusioned him about the legal firm he was working at.
  "They patted me on the back, said it was my trial by fire, and I laughed with them, but, you know, it never really sat well with me. You want them to have your back. Because at the end of the day, it wasn't about proving my mettle. My boss had a tee time that he didn't want to miss. I wasn't there long."

Lynne Pierson

Lynne Pierson

Portrayed By: Esodie Gieger

Partner at Schweikart & Cokely.

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• Living Prop: Helps show the ranks of Schweikart & Cokely and gives some insight into Kim's background during an interview with her.
• Spear Carrier: Appears to help interview Kim as she considers joining up with Schweikart & Cokely in Season 2. She comes back in Season 4 during a party they're hosting, commenting about the possible vacation ideas they'll have for their employees.

Perry Trivedi

Perry Trivedi

Portrayed By: Suzanne Savoy

Partner at Schweikart & Cokely.

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• Living Prop: Helps show the ranks of Schweikart & Cokely and gives some insight into Kim's background during an interview with her.
• Spear Carrier: Appears interviewing Kim as she considers joining up with Schweikart & Cokely in Season 2.

Alvin Reese

Alvin Reese

Portrayed By: Marty Lindsey

Lawyer working at Schweikart & Cokely. Visits the McGill siblings with Schweikart in an attempt to head off the Sandpiper case.

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• The Bus Came Back: Reappears in Season 2 to oppose one of HHM's motions on the Sandpiper case. He also reappears in season 6 during the disastrous mediation meeting.
• Number Two: To Schweikart himself, it seems. He first accompanies Schweikart to Chuck's house, then is seen arguing with Kim in court as Schweikart looks on.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Like the rest of Schweikart & Cokely, he's only helping defend Sandpiper's egregious Penny Shaving because it's his job as an attorney.
• Spear Carrier: Discusses settling things over Sandpiper with Chuck and Jimmy, then against Kim during a debate against one of HHM's moves. He doesn't appear afterwards.

Phil Jergens

Phil Jergens

Portrayed By: Geoffrey Pomeroy

Lawyer working at Schweikart & Cokely. Visits the McGill siblings with Schweikart in an attempt to head off the Sandpiper case.

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• The Bus Came Back: He reappears in season 6 during the disastrous mediation meeting.
• Deadpan Snarker: Initially in disbelief that Chuck and Jimmy intend to invoke the RICO act against Sandpiper, commenting that it's overkill to treat their client like "John Gotti".
• Punch-Clock Villain: Like the rest of Schweikart & Cokely, he's only helping defend Sandpiper's egregious Penny Shaving because it's his job as an attorney.
• Spear Carrier: Discusses settling things over Sandpiper with Chuck and Jimmy, then doesn't appear for a long time afterward.

Stef Carvaines

Stef Carvaines

Portrayed By: Ammie Leonards

A lawyer working at Schweikart & Cokely. Kim is close to her and considers hiring her for a hypothetical defense firm that would provide quality legal services to poor people from the community.

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• The Killjoy: She functions as this when she keeps badgering Kim, during Kim's day off, to get down to Tucumcari in order to satisfy Kevin's demand.

Mesa Verde Bank & Trust

A regional chain of banks with its own in-house counsel.

Paige Novick

Paige Novick

"This one, she's a keeper."

Portrayed By: Cara Pifko

Senior counsel for Mesa Verde. She persuades her boss, Kevin Wachtell, to hire HHM to help with their interstate expansion project, after being approached by her old friend Kim Wexler.

