In eight episodes, the high-end lawyer series LEGAL AFFAIRS tells self-critical, authentic and modern stories from Berlin’s political, media and celebrity world, as well as pro bono cases and clients who are subjected to merciless shitstorms and smear campaigns in the social media and tabloid newspapers. The protagonist, star lawyer Leo Roth (Lavinia Wilson), gets caught up in a threatening thicket of political and private intrigue.

The lavishly produced episodes are characterized by a fast-paced narrative style, excellent visual design and highly topical themes – including the dangers of big data and deep fakes as well as extremism, racism and corruption.

The character of Leo Roth was inspired by Germany’s best-known media lawyer Prof. Dr. Christian Schertz, who, together with Martina Zöllner, Head of Film and Documentary at rbb, and Benjamin Benedict, Producer at UFA Fiction, initiated the series and is its chief consultant: “Due to the great US lawyer series such as SUITS, THE GOOD WIFE, BOSTON LEGAL or SCANDAL, it was overdue that a corresponding series was also produced in Germany. LEGAL AFFAIRS tells the story of exciting legal work using the example of a media lawyer. The cases deal with highly relevant social issues such as online hate speech, violations of personal rights and fake news.”

“We are delighted to be able to make a socially highly topical contribution to ARD’s series offensive with LEGAL AFFAIRS 2021. In the series, we experience how explosive information or the most intimate secrets cause wildfires on the internet and how media are used manipulatively. It was important to us to make this the subject of a major fictional series,” say the Degeto (Christoph Pellander and Claudia Luzius) and rbb (Martina Zöllner and Kerstin Freels) editors.

Producer Benjamin Benedict and executive producer Kristina Henning (both UFA Fiction) add: “LEGAL AFFAIRS is about the biggest social upheaval of our time: digitalization and the resulting public nature of our private lives. With the threat to privacy, we are tackling an issue that must concern us all. Because when it comes to privacy, it is not just the rights of the individual that are at stake, but our constitutional state as such that is being put to the test. Consequently, our main character Leo Roth is the first time a media lawyer has ever been at the center of a series.”

The top-class cast includes Lavinia Wilson, Maryam Zaree, Niels Bormann, Aaron Altaras, Michaela Kaspar, Stefan Kurt, Annika Kuhl, Rainer Sellien, Sebastian Hülk, Sophie Rois and Jacob Matschenz (among many others).

All episodes of LEGAL AFFAIRS can be seen online first from Friday, December 17. On Sunday, December 19, Monday, December 20, Wednesday, December 22 and Thursday, December 23, the series will be broadcast in two episodes of 45 minutes each from 9:45 p.m. on the first channel.