Top defense attorney Alexander Hale has never lost a case in his decades-long career, earning him the nickname """"the Grim Reaper of the Legal World"""" among his peers. On the surface, he secures acquittals for the wealthy and powerful, but in reality, he donates all his earnings to the Hale Justice Foundation, which over fifteen years has funded legal aid for more than three thousand victims who could not afford attorney fees. Twenty years ago, he defended an innocent man in court and secured his release—only to be hunted by gangsters for a decade afterward. His wife later passed away, leaving him to raise his daughter, Clara Hale, alone.
Twenty years later, Victor Blackwood, son of New York's wealthiest man Charles Blackwood, abuses his family's power to run rampant. After encountering Clara Hale and her husband Daniel Miller at a restaurant, Victor subjects them to brutal torture. Hale arrives, abandons his role as defense counsel, and takes the plaintiff's seat, confronting his former protégé Ethan Reynolds—who has betrayed him—in a court battle. Even when Charles and Ethan conspire to frame him, triggering an FBI investigation, Hale finds ninety-nine attorneys stepping forward to defend him pro bono in his darkest hour. In the end, Ethan is sentenced to prison, and Charles Blackwood is convicted for a cold case from twenty years ago, bringing justice at last.
