Mickey Haller has spent his entire professional life fearing that he wouldn't recognize innocence even if it stood right in front of him. What he should have been worried about was evil.

Haller is the Lincoln Lawyer, a criminal defense attorney who works from the back seat of his Lincoln, shuttling between the far-flung courthouses of Los Angeles and defending all kinds of clients. For him, the law is rarely about guilt or innocence – it's more about negotiation and manipulation. Sometimes it's even about justice.

A Beverly Hills playboy is arrested for assaulting a woman he met in a bar, chooses Haller to defend him, and Mickey finds his first well-paying client in years. It's every defense attorney's dream, the so-called franchise case. As the evidence piles up, Haller begins to believe that this is the easiest case of his career.

When someone close to him is murdered, Haller discovers that his quest for innocence has brought him face to face with absolute evil. To escape unscathed, he will have to employ every tactic, diversion, and instinct he has – this time to save his own life.