"This is the most blatant case of fraudulent advertising since my suit against the film 'The Neverending Story'." - Lionel Hutz, "The New Kid on the Block"
Lionel Hutz (aka
Miguel Sanchez, aka
Dr. Nguyen Van Falk) is
Springfield's resident
shyster lawyer in
The Simpsons universe. He runs his own mall-based law practice,
I Can't Believe It's A Law Firm, and gives out promotional gifts to would be clients to encourage business. Past gifts include a sponge/business card, a smoking monkey statue (Hutz loves it when the monkey takes a puff), cigar-shaped pens, free pizza, and a faux pearl necklace ($99 value). Hutz has a habit of promising
big cash settlements to his clients despite the fact that his
working knowledge of the law is somewhat inept and is hated by most judges in town (especially
Judge Snyder; Hutz once repeatedly ran over the judge's son with a car). He has a number of questionable personal and professional habits, such as early morning drinking, file burning,
ambulance chasing,
dumpster diving, and misleading witnesses in open court. Hutz claimed to have been "clogging our courts since 1974." We know nothing about his family, although he was at one point married and divorced (both offscreen) to
Selma Bouvier.
When the law business gets slow Hutz moonlights at a series of side jobs. He's worked for real estate company Red Blazer Reality (motto: "You'll go nuts for Lionel's huts!") where he made creative use of descriptions to sell ill-suited houses to prospective home buyers. On another occassion he served as babysitter to the Simpson kids where he was paid $2 for twelve hours of babysitting plus two popsicles from the fridge and a broken birdcage from the trash. Other past jobs include shoe repair, substitute teacher, actor, moocher, golfer, and Rubik's Cube champion.
Phil Hartman portrayed Hutz's voice up until the actor was tragically murdered by his wife. After Hartman's death Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, called for a moratorium on the use of the Lionel Hutz character. Hutz has never spoken again, although he has been seen in crowd scenes, silent, from time to time. A new permanent lawyer character has not been created for the series, although down-on-his-luck salesman Gil has been seen defending people in court from time to time.
References:
http://www.snpp.com