‘The Lincoln Lawyer‘ makes Mickey Haller a memorable character. Once you see him, you can’t forget him. He eats tacos, takes calls nonstop, and handles cases while living out of his car like it’s his second office.
The whole setup feels so real that it’s easy to believe the show pulled it straight from someone’s actual life. And that’s kind of true. Mickey Haller is fictional, but the “Lincoln Lawyer” idea came from real attorneys who lived that kind of day-to-day grind. In fact, there’s not one but two real men behind this: one sparked the idea, the other added the deets.
The Real Man Behind The “Lincoln Lawyer” Legend
Mickey Haller is fictional. Michael Connelly created him in the books, and Netflix brought him to life with Manuel Garcia-Rulfo. But the idea of a lawyer working out of the back of a car came from a real Los Angeles attorney named David Ogden.
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Ogden was the original inspiration for the “Lincoln Lawyer” concept, and Connelly just picked up a real way of working that Ogden actually lived. However, Odgen wasn’t only the inspiration behind Mickey. Connelly also took major inspiration from Dan Daly, a Florida defense attorney who knew Connelly back when they worked together at the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Dan Daly’s Real-Life Hustle Was Just Like Mickey Haller
Daly said Connelly got a real look into the lawyer lifestyle once he moved to Tampa. He told Tudum, “When Mike [Connelly] moved to Tampa around 2001, I think, I routinely invited him to join my partner, Roger Mills, and me for cocktails after work.” Daly said he and other lawyers would sit around and trade “war stories” about cases while Connelly listened closely, or took notes on napkins.
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However, unlike Mickey, Daly didn’t usually run his entire practice out of his car. Still, he said the idea is completely believable because “there is nothing at all absurd about working out of the back of a car.”
He recalled how he took cases in Fort Myers years ago, and he used drive time to stay productive by listening to audio tapes of statements and recorded events, including drug deals. Phone calls happened on the road, too. And Daly added, “There was very little time that wasn’t billed while I was driving.”
But for Connelly, the most striking moment had to be the day when Daly was on the golf course, when the phone hanging off his golf bag rang. Right there, he checked the number and said he had to take it. As it turns out, the court had appointed him to a new case and scheduled a hearing. And all this, right in the middle of the game.
Even though it might seem pretty normal today, back then, it definitely wasn’t. So, Mickey Haller may be a work of fiction, but David Ogden and Dan Daly prove that the legendary story started in real life.
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