Frank Sullivan: "I didn't think it mattered."
Jack: "Believe me, it matters!"
Sullivan: "You gotta believe me, this wasn't my idea."
Jack: "Elvis spoke to you through your car radio?"
Claire: "Karen Gaines killed her son. She has every reason to lie."
Jack: "And she's very good at it!"
"I want two things -- justice for the dead and respect for the living."
Claire: "You're talking about suborning perjury."
Jack: "Just between you, me, and this lamppost, I have no intention of putting Mrs. Capetti on the stand."
Lawyer: "My client will plead to custodial interference."
Jack: "I need a felony. I hurt myself more shaving."
Claire: "It never ends. Mr. Gaines is suing his ex-wife for wrongful death."
Jack: "What does he want from her? The dollar an hour she'll make folding prison laundry?"
"Actually, we're thinking of charging you with murder... What should I call you, 'Stiletto,' 'The Phantom,' or Milton Stillman?"
Lawyer: "Actually, he doesn't have to tell the grand jury anything."
Jack: "Why, because he's the phantom?"
"You take a run at her. At least she's not claiming to be Connie Chung."
"Fortunately, the statute only applies to such trivial offenses such as cop killings, torture killings, felony murder, and killing a witness to a crime."
"You have to look at the big picture, Adam. Paul Sandig is the poster child for the death penalty. He's white, he's rich, and he killed a police officer. Not in the heat of passion, but in cold blood."
(After the appeals court ruling): "Talk about passing the buck."
Jack: "And how much did you make in that time?"
Sandig: "Over a million dollars."
Jack: "So maybe the threats weren't the only reason you didn't stop."
"If you kill a cop, how long will it be until a cop kills you?"
Brolin: "Tuna fish? Is that how you celebrate a victory?"
Jack: "It's chicken salad. And it's not over until after the sentencing, then it's tuna fish."
(To Sandig's wife on the stand): "So if you're stressed out and you're an otherwise nice person, it's OK to put six bullets in a person?"
"It won't take much to convince a jury these brothers didn't walk out of Beau Geste."
"The bell's not ringing, Adam "
Rothenberg: "Did anyone ever tell you you're a sore loser McCoy?"
Jack: "Only when I lose."
"You kick the system Mr. Nicodose, don't be surprised when it turns around and bites you."
"He was so concerned about his family, he went out and killed three people."
"Maybe he joined the Golden Agers club at the ACLU."
"I don't know who I want to kick more, Hynes or that technician."
"What did you think? It was bargain day at the S&L?"
Jack: "She started to behave like a criminal."
Claire: "Let's take a look at what happened to her!"
Jack: "Something happened to every criminal. Couldn't any of them say, `I'm only mugging this old lady because my father abandoned me, because I was socio-economically deprived?"
Melnick: "Three eyewitnesses who have never been seen by defense attorney, and never been subjected to cross examination."
McCoy: "Here are their addresses."
Melnick: "Thank you!"
McCoy: "You want bus fare?"
(referring to Melnick):
Claire: "Well, she handles defeat pretty well."
Jack: "No, I know her, she doesn't."
"I get it, I'm supposed to ignore the fact that Leslie Harlan shot up a liquor store."
Jack: (to her mother) "Why was she expelled from St. Antonia's?"
Melnick: "Your Honor, minor peccadilloes from my client's past are irrelevant here."
Jack: "This is the great expert on Leslie Harlan's mind and character!"
"If every case was clear and easy, they wouldn't pay us these fabulous salaries."
Leslie: "I'm not a criminal."
Jack: "Really? Do you want to see the video again?"
"So can I take my vacation now?"
"The crazier you are, the more you argue you're not."
"Heads, you lose; tails, you lose worse."
"She takes this 'till death do us part' thing seriously?"
"I'll give you a little wisdom, Claire: Modesty and trial work don't mix."
"You know what I think? I think you've been reading too much James M. Kane."
Claire: "So you think Dr. Danforth will 'keep it in his pants' now?"
Jack: "Probably not."
Claire: "Five witnesses, no cross-examination."
Jack: "He probably doesn't want to waste the court's time."
"Never underestimate the depravity of American society."