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• Boyish Short Hair: She is a strong and assertive lawyer and career woman and has short hair. That said, she also wears copious amounts of jewelry, make-up, skirts, dresses, and high heel shoes, making this a very Downplayed Trope as Paige arguably leans more towards Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak.
• Foil: To Kim, in a variety of ways:
  • Both women spend a large chunk of the series focusing their careers solely on Mesa Verde. However, while Paige is happy with this arrangement, Kim soon grows tired of it and longs for more pro bono client cases to work on instead.
  • Kim is increasingly shown to be a Thrill Seeker and has a more mischievous and immoral side to her character, which is what draws her to Jimmy and to a life of illegal activity. From what we see of Paige, she is more straight-laced and rule-abiding.
  • Both women wear a lot of skirts, make-up and high heels in order to present themselves as professional career women. However, Kim is more reserved about this and sees it as a necessity, actually being fairly tomboyish at heart, while Paige wears much more make-up and jewelry and seemingly indulges far more in making herself look feminine (her short hair aside).
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: See Boyish Short Hair and Tomboy and Girly Girl.
• Number Two: To Kevin, at least in legal matters at Mesa Verde.
• Parental Substitute: Maybe Kim's Only Friend outside of Jimmy, and even when Kim acts out, behaves like the firm but loving hand Kim's mom never was.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: To Kim, when she keeps harping on how Chuck and HHM refused to admit making a mistake, one that was really the result of Jimmy's forgery.
  • Once Mesa Verde's back in Kim's hands, Paige mocks Chuck for saying she was "muddying the waters" and calls HHM all talk but unreliable. Kim smiles through her teeth and avoids continuing the focus on Chuck.
  • After Jimmy's Bar Hearing, Paige congratulates Kim for how she and Jimmy set Chuck up to break on the witness stand, even mocking part of his rant with a laugh. It gets to Kim, who snaps abruptly at her during filing before swiftly apologizing and explaining that she feels no sense of victory over tearing down the mentally-ill Chuck.
• Oblivious Mockery: Frequently does this when discussing things with Kim. Paige mocks Chuck for insisting on the erroneous address for Mesa Verde and calls him unreliable, before thanking Kim for cleaning up "the mess McGill left behind". All while Kim knows the real McGill who's to blame.
• Old Friend: She knows Kim from their law school days together.
• Sadistic Choice: Unintentionally gives one to Kim, forcing her to either abandon Mesa Verde to help a pro-bono client out, or to abandon an anxious teenager to possible jail time so she can keep Mesa Verde's pay. Kim chooses the latter, much to Paige's exasperation.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Downplayed. Both Kim and Paige wear a lot of feminine attire when on the clock as lawyers, but with Kim it's more reserved, while Paige wears significantly more necklaces, earrings, and other jewelry than Kim and wears skirts, dresses, and high heels even more often than Kim does. She seems to indulge more in wearing feminine clothes and accessories while Kim sees it more as a necessity. As far as we know, Paige also lacks the mischievous and rule-breaking side that Kim displays in the later seasons of the show. Kim and Paige could be seen as a Tomboy with a Girly Streak and a Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak respectively.
• What the Hell, Hero?: She chews Kim out for refusing to help Mesa Verde when there was a mix-up with files, while Kim was dealing with a pro-bono client. Paige then reminds Kim of how she promised to make the bank her priority, and that she should immediately help when they need her.

District Attorney's Office

Bill Oakley

Deputy District Attorney Bill Oakley

"Petty with a prior."

Portrayed By: Peter Diseth

"There's proving, and then there's knowing."

A prosecutor in the DA's office who frequently goes up against Jimmy McGill.

