character
Atticus Finch
The archetype of the principled lawyer who defends an unpopular client because it's right.
Origin
Hero of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1960). A small-town Alabama lawyer in the 1930s who agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a Black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. Atticus loses the trial but becomes American literature's most-cited image of moral courage. Lee's later Go Set a Watchman (2015) complicated the picture by showing an older, more compromised Atticus โ a reception event in its own right.
Modern usage
Invoked in legal-ethics discussions, parenting writing, and political commentary on principled lawyers. A name people still give their dogs.
Tags
lawyer
moral-courage
south