"A dead baby, a solid confession - any lawyer with an ounce of lucidity will take 25 to life and run."
"The Oprah-fication of America ended when the Menendez brothers weren't convicted. The pendulum has swung, Adam. People don't care about why anymore, they just care about what."
"His opening was irrelevant, inflammatory, and prejudicial. not to mention comical."
"You can't raise something in opening arguments you can't possibly prove during your case, or did you miss that day in Blanche`s class?"
"Legal incompetence as a defense at trial? You're kidding!"
"Ok, Mr. Feinman the party is over."
"Do I have to explain the law to you, Claire? Crazy isn't the same as legally insane."
Liz: "But Jack, this is an extreme case. The jury is going to want to know why she did what she did."
Jack: "Maybe she was downright bad."
Liz: "You actually believe that?"
Jack: "With all due respect for your profession Liz, I think its been overplayed in the court room."
Claire: "So people are just good or bad?"
Jack: "Its better than healthy or sick. Deny evil, you deny responsibility, open up the jails and send everyone to a shrink."
"So tell me, Father, is everyone in hell psychologically unstable?"
Adam: "Beating up on a priest. Hell of a way to win a case."
Jack "I was trying to make a point."
Adam: "You got sandbagged by a rookie."
Jack: "Excuse me!"
Feinman: "He's badgering, Your Honor."
Jack: "Sit down and shut up Mr. Feinman."
"Let me ask you this, Mrs. Coleman. Is God happy about what you did?"
"The Got you described sounds like He's sitting around heaven...he gets bored...so he arranges for you to murder your eight-month-old daughter."
"What can I say? Freud's out, the Devil is in."
"When you're raised by the Jesuits, you end up obedient or impertinent."
Claire: "Can't forgive anyone, huh?"
Jack: "No, I can't. Besides, that was bourbon. I'm drinking scotch."
"It had more to do with the law of inevitability."
"But I'm a gracious winner, Alice. If you discuss a plea, I'm all ears."
(upon hearing of Payne's planned Jewish conspiracy defense): "If the judge will stop laughing long enough to let you."
"Turn back the clock, he would be drafting the house rules at Auschwitz."
(to Lennie): "I'm sorry, it's not about you, Detective."
"In fact, it's your stupidity that got you into this trouble, isn't that right?"
Jack: "And where did you think you'd be (at college next year)?"
Hastings: "I don't know!"
Jack: "Well, it wouldn't be at Princeton!"
Hastings: "That `kike' was trying to ruin me!"
Jack: "As in the kikes you joked about killing?"
"Even a pack rat like Nixon was short eighteen minutes."
"We had to pull the one Judge who reads the canons with a microscope."
"But Adam, you know how emotional I get."
Adam: "What do I say about Andrew Dillard? 'Oops'?"
Jack: Tell them your staff is so good they can even convict an innocent man."
"Most killers aren't thoughtful enough to provide witnesses."
Claire: "Isn't there a rule about not making it personal?"
Jack: "Haven't you heard? I personally, deliberately, suppressed evidence."
Claire: "Right."
Jack: "Right? That's a ringing endorsement."
Claire: "Jack, you have made some pretty close calls."
Jack: "You want to co-sign the complaint?"
(while "coaching" Claire on how to do her deposition)
Claire: "Is that better?"
Jack: "Not if you say it like that."
"We represent the people in a search for justice, which necessarily means the truth. It's not a competition and we're not paid to win."
"This job would be easier if it weren't for the cops."
"Paul will argue the bank move to support her parents only makes her halo shine brighter."
"Congratulations, Paul. You just bullied a judge."
"This is all a smoke screen."
Jack: "You're practicing law, not social science."
Robinette: "I'm fighting for my client."
Jack: "You're playing chicken with your client's future."
"The way Jenny Mays lost her son was tragic. What she did to get him back was criminal."
"He was your accomplice. Share the crime, share the time."
Claire: "He'll be on death row well into the next century."
Jack: "Plenty of time for him to practice his schtick."
Stivers: "Sharon and I had a relationship."
Jack: "That's right, you were her driver. What happened? Did you get upset because she made you give up a parking space?"
Claire: "Does it really matter? Even if he mistakenly believed they had a serious relationship, he still qualifies for extreme emotional disturbance."
