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Impersonating a Lawyer

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Confidence isn't everything. Jon is not a lawyer. He is on trial for impersonating a law firm. Do not take his legal advice.
Being/having a lawyer comes with a lot of power that can be used to exploit the law; people you want to sue are more likely to give in to your demands, it's easier to abuse legal loopholes, and if a lawyer is particularly crafty and immoral, a person can get away with flat out murder. However, not everyone who wants the potential power of a lawyer has the benefit of having or being a lawyer. The solution? Fake being a lawyer or hire a fake one.

The most common reason for this type of scam is money. One common method involves a fake lawyer claiming that someone owes money via a lawsuit, taxes, child support, debts, etc. A person who wants someone to push their debts on someone else might hire a fake lawyer to trick another person into paying them. A person looking for quick cash might fake being a lawyer in order to trick people seeking honest legal advice.

Because of the nature of this scam, people who have legal expertise tend to easily spot people trying to pull it on them. If a scammer goes after a legal expert, said expert will easily see through the scammer's lies due to their knowledge of the legal process. In addition, because of said knowledge, legal can easily expose fake lawyers by simply asking basic questions that a real lawyer will be able to verify but a fake one will be unable to answer.

It should be noted that in Real Life, this is a crime known as "unauthorized practice of law." The exact consequences for said crimes vary, but in some areas, said crime is considered a felony and could potentially result in fines and incarceration.

See also Impersonating an Officer, Impersonating a Gangster, and Phony Veteran. Compare A Fool for a Client, when a character (who may or may not be an actual lawyer) actually does represent themselves in a trial.

Examples:

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    Comic Strips 
  • Snoopy the dog from Peanuts occasionally imagines himself as "the world-famous lawyer", complete with briefcase and bowler hat. He'll even issue business cards to the child characters. He has Imagine Spots of being in a courtroom, and winning his case based purely on his renown. Of course, being a dog, that's as far as it'll ever go.

    Film — Animated 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In The Departed Fitzy, one of the gangsters, asks for a lawyer while being detained for a traffic violation. Colin Sullivan then pretends to be a lawyer (although he never specifically calls himself one) in order to bait Fitzy into calling the location where the rest of the gangsters are staying.
  • Legally Blonde: Elle briefly pretends to be Paulette's attorney in an effort to get her dog back from her ex-husband, using a mishmash of random legal jargon to convince him to grant custody of their dog. This falls very much under artistic license since Elle was only a law student with no right to call herself an attorney, therefore the stunt would be unauthorized practice of law, which would have killed her legal career before it started had anyone else found out about it.
  • My Cousin Vinny: Downplayed by the title character: in order to defend Bill and Sam, Vinny has to get certified to temporarily practice law in the state of Alabama. When asked by the judge if he's ever tried a murder case before, Vinny lies that he's done a few: "You know, win some, lose some." He is in fact a personal injury attorney and not a criminal defense attorney at all. As LegalEagle noted in his review of the film, lying to the judge about this, or anything else really, is a very bad idea for a lawyer.
  • In O Brother, Where Art Thou?, though he claims to be a bank robber, Everett was actually imprisoned for practicing law without a license. His initial plan is to leave the state and try the same elsewhere, though circumstances provide a different opportunity.
  • Super Mario Bros. (1993) has Koopa impersonate a lawyer so he can interrogate the imprisoned Mario Brothers about Daisy and the meteorite pendant.
  • In Trial And Error 1997, Charlie Tuttle is an actual lawyer hired to defend his wife's obviously guilty cousin in a fraud case, but the trial happens to fall on the day after his bachelor party, and an accident leaves him too knackered to appear in court. As he was only supposed to secure a continuance for the client, he decides to send his actor buddy Richard Rietti to pose as him for the day, but then the case goes to trial, and Richard is forced to continue the ruse in order to avoid going to jail for fraud.

