Georgetown Law - 150 Years

Filmed at Georgetown Law

The Pelican Brief — Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts starred in this 1993 blockbuster based on a novel by John Grisham. Filming took place in Edward Bennett Williams Law Library.

Fictional TV Characters who attended Georgetown Law

Alicia Florrick, played by Julianna Margulies in The Good Wife

Will Gardner, played by Josh Charles in The Good Wife

Henry McCord, played by Tim Daly in Madam Secretary

Chuck McGill, played by Michael McKean in Better Call Saul

Joan O’Connell, played by Saundra Santiago in Season 2, Episode 8 of The Sopranos

Olivia Pope, played by Kerry Washington in Scandal

Harmon Rabb, played by David James Elliott in JAG

Charlie Young, played by Dulé Hill in The West Wing

Demetria Barnes, played by Susan Heyward in Delilah

 

Films and Shows with a Connection to Georgetown Law

Booksmart — in this 2019 coming-of-age comedy film, the character Molly has the following speech: “They think all we care about is taking a million APs, and getting into Yale, and editing Law Review at Georgetown, and clerking for a federal judge between junior and senior year, before eventually becoming the youngest justice ever nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States.”

Brian Banks — 2018 biographical motion picture about the false conviction and eventual exoneration of professional football player Brian Banks. Greg Kinnear co-stars as Justin Brooks (LL.M.’92), co-founder of the California Innocence Project, who supports Banks’ efforts to free himself.

The films of Dawn Porter (L’93), award-winning documentary producer and director, including:

• Gideon’s Army — 2013 documentary following three young public defenders in the American South; winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s Candescent Award and the Ridenhour Documentary Film Prize
• Spies of Mississippi — 2014 PBS documentary about the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a spy agency formed by the state to preserve segregation and white supremacy in the 1950s and ‘60s.
• Trapped — 2016 Peabody Award–winning documentary about doctors who perform abortions and who have been fighting against states’ TRAP laws
• Bobby Kennedy for President — 2018 Netflix documentary series featuring interviews with RFK confidantes and staffers, including Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), singer Harry Belafonte, and lawyer and Georgetown Law Professor Peter Edelman.
• John Lewis: Good Trouble — 2020 documentary about civil rights movement activist and United States congressman John Lewis
• The Way I See It — 2020 documentary about Pete Souza, former Chief Official White House Photographer of Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama

Films produced by Kary Antholis (L’88), former President of Miniseries and Cinemax Programming at HBO,  including:

• One Survivor Remembers — 1995 short film directed by Antholis, depicting Gerda Weissmann Klein’s account of surviving the Holocaust. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) and was the first HBO program added by the Librarian of Congress to the National Film Registry.
• Baltimore Rising — 2017 HBO documentary about the aftermath Freddie Grey’s death in police custody
• 

  Riz Ahmed in The Night Of 

  The Night Of — this 2016 HBO television drama starring Riz Ahmed tracks a young man whose perfect night out becomes a nightmare when he’s arrested for murder.

House of Cards — Prof. Neal Katyal makes a cameo appearance in Season 3, Episode 4 (2015) of this Netflix drama, set in D.C.’s corridors of power

InAlienable — 2007 science fiction film; includes an appearance by Prof. Randy Barnett

The Loving Story — 2011 Peabody Award-winning documentary about Loving v. Virginia, the case that effectively legalized interracial marriage in America; the Lovings were represented in the U.S. Supreme Court by Georgetown Law alumni Philip J. Hirschkop (L’64) and Bernard “Bernie” Cohen (L’61); the film was produced by Elisabeth Haviland James (F’99).

Loving — 2016 motion picture about the Lovings and their case; Bernie Cohen is played by Nick Kroll (C’01)

Mr. and Mrs. Loving — 1996 Showtime made-for-TV movie about the Lovings, featuring Bernie Cohen as a character

A More or Less Perfect Union: A Personal Exploration by Judge Douglas Ginsburg — 2020 documentary mini-series in which Prof. Randy Barnett appears

On the Basis of Sex — 2018 American biographical legal drama film, based on the life and early cases of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She became the second woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court. Her husband, Martin D. Ginsburg, served as Professor at Georgetown Law.

RBG — 2018 documentary about the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Featured Georgetown Law faculty members include her late husband Prof. Martin D. Ginsburg and her authorized biographers, Prof. Mary Hartnett (L’85) and Prof. Emerita Wendy Williams.

The Trial of Ratko Mladic — 2019 feature-length documentary, broadcast as an episode of PBS’ “Frontline”; war crimes prosecutors and international law experts Glenna MacGregor (L’05) and Arthur Traldi (L’06) work to prosecute the so-called Butcher of Bosnia

West of Memphis — 2012, Peter Jackson–directed documentary about three men unjustly incarcerated as teens for murder; features their defense counsel Stephen Braga (L’81), who helped negotiate their release

Woman in Gold — Don Burris (L’69) served as co-counsel on the central case depicted in this 2015 film

 

To suggest potential additions to this list, please email law150th@georgetown.edu.