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• Ambiguously Bi:
  • He asks if Jimmy has an assistant at Davis and Main and if she is hot. When Jimmy replies that his assistant is a man, Oakley does not appear to find this any less appealing.
  • In 2010, when Francesca tells him on the phone that Oakley "switched sides", Saul's first instinct is to assume that it means Bill came out as a gay man before Francesca clarifies that he switched his occupation from prosecutor to defense attorney.
• Big Eater: He's seldom seen without some kind of junk food in his hand. Jimmy occasionally takes advantage of this by bribing him with French fries and snack chips to get information or plea deals. According to Oakley, trans fats "are the best fats".
• Broken Record: Won't budge on his prosecution against one of Jimmy's clients during the Hard-Work Montage, simply rebuffing him with the phrase "petty with a prior" to justify it.
• Butt-Monkey: Nearly nothing ever goes his way when he's at the courthouse, though it can be his own fault at times.
  • He doesn't do too much research on his clients it seems, nor does he have enough skill to get the verdict he wants, leading to Jimmy and Kim outclassing him when they clash.
  • He's easily bribed with food thanks to his perpetual diet of snacks, first when Jimmy wants a more favorable deal for his client and later when he's asking for info about his own case.
  • While he grills Jimmy over the perks at Davis & Main, Jimmy points out a stain on his jacket. He notices it's vomit, which could've come from at least two different defendants, and drives the point of Jimmy's enviable spot home by leaving to prosecute another "scumbag" he dreads.
  • Later, Saul subjects him to an "ambush interview" stunt as an impromptu commercial for his services. Right after having to hit the vending machine to get the last bag of pretzels out.
  • When he's Jimmy's co-council during the United States v. Saul Goodman case, Jimmy does all of the heavy lifting, negotiating an extremely generous plea deal. Then after Jimmy throws all of it away and confesses to his crimes during the plea hearing, Bill feebly tries to salvage the deal to no avail and even tries to withdraw from the case, also to no avail.
• Deadpan Snarker: Whether it's talking about the "brain-dead" people he's prosecuting or engaging in Snark-to-Snark Combat with Jimmy, Bill is stiff with a sharp tongue.
• Dumbass No More: Throughout the series, Bill isn't shown as a particularly professional or quick-witted individual, but he nevertheless has a successful enough career to launch his own law firm less than a year after Saul Goodman's downfall.
• Everyone Has Standards: He's a sloppy lawyer that holds nothing but disdain for the petty criminals he prosecutes, but he's especially not a fan of Jimmy representing Lalo Salamanca and getting him off scot-free.
• Evil Power Vacuum: As revealed in Season 6, he eventually left the DA's office and began working in private practice as a sleazy, bus-bench-advertising defense attorney—filling the exact same gap in the market that Saul left when he fled Albuquerque.
• Food as Bribe: His Kryptonite, as it were. Jimmy immediately changes his mind by offering chips, and later, gets info on his own case by offering a burger and fries when all Oakley can get is a coffee and some snacks.
• Friendly Enemy: Although he's a frequent antagonist to Jimmy in the courtroom, he's only doing his job and neither of them holds any sincere ill will toward one another. The only time Jimmy really seems infuriated by him is when he mixes up case files.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He's massively jealous of Jimmy's position at Davis and Main, especially of the company car and the corporate housing.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: The only times he ever gives Jimmy a headache during public defender work is from him being too stubborn, easily swayed by an offer of junk food. Later, he tries to play a game of "chicken" from a losing standpoint against Kim, who has done enough work to save her juvenile client. He's not necessarily a bad lawyer, but can look incompetent against much better opposition.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's kind of obnoxious, even coming to visit Jimmy as he's booked to "see how the mighty have fallen" and indulge in a little boasting. At the same time, he does genuinely think of Jimmy as a friend and helps him out by bumping his stay in jail down, even though he doesn't have to.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: After a few seasons of dealing with Jimmy, he learned when he should cut a deal when arguing over Kim's client.
• Lawful Stupid: He has a reputation for being very difficult to bargain with, and when Jimmy tries at one point, Oakley simply keeps repeating the same phrase ("Petty with a prior") no matter what Jimmy does to try to reason with him. Hilariously, in that particular case, Jimmy winds up showing that Oakley actually has his cases mixed up, and has been talking about the wrong case/defendant the whole time.
• Logging onto the Fourth Wall: A bench advertising his own practice leads to an actual website, which is seen here.
• Meaningful Name: Oakley comes off as stiff and rigid.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Becomes as cold and disdainful to Jimmy as everyone else in the courthouse once news gets out that Jimmy actually bailed out Lalo Salamanca.
• Pet the Dog: He gets Jimmy's court date moved up so he doesn't have to spend longer in jail than is strictly necessary. He also tries to make Jimmy feel better, even though he was kind of a jerk at first.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Only an opponent for Jimmy and Kim since it's his job to prosecute their defendants.
• Recurring Extra: He doesn't make a major impact on the story for any of the main cast, just appearing whenever Jimmy and Kim involve themselves in public defender work or if they're at the courthouse.
• Satellite Character: Only appears if Jimmy or Kim decide to come down to the courthouse.
• Selective Obliviousness: He's epically blind to what he doesn't want or expect to see. From the wrong case files, to not seeing Jimmy's blatant discomfort when he just keeps banging on about the car and house like a stuck record.
• Shadow Archetype:
  • He could be seen as one to Season 1 Jimmy McGill, if Jimmy didn't have all the family baggage and conman past; a balding down-on-his-luck lawyer at the courthouse doing work related to public defense, with an ill-fitting suit and an abrasive personality.
  • He best fits this appearance in Season 2 when Jimmy sees him at the courthouse restroom, having made it as a lawyer at Davis & Main. Every time Jimmy tries to complain about certain parts of his job, Oakley cuts him off by pointing out how they're all great perks for a standard lawyer like him. He also spends the rest of their chat bemoaning his time prosecuting lowlifes, a time Jimmy actually misses. As Oakley walks off brimming with jealousy, the scene serves to show Jimmy how far he's progressed in his career and reminds him of what he'd risk throwing away.
• Smug Snake:
  • Dismisses all of Jimmy's pleading for a better deal by repeating that he's prosecuting a "petty with a prior", only to fold when Jimmy offers him food.
  • He has no rebuttal for Kim's skillful maneuvering to get a client down from months of jail to probation, and insists on playing "chicken" because he "invented chicken", before accepting anyway.
  • When Jimmy makes the change to Saul and gets an obviously-guilty client, Oakley tells him that it's a lost cause and brushes him off... only to come out of the office in disbelief that Jimmy suddenly got "witnesses" from the sewer to prove it was self-defense. Dumbfounded, he acquiesces to Jimmy's lighter sentence offer.
• Swapped Roles: Downplayed, but Season 6 reveals that he's gone from the Butt-Monkey of the courthouse to taking Jimmy's original role as a defender in private practice with ads on bus stop benches.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • He's finally seen winning a case, against post-Saul Jimmy, thanks to the latter having lost his skill after particularly traumatic events. Moreover, it was supposedly a case that Jimmy was set to win easily, and he still ended up giving it to Bill.
  • By the end of Season 6, it's revealed that after spending years as an unhappy, burnt-out prosecutor for the DA's office, Bill is shown to have opened his own private practice as a defense attorney with associates in the post-Breaking Bad era. He seems to be doing well to the point where he can afford to advertise on benches like Saul did before him.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Gives off this vibe with Jimmy in Season 3, as he's a bit prickly towards him, yet there's still a sense of fondness between them.