    Live-Action TV 
  • SuitsThe entire premise of the show (for the first few seasons) is that brilliant slacker Mike Ross is posing as a Harvard Law School graduate working at a prestigious Manhattan firm.
  • The Brittas Empire: In "A Walk on the Wildside", Brittas discovers that Carole was complicit in Penny's vandalism of the "Face in the Crowd" competition sign by lending a marker and tells her not to speak until she has spoken to her legal representative. When the actual winner of the competition shows up, a poor choice of words from Carole leads Brittas to believe that the man is her solicitor. When the man informs Brittas that he is in fact a plumber, Brittas ends up believing that the man was posing as her lawyer and becomes more hesitant about granting him the prize, even though he wasn't doing such a thing in the first place.
  • Burn Notice: In one episode, after pulling some hijinks, the main character pulls into the nearest law firm he can find and begins to chat up an actual lawyer leaving their office in order to shake a trigger-happy tail, convincing the pursuers that he's just a regular defense lawyer.
  • The entire premise of Community is that Jeff Winger's college degree (that he needed to go to law school) was fake, thus making him unable to be a lawyer until he earned one. His law degree is actually real (though he did cheat on the LSAT, which you need to pass to get into law school).
  • The Good Wife: "Unorthodox": While doing routine background on Alicia's co-counsel Ryan Alprin, an independent low-cost attorney, Kalinda discovers that Alprin isn't actually registered with the bar in Illinois and therefore is practicing law without a license. Alicia makes him fess up to the judge once the trial is over.
  • How to Get Away with Murder: In season 1, after Griffin and Rebecca are arrested for Lila's murder, Wes poses as a member of the public defenders' office to visit Rebecca in jail and warn her that Griffin is going to pin the whole murder on her.
  • Law & Order:
    • In the episode "DR 1-102", a suspect has taken a hostage and demands a lawyer (meaning a defense lawyer). Assistant DA Serena Southerlyn enters the building and tells the suspect she is a lawyer (which she is), but never says that she is his lawyer. But he assumes that she is, so he trusts her and tells her what he did. She then talks him into surrendering. The suspect's statements to her are admitted into evidence against him, but Southerlyn faces disciplinary action from the Bar Association for violating the code of lawyer's ethics, section DR 1-102.
    • In the episode "Nowhere Man", Assistant District Attorney Daniel Tenofsky is found murdered. During the investigation, the detectives discover that "Tenofsky" wasn't his real name, and he wasn't a lawyer at all. He managed to get a job with the DA's office and work there for fifteen years, doing very good work in the process and successfully prosecuting numerous cases, despite never going to law school and never passing the bar exam.
  • Leverage: By the end of the series, every member of the team, except Parker, has impersonated a lawyer on at least one occasion, sometimes to act as counsel for their client, sometimes to con their mark.
  • In the MacGyver (2016) episode "Bullet+Pen" Mac is arrested by the police who have no idea he's a federal agent and think he killed someone. The Phoenix Foundation can't pull the "secret agency card" to help him until they are 100% sure that Mac is innocent. However, they need to contact Mac, so Jack impersonates his lawyer and uses confidentiality to talk with him alone.
  • It happened twice in M*A*S*H:
    • In the episode "Dear Dad... Again...", the newly-transferred Captain Casey, a brilliant surgeon, is revealed to have had zero surgical training, a license or even a medical degree. As Hawkeye is grilling him at the end, he lets on that he also impersonated a lawyer among other professions. He's good at them, but never had the patience to actually do the coursework to legally be able to practice any of them.
    • In "Fade out, Fade In", Klinger has retained the services of a lawyer who happened to be among that episode's wounded to represent him in arguing that Klinger merits a Section 8. At least Klinger thinks he's a lawyer. Instead, the man is a private and a serial impersonator who it's implied is trying that as his own Section 8 gambit. Klinger is not impressed at this development.
  • My Name Is Earl: Before reforming, Earl ran a scam where he would pretend to be a criminal lawyer and tell the wives of convicts that he could help their husbands if they would sleep with him. During the series itself, Earl catches up with one of the men whose wife he slept with to make up for another transgression. The man had reformed after jail and became a priest. After finding out that Earl had slept with his wife, he renounces the priesthood and returns to a life of crime.
  • NCIS: In one episode, a suspect being interrogated demands a lawyer, as is his right. Ellie Bishop then tricks him into assuming she's the requested lawyer, although she never says flat-out that she is a lawyer; if he had bothered to look at the card she gave him, he would have known that she is an NSA agent. The suspect does talk and they do solve the case, but it's never revealed whether his evidence is considered usable in court.
  • Played for Laughs in Power Rangers Cosmic Fury. Mucus's cover when sneaking into Zedd's base to save Ollie is "Mucus Mucusson, mushroom-at-law".
  • Spaced: Brian, is a Mad Artist who pretends to his mother to be a barrister. Whenever he is meeting his mother, he wears a complete lawyer outfit, meaning a well-fitting suit. One time when he is with mom, an angry man starts arguing with the mother, and Brian steps in. Man immediately assumes that he is a lawyer and mother confirms it.
  • Still Game: The episode "Recipe" has Jack and Victor act as lawyers on behalf of Pete the Jakey in a case against Henderson's Bakers for compensation for him creating their number one product, the Beefy Bake. Jack and Victor's knowledge of the law comes solely from watching Perry Mason and as such, their objections and questioning are laughable at best. Despite all this, they almost win with their best argument being the date Pete created the Beefy Bake on was a Sunday when the factory was closed and he wasn't on company time. Unfortunately, Pete gets piss drunk during the recess and is bribed by Henderson with a globe full of drink to settle out of court.

