As Strip Law begins, we meet defense attorney Lincoln Gumb, voiced by Adam Scott, stands before a distracted courtroom arguing on behalf of a client accused of vomiting on a stranger’s baby. The alleged culprit happens to be an Austin Powers impersonator who punctuates nearly every sentence with “Yeah, baby!” The judge and jury are glued to their phones and an in-court television airing a football game.
Justice, in Las Vegas, is clearly competing with entertainment.
A commercial for the once-respected firm called Nichols and Gumb airs, reminding viewers that Lincoln was ousted from the firm after his mother’s death. The ad is six months old but still in circulation, serving as a public reminder of his fall from grace.
Now operating out of the struggling Gumb Legal, Lincoln works alongside Irene and Glem Borchman. Irene is Lincoln’s niece who got her GED at 14 and is partial to working out. Glem on the other hand is a disbarred attorney. The firm is in serious financial trouble and will have to close down if they don’t get some money soon.
Irene and Glem decide to go out and collect overdue fees. Meanwhile, Lincoln meets a new client, Barry Chandelier, an exotic dancer at an LGBTQ nightclub called Brushfire. The club runs a bizarre Friday promotion where go-go dancers eat customers’ car keys for cash. The stunt is predictably making performers ill. Barry wants out of the clause in his contract that requires participation.
The defense is led by Steve Nichols, Lincoln’s late mother’s former partner and Lincoln’s professional rival.
Steve meets with Brushfire’s owner to express his intentions to win. He wants to cement Lincoln’s fate as a loser lawyer and run him out of business.
Alone in his office, Lincoln apologizes to a framed photo of his mother for being such a disappointment. In a surreal exchange, he imagines her expressing disappointment and residing in Hell. After regaling himself with tales of what Hell is like for his mother, Lincoln decides to go drinking on the Strip.
There, he encounters Sheila Flambe, a juror from his earlier case, dazzling tourists with sleight-of-hand illusions and small bursts of pyrotechnics. The two recognize each other. Lincoln asks if Sheila will have a drink with him and give him some insights on how he presents to a jury.
Sheila agrees to critique his courtroom performance. Her blunt assessment is simple. Lincoln does not understand Las Vegas. He argues like he is above spectacle in a city that thrives on it. She offers to show him the real Las Vegas.
Their night spirals through karaoke bars, hot tub Ferris wheels, neon gin-shots, and impromptu celebrations with a bachelorette party. By morning, Lincoln understands that he needs to be more in tune with the way the city operates. He needs to perform just like everyone else.
Over breakfast at Brushfire, Lincoln and Sheila bond over mutual disappointment. Lincoln feels trapped under his mother’s legacy. Sheila, once respected in magician circles as an assistant, was blackballed and forced into street performances.
Lincoln is hit with inspiration. His legal knowledge paired with her flair for showmanship could save Gumb Legal. Meanwhile, Irene and Glem track down a car dealer that dodged his bill and shake down a church for their fees.
In court, Lincoln debuts his reinvention. Dressed sharply and radiating confidence, he embraces theatricality without fully abandoning his legal seriousness. Steve leans on familiarity and television charm to win over the jury. Lincoln counters with an analogy comparing the law to a neon-colored shot of gin. The jury eats it up.
The proceedings spiral into ridiculousness, from interrogating a brain surgeon about nutrition to staging exaggerated hypotheticals like teenage girls swallowing car keys after witnessing it at the club. Lincoln and Sheila prepare a final trick involving a law book and a firearm.
In closing, Lincoln delivers a performance about the spirit of Las Vegas. He appears to fire at a law book and it lands in front of a juror.
Lincoln asks a juror to read the “bulletproof law” that stopped his shot. The law in question states that men in Vegas can’t be forced to perform any act that brings joy to a woman in any way. Thus, freeing the dancers from their contract obligations. The judge doesn’t even let Steve give his closing argument and proclaims Lincoln the winner.
The local news reports on Lincoln’s win. It also points out several glaring consistency problems like the fact that it’s illegal to have a gun in a courtroom or how Lincoln at no point needed to submit evidence. But the reporter explains that the people asking these questions are “uptight nerds.”
The episode closes with a new commercial for Gumb Legal, no longer trading on Lincoln’s humiliation but leaning into his rivalry with Steve Nichols. The slogan gives way to how we can expect the show to play out for the rest of the season. “We’ll Gumb up the works.”
The pilot establishes Strip Law as a legal comedy where every new case is simply another chance for a little razzle dazzle.
Watch all episodes of Strip Law right now on Netflix.