Robert Alley

Prosecutor Robert Alley

Portrayed By: Quinn VanAntwerp

The attorney who prosecutes Jimmy before the bar after Jimmy confesses to breaking into Chuck's house.

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• Don't Answer That: He tries to stop Chuck from answering any private questions Jimmy asks, but Chuck is too arrogant to take his advice. Plus, Jimmy made sure to get a lot of leeways thanks to the tape.
• Hero Antagonist: A clean lawyer simply doing his job as prosecution, only coming to conflict with Jimmy and Kim since it's his case.
• Innocently Insensitive: He compares (exaggeratedly) Chuck's condition to schizophrenia, which is blatant albeit inadvertently insulting to Chuck, who's already very sensitive about his condition.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He does a pretty good job prosecuting the case, but when he compares Chuck's condition to that of schizophrenia, Chuck has a breakdown on the stand which destroys his credibility, and that of Alley's entire case as well. Jimmy got the ball rolling, but Alley really could have handled it better.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He unwittingly plays into Jimmy and Kim's strategy over the course of the hearing, and while they didn't really need any help after the battery ploy, the last argument he's able to get out is what finally pushes Chuck over into a Motive Rant.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He's only antagonistic by doing his job as the lawyer meant to prosecute Jimmy, and he has no personal stakes or sadistic investment in getting him disbarred.
• Saying Too Much: The crucial reason he fucks up when prosecuting the case: the way he carelessly labels Chuck's condition as compared to schizophrenia, basically accusing his own client of being mentally ill in the process, helps push Chuck (who's very sensitive about precisely that) to have an emotional breakdown on the stand.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: He knows the best defense for Jimmy is to discredit Chuck's testimony and motivation behind the tape recording and the best way to do so is to use Chuck's illness against him. As such he is ready to argue it is irrelevant to Jimmy's breaking and entering as well as forgery since the facts doesn't change no matter Chuck's physical and mental health. In this scenario Robert is fighting prejudices toward the victim to make sure they get justice. What he doesn't know is that Jimmy was targeting his brother's pride the whole time and Robert's comments just rushed Chuck's outburst revealing his motivation and testimony are tampered by his resentment and jealousy toward his brother. This change the scenario as the victim egging on the perpetrator so they can get disbarred which Robert did not prepare for.