    Theatre 
  • The Merchant of Venice: Portia shows up to the climactic court scene in disguise as a male doctor of law to save Antonio's life. To help her cover, she has a letter of reference, official robes, and possibly legal pointers from her cousin Bellario, who's both a real lawyer and a friend of the Duke.

    Visual Novels 
  • Ace Attorney:
    • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations:
      • In case 3, Furio Tigre steals Phoenix's identity in order to get Maggie Byrde found guilty of the murder he committed by losing the case on purpose. Aside from the fact that he and Phoenix have similar hairstyles, his disguise was awful, with his attorney's badge being made of cardboard, yet pretty much everybody was fooled.
      • Downplayed in "Bridge to the Turnabout". Miles Edgeworth is a lawyer, but he is specifically a Prosecutor. When Phoenix ends up injured in an accident though, Edgeworth has to pretend to be a defense attorney in his place regarding the murder of Elise Deauxnim. In order to avoid suspicion, he gets Franziska Von Karma to serve as Prosecutor and gets a different judge than usual knowing the regular judge would instantly recognize him as not actually being a defense attorney. Once Phoenix has recovered, the case is handed back to him.
    • Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth: Defense attorney Calisto Yew is revealed to actually be an alias for an unnamed agent of an international smuggling operation. This instance is unusual in that she practiced law for years under this alias, indicating she may have legitimately passed the bar exam.
    • The Great Ace Attorney: The second game begins with Susato pretending to be Naruhodo's male cousin so that she can defend her friend. She has the benefit of being a legal assistant, but almost everyone still noticed. The only reason she gets away with it is because the judge is a friend of her dad.

