Out drinking one night after a fight with her boyfriend, Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster) is brutally raped by three men in a bar while people watch and cheer.

District Attorney Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis) takes the case, however allows the rapists to receive a mild sentence. A distraught Sarah decides to seek punishment for the men who witnessed and encouraged the rape. To get justice, Sarah must take the stand and revisit the night of her attack in this drama based on true events.

Prosecuting attorney Raymond Horgan (Brian Dennehy) assigns his chief deputy, the taciturn Rusty Sabitch (Harrison Ford), to investigate the rape and murder of colleague Carolyn Polhemus (Greta Scacchi), unaware of their torrid affair.

When evidence implicates Rusty, Horgan's political enemies demand his arrest, devastating Rusty's wife, Barbara (Bonnie Bedelia). In desperation, Rusty turns to crafty defense attorney Sandy Stein (Raul Julia), only to be stunned by his trial's revelations.

Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) is a military lawyer defending two U.S. Marines charged with killing a fellow Marine at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Although Kaffee is known for seeking plea bargains, a fellow lawyer, Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore), convinces him that the accused marines were most likely carrying out an order from a commanding officer.

Kaffee takes a risk by calling Col. Nathan R. Jessep (Jack Nicholson) to the stand in an effort to uncover the conspiracy.

Defense attorney Martin Vail (Richard Gere) takes on jobs for money and prestige rather than any sense of the greater good. His latest case involves an altar boy, Aaron Stampler (Edward Norton) accused of brutally murdering the archbishop of Chicago.

Vail finds himself up against his ex-pupil and ex-lover, but as the case progresses and the Church's dark secrets are revealed, Vail finds that what appeared a simple case takes on a darker, more dangerous aspect.

With his gangster boss (Tony Lo Bianco) on trial for murder, a mob thug known as "the Teacher" (Alec Baldwin) tells Annie Laird (Demi Moore) she must talk her fellow jurors into a not-guilty verdict, implying that he'll kill her son Oliver (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) if she fails.

She manages to do this, but, when it becomes clear that the mobsters might want to silence her for good, she sends Oliver abroad and tries to gather evidence of the plot against her, setting up a final showdown.

Jan Schlichtmann (John Travolta), a tenacious lawyer, is addressed by a group of families. When investigating the seemingly non-profiting case, he finds it to be a major environmental issue that has a lot of impact potential.

A leather production company could be responsible for several deadly cases of leukemia, but also is the main employer for the area. Schlichtmann and his three colleagues set out to have the company forced to decontaminate the affected areas, and of course to sue for a major sum of compensation.