Kyra Hay

Assistant District Attorney Kyra Hay

Portrayed By: Kimberly Herbert Gregory

The prosecutor dealing with Jimmy's charges relating to his breaking into Chuck's house.

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• Black Boss Lady: Described as "tough but fair" by district attorneys, she's brought in to help Chuck put the screws on Jimmy and intends to do so with a stern approach.
• Crusading Lawyer: Of the Holier Than Thou kind. She tries to put what she thinks is the best possible punishment against Jimmy with Chuck's advice, saying she'll "hold the line" for certain measures and forcing Jimmy to make a more "sincere" apology.
• Hero Antagonist: She's against Jimmy, and she certainly treats him with disdain, but she's only doing her job to the best of her ability. She's also aware of Chuck's reputation, not his darker side, and only knows of Jimmy from what Chuck and Howard have told her.
• Holier Than Thou: She makes Jimmy physically face Chuck and personally apologize to him because she detects a "lack of sincerity" on Jimmy's part in the legal statement, even asking him to look his brother in the eyes, as if he were a small child.
• Outside-Context Problem: A Downplayed, Invoked, and rather mundane case. Since the entire District Attorney's office knows Jimmy, Albuquerque's legal system has to summon her from Belen so Jimmy can be taken to court without causing a conflict of interest. This means Jimmy can't get as much info on his own case as planned when he tries to ask Oakley for details.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Hay is described by her colleague Oakley as "tough but fair," and for the most part it's true but she does seem to be a little biased in favor of Chuck; granted, this is because she doesn't have all the facts in her possession.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: She’s working with the knowledge she has, and while she has no idea that the deal she’s giving Jimmy is Chuck’s plan to bring him to heel, she thinks Chuck is the victim of his Hair-Trigger Temper brother and reacts accordingly.

Gina Khalil

Assistant District Attorney Gina Khalil

Portrayed By: Saidah Arrika Ekulona

The prosecutor assigned to prosecute Lalo Salamanca, under the name of Jorge de Guzman, for the murder of Fred Whalen.

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• Black Boss Lady: She is a black woman who leads up the Whalen case.
• Crusading Lawyer: Up against Jimmy defending Lalo Salamanca's violent streak and murder of Fred Whalen, and she goes through whatever it takes to get Lalo.
• Didn't See That Coming: She and her team could never anticipate their evidence being called into question with witness tampering. When Jimmy puts on an act to grill her and Tim Roberts for letting "Dave Clark" coach the librarian, she has no idea what he's talking about and later mentions her team furiously investigating what happened.
• Good Lawyers, Good Clients: The Whalen family is hoping she brings justice to whoever killed Fred Whalen.
• Hero Antagonist: She's in charge of prosecuting Lalo for his streak of violent crimes. Unfortunately, she's up against Saul Goodman and some backing from Fring and Mike.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Had no idea that the evidence stacked against "Jorge de Guzman" was built on witness tampering, and when Jimmy gets a favorable outcome for Lalo, she's seen comforting the Whalen family for the miscarriage of justice.
• Sassy Black Woman: Brushes Jimmy off after he makes a big show at her and Detective Roberts, and demands Lalo face severe charges during the court hearing. Later, she tries to get the real identity and background of "Jorge de Guzman" with snide delivery, but Jimmy won't budge.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: She's intent on getting Lalo behind bars or worse, but unfortunately gets out-maneuvered by Jimmy using arguments supplied to him by Fring through Mike that get Lalo out on bail. Just as she's arguing him to be a flight risk, Jimmy claims he has "deep ties" to Albuquerque with actors paid to pretend to be his family. When the delivery of $7,000,000 lets her investigate further, Lalo mentions he'll be in Mexico before they can really get him.