    Web Animation 
  • Etra chan saw it!: Akamatsu and Tachibana are a duo of con artists whose method of scamming people is to have Tachibana fake being injured and threaten to sue them unless they pay compensation, with Akamatsu pretending being a lawyer. Akamatsu is a law student whose knowledge of the law means he can fool ordinary people, but his and Tachibana's scam gets exposed when Karin's lawyer Yuzuriha exposes him, causing them to get expelled and charged with fraud.
  • Gossip City: One of my mom friends brought a lawyer to my house and tried to trick me into paying: Kaori tried to sue Himari for having an affair with her husband Kenya accompanied by a lawyer named Kobayashi. However, it turned out that Himari is an actual lawyer and grilled Kobayashi on whether he's a real lawyer. Kaori and Kobayashi retreated but Himari countersued them for fraud.
  • MoniRobo: "My wife comes back to me after three years, but she is acting weirdly..." - Nashiyo divorced Atsumu to remarry a wealthier man only for the latter's company to go bust six months later, leading her to co-sign it. Three years later, she schemed with the man to have him pose as a lawyer while she pretended to have amnesia to squeeze money out of Atsumu and her parents. Much to her dismay, Atsumu reveals that he works at a law office and is well-connected to actual lawyers, and further investigation reveals that the man became wealthy through various gray activities, on top of having Nashiyo act as a honey trap. As a result, both get arrested and imprisoned.
  • Revenge Films: Mr. Robinson and his lawyer Kyle Bennet claims that the OP's husband slept with Mr. Robinson's wife, and are demanding compensation or else they will go to court. OP calls her husband who majored in law AND knows the real Kyle Bennet, who's much older than the fake one. Mr. Robinson tries to claim that he didn't know the fake Bennet wasn't real, but a police investigation proves that Robinson and the fake Bennet are brothers as well as partners in crime.
  • SparkTales: "Unmasking a Fraud Confronting a Fake Lawyer: The Truth Behind the $50K Demand!" - Agamemnon is a fake lawyer who claims that Lisa is guilty of adultery and that her husband is demanding five million yen as compensation. Lisa knows that Agamemnon couldn't have been hired by her husband Tully because Tully passed away five years ago. Tully's brother Noah is an actual lawyer can easily tell that Agamemnon is a phony because of the obvious mistakes he made and his inability to answer basic questions such as the law firm he works for, and calls the police on him.
  • Trouble Busters: Marcia and Helen's mother-in-law try to scam her by claiming that her house violated safety regulations, with Marcia claiming to be a lawyer. Unfortunately for the two con artists, Helen is an actual lawyer who can tell right away that Marcia is a phony because of her inability and refusal to answer basic questions such as her registration number and where she graduated from. Even worse for Marcia, Helen eventually manages to get Marcia to admit she's not a lawyer on tape, which results in Marcia being sent to prison for unauthorized practice of law as well as fraud for tricking Helen's MIL into giving her money under false pretenses.

    Web Videos 
  • Viral Texts: Nina tries to sue Lily for the emotional distress she experienced as a result of Nina suffering the consequences of having an affair with Lily's husband (being dumped by her boyfriend, being sued, and having her parents cut ties with her). Nina hires a fake lawyer to threaten Lily by claiming that he will be taken to court unless she pays Nina $30,000, but Lily sees right through the phony's scheme due to being a lawyer herself and manages to figure out that the "lawyer" she's talking to is a fake due to his inability to answer credentials. Said fake lawyer was Nina's little brother who didn't know that what he was doing was illegal, and the only reason he didn't suffer legal consequences was because Lily let him off with a warning.

    Western Animation 
  • Batman: The Animated Series: In "The Man Who Killed Batman" Harley Quinn disguises herself as a high-powered defense attorney to bail Sid the Squid out of jail. She then kidnaps him and brings him to the Joker.
  • The Looney Tunes Show: In "Daffy Duck Esquire", Daffy attempts to impress his girlfriend Tina's visiting father Frank by impersonating a lawyer, setting up a fake office and having Lola pose as his secretary. It goes wrong when Yosemite Sam attempts to hire him for a Frivolous Lawsuit, and Daffy gets caught up in the possibility of the money that he goes forward with it, only to immediately lose when Speedy tells the judge he's not a real lawyer.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: In the episode "Krabs vs. Plankton", SpongeBob is forced to act as Mr. Krabs' lawyer following Plankton suing him after slipping and falling in his restaurant (in reality, his injuries are fake; this is just a scheme to claim the Krabby Patty secret formula). Mr. Krabs originally got a proper lawyer, but he actually slips and injures himself and instructs SpongeBob to take his place, imparting that they have a slam-dunk case and all SpongeBob needs is what's inside his briefcase. Unfortunately, he forgets to tell SpongeBob the unlock combination, so SpongeBob spends the trial attempting to force it open and clumsily acting as a defense attorney when called to the stand.

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