Jack: "Mistakenly, not idiotically."
"There's a world of difference between a jealous lover and some horny bastard who's mad he can't get to first base."
Jack: "Men have a way of deluding themselves."
Claire: "I hope we're not talking from personal experience."
Jack: "Not recent. I hope."
"What a performance. Everything but a chorus of `You Picked A Fine Time To Leave Me, Lucille."
Claire: "Something she said still bothers me."
Jack: "Don't worry. You look fine to me!"
"Right. Let's legalize drugs. That'll free up Mr. Morales to pursue his true calling: curing cancer or Alzheimer's."
Jack: "Roscoe Morales goes home, Cassie Rickman stays on crack, and her son spends 25 years in a cell. Is everybody happy?"
Adam: "Didn't you say that's where he belongs?"
Jack: "That must have been some other arrogant, moralistic, son of a bitch."
"Meanwhile we dry up her funds, a pincer movement."
"They can scream all they want to. Only I get to talk to the Grand Jury."
"She had to take off for Switzerland in the dead of night because the ski slopes were melting?"
"So this was a full service family business. He provided the shoes, his daughter provided her friends."
Defense attorney for Ms. Taggert: "You're here to listen, not to badger!"
Jack: (shrugs) "Well I'm not hearing anything!"
(To Taggert as Jack arrests him for helping in his daughter's cover-up) "If she's half as good to you as you've been to her, maybe she'll visit." (wry grin)
Jack: "Claire, check your roster. How many cases did you have on calendar that week?"
Claire: "47."
Jack: " How many A felonies?"
Claire: "9."
Jack: "How many plea bargains?"
Claire: "15."
Jack: "Guess what? You can't leap tall buildings either."
"You want to try out the accommodations at Attica?"
"What do you expect to win? The freedom to eat out of garbage cans? To share a heating vent with 100 other homeless men? "
Claire: "I never did like chasing my tail."
Jack: "But it sure is fun when you catch it."
Miller: "So is that deal still on the table?"
Jack: "I told you, we don't just roll over and play dead."
Adam: "This can't be good news."
Jack: "Is it ever?"
"Outside of work, I really don't have much to say."
Liz: "It never gets to you? I mean, basically you get paid to make people's lives miserable."
Jack: "Yes, and the better I get at it, the more miserable I make them."
"I'll have the veal. VERY rare."
(on the death of the felon): "Justice was served. I'm a happy man."
Silverman: "Come on, Jack, Marisa's an honors student, a member of the
math club."
McCoy: "Who likes to hold up bodegas."
Silverman: "That was Kevin. Marisa just thought they were going for
Ding-Dongs."
McCoy: "With an Uzi?"
McCoy: "And if anybody messed it up, he had these big thick hands.
(pause) Sometimes my mother had to lock herself in the basement."
Mike: "Son of a bitch hit her?"
McCoy: "Ten years. I'm still scared o' those hands."
"This tough_ he jus' lay there. He was breathing_ and then he was
gone. (pause) (wipes eyes) I dunno why I'm talking about this, I never
talk about this. Let's play darts."
Jack: "Between scotch and nothing, I'll take scotch. Somebody said that."
Mike: "Somebody with brains."
Jack: "Somebody with an inadequate bar."
Mike: "I haven't seen you in here before."
Jack: "My oversight."
Mike: "And this little kid, he's gonna grow up to be king. What the hell is that?"
Jack: "Get a job!"
"In my family, losing is not an option."
Guy at bar: "So you on the job too or what?"
Jack: "Nothing I would have liked more."
Mike: "Oh, what's the problem--couldn't pass the physical?"
Jack: "You wanna step outside?"
(Jack and Lennie are in a bar and Jack stumbles while leaving.)
Lennie: "Maybe I should take you home."
Jack: "I don't believe there is a law against taking a cab while intoxicated."
After seeing Lennie walk into the bar): "Detective Briscoe. Of all the gin joints in all the world, etc. etc. etc."
McCoy: "Been a good day, hasn't it, Detective?"
Briscoe: "For who?"
McCoy: "Good guys pulled through, bottom o' the ninth (pause) And to hell with 'er."
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