Suzanne Ericsen

Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Ericsen

"It's wrong. You know it's wrong. And I think Jimmy does too."

Portrayed By: Julie Pearl

An assistant district attorney for Bernallio County.

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• The Con: Becomes a target for Jimmy and Kim in Coushatta, where she's gradually tricked into believing she's wrong for trying to prosecute Huell and drops the case under the belief that he's something of a hometown hero and will cause a media circus if taken to court.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Ericsen seeks to get a three-year prison sentence against Huell for assaulting a plainclothes police officer, even though she's previously prosecuted five other people who committed the same crime (in much more violent ways than Huell, who just hit the guy over the head with a grocery bag) and sought lesser sentences in those earlier cases. When Kim calls her out on her faulty logic, Ericsen reasons that Huell's sentence should be longer because he was previously arrested for pickpocketing, even though he had no violent history like the other defendants.
• Hero Antagonist: Her boneheaded handling of the Huell case notwithstanding, overall she's a dedicated public servant who is passionate about putting away dangerous criminals such as Tuco and Lalo. She eventually discloses to Kim that the DA's office have their eyes on Jimmy as well due to his Cartel ties.
• Horrible Judge of Character: In season six she thinks Kim is an upstanding citizen who will listen to reason and an offer of a way out, unaware that Kim is the one who scammed her so hard with Huell and really doesn’t like her.
• Jerkass: Her attitude in the Huell case. She blindly takes the word of the cop (who as Jimmy mentioned had been put on desk duty twice for alcoholism) over Huell, and tries to give Huell an excessive sentence simply because he was a repeat offender (even though Huell's history is less violent than other defendants she's prosecuted for worse variants of Huell's offense, and sought lesser sentences for), and dismisses Jimmy as a "scumbag disbarred lawyer" (never mind Jimmy was only suspended, not disbarred).
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Attitude aside Huell did assault the cop, the sentence becomes way less excessive if you keep in mind Huell is a career criminal (he is in Calderas' notebook if for pickpocketing or intimidation services)and Jimmy is a scumbag lawyer (who dodged disbarment by hiding his major offense).
  • Kim's priorities are fairly skewed in season six so doesn't listen, but Suzanne is right in that while Jimmy never wanted to be a Cartel lawyer, it's still a crime to knowingly defend a Cartel head.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Initially dedicated to seeing Huell punished for the charges and doubles down after Jimmy and Kim get the first part of their con going, but when the potential media circus is coupled with the imagery of Huell apparently having a heroic streak, she gives up on prosecuting him and finally negotiates with Kim.
• Narcissist: In addition to her Jerkass attitudes, she also seems to have tendencies toward this, with part of her American Greed interview consisting of her taking time to groom herself in a mirror.
• Recurring Character: Appears whenever Jimmy or Kim have more serious business at the courthouse.
• Saved by Canon: She appears in El Camino with SAC Ramey at the press conference held the morning after Felina, showing she'll survive the remainder of Better Call Saul.
• Spotting the Thread: When Mike decides to tell her that Tuco's gun was actually his, she quickly figures out he's been threatened.

Ko

Ko

Portrayed By: Keong Sim

A lawyer prosecuting a man named Sakey. He has the misfortune to go up against Saul Goodman.

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• Backfire on the Witness Stand: He called the victim to the stand in the hopes that the victim's identification of the defendant would help secure a conviction. Unfortunately, the victim identified the wrong man, causing a mistrial.

"Prosecutor"

"Prosecutor"

Portrayed By: Sanford Kelley

A prosecutor who goes up against both Jimmy and Kim.

