Just Legal

Television series

Just Legal is an American courtroom drama television series that stars Don Johnson and Jay Baruchel as two courtroom lawyers in Venice, California. The series premiered on The WB on September 19, 2005, and was canceled on October 3, 2005, after three episodes had been aired. Almost a year later The WB burned off five additional episodes following a repeat of the pilot on August 6, 2006. The series concluded on September 10, 2006. This is the last show to air on The WB before its rebrand to The CW.

Just Legal, starring Don Johnson and Jay Baruchel, is a drama about two "amusingly mismatched lawyers" that "comes at you unassumingly." David "Skip" Ross (Baruchel), 19, is a legal genius who graduated from law school at the top of his class, but now can find no one to hire him. Enter Grant Cooper, a washed up middle aged lawyer who has made one too many bad choices in his career, leaving him a jaded court appointed attorney, rejected by his peers. Skip is Grant's golf caddy, and he convinces Grant just to let him write a legal brief for him; but when they arrive at the courthouse, Grant is told he needs a "second chair" (an attorney to sit at the second seat at counsel's table), and he gives them the only one he has: Skip Ross. Grant has no intention of actually bringing Skip into his practice, but his charm, enthusiasm, intelligence, and most of all, ability to actually win a case, win Grant over. There are a variety of cases featured on the show, from murder cases to botched plastic surgery. Many of the storylines are based on real life cases. Grant and Skip do their own "dirty work" for their cases, going to crime scenes and interviewing witnesses, as Grant teaches Skip more about what it means to be a “real lawyer” and Skip teaches Grant more about what it means to trust in people. The series is set in Venice and neighboring Santa Monica, California.

The scores by Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic differ very greatly as the former gave a 77% 'fresh', but the other a mere 53% 'yellow'.

Just Legal was cancelled in October 2005 after only three episodes aired due to low ratings; the program lost a large portion of its lead in 7th Heaven’s audience and came in last place among the six major broadcast networks in its Monday night timeslot. After almost a year off the air, the series returned on August 6, 2006 with a rerun of the pilot episode, followed by the network burning off the final five episodes on subsequent Sundays. The final episode aired on September 10, 2006.

Don Johnson's character, Grant Cooper, is much like his role of Det. Sonny Crockett on Miami Vice, in that both are cynical, jaded men of the law who do know right from wrong but are willing to stand up against the powers that be if necessary. In the episode The Heater, Grant Cooper says, "I used to live on a boat." This is a subtle reference to his days on Miami Vice, where he played Det. Sonny Crockett who lived on the boat St. Vitus Dance. Cooper was also the surname of his partner Rico Tubbs's alias on Miami Vice ("Rico Cooper"). Names like Nancy Grace, Mark Geragos, Johnnie Cochran, and Greta Van Susteren were mentioned in the show. Famous modern day courtroom cases such as those of Scott Peterson and Robert Blake were mentioned.