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• The Ace: His defeat of Jimmy isn't a big deal, since Jimmy's clients were terrible people who recorded themselves raping a head, but he's also one of the few lawyers to beat Kim.

Judges

Benedict Munninger

Benedict Munninger

Portrayed By: Ethan Phillips

A judge in a New Mexico court.

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• The Con: To help exonerate Huell and get him a better deal, Kim and Jimmy pretend a media circus is about to happen by flooding his mail with letters supposedly from the citizens of Coushatta, Louisiana. Unwilling to see them packed in his court, he urges Ericson to negotiate with Kim again.
• Deep South: When he gets the letters from Louisiana, he refers to them as being from "some backwater" and doesn't want to see "a bunch of yahoo's" at court.
• Troll: When he learns Kim wants to take on more meaningful work, he tells her he has something in mind... and then describes the plot from The Verdict.

Gerard Velber

Gerard Velber

Portrayed By: Jim Hoffmaster

The judge who presides over Kim and Jimmy's wedding.

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• Deadpan Snarker: He is snarky and sarcastic while presiding over the wedding.

Xavier Parson

Xavier Parson

Portrayed By: Dan Martin

The judge overseeing Lalo's bail hearing.

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• Deadpan Snarker: When Khalil tells him that the state is investigating how a random individual nobody knew could haver coached a witness without the prosecution knowing, Parson just snarks, "I would hope so."

Gabriel Dearden

Gabriel Dearden

Portrayed By: Arye Gross

A judge considering one of Kim Wexler's motions.

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• Resignations Not Accepted: He tries to stop Kim from withdrawing from her client's case. He only backs down when he learns she's no longer a lawyer.

Rand Casimero

Rand Casimero

Portrayed By: John Posey

A retired judge serving as a mediator in the Sandpiper case.

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• Spanner in the Works: When Casimero gets a cast on his arm, it completely screws up Jimmy's and Kim's plans to impersonate him and thus mess with Howard (since their impersonator didn't have a cast).

Chapek

Chapek

Portrayed By: Frances Lee McCain

A judge presiding over a robbery case.

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• Stern Old Judge: She is older, and she makes her anger clear when Jimmy tricks her by swapping in a lookalike for the actual defendant.

Margaret Matlof

Margaret Matlof

Portrayed By: Nancy Chartier

A judge presiding over one of the cases Kim takes on as a public defender.

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• Reasonable Request Rejected: Matlof states that Kim's case is well-reasoned, but then goes to say that she's denying it anyways because the defendant has a record.

Samantha Small

Samantha Small

Portrayed By: Barbara Rosenblat

A judge who winds up overseeing a very unusual plea agreement with an especially notorious client.

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• Stern Old Judge: She's very stern to all the lawyers in her court, including Jimmy, and she's also an older woman.

Judge Papadoumian

Judge Papadoumian

A judge whom Jimmy/Saul is apparently on good terms with.

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• The Ghost: She is often mentioned in both Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad, but never seen.
• Nice Girl: Portrayed as one of the more sympathetic, agreeable judges, and one of the easiest for a defense attorney to get a favorable outcome from. Jimmy expresses gratitude when she presides over any of his cases, while Gomez compares her to Ho Chi Minh for her perceived liberal leanings.
  Hank Schrader: "Where'd you get your law degree, Goodman? The same clown college you got that suit?"
  Saul Goodman: "You know who likes this suit? Judge Papadoumian. She thinks I'm a snappy dresser."

US Department Of Justice (SPOILERS)

George Castellano

George Castellano

Portrayed By: Bob Jesser

A United States Attorney who is in charge of prosecuting Saul Goodman.

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• Break the Haughty: He initially seems quite confident that his case against Saul will succeed in sending him to prison for a long time, but Saul's shrewd negotiating tactics embarrass him into agreeing to a much shorter sentence.
• The Horseshoe Effect: Just as Saul Goodman was famously reluctant to actually go to trial during his career, Castellano prefers to make easy plea deals rather than risk spoiling his 100% conviction record.