After overcoming a tortured past, Mike Bungay gets out of the army and decides to go to law school based on the results of a coin toss. Along the way to becoming a successful criminal barrister in New Zealand, he makes enemies defending alleged murderers, seducing women, and overdrinking.
In the midst of his marriage breaking down, Mike takes on a very high-profile case defending the first man in New Zealand to be accused of spying. Despite being busy with the biggest trial of his career, Mike also agrees to help a woman charged with murder.
Mike draws ire from a feminist group after employing morally dubious techniques to defend a gynecologist accused of rape during an exam. On the home front, Mike’s philandering gets him in trouble with the women in his life.
Working with a group of other lawyers, Mike takes on a complicated gang-violence case, but his strategy relies on all of the defendants telling the same story. After writing a book, Mike becomes a political candidate for the New Zealand Party.
Mike defends someone charged with murdering a man found with gunshot wounds on either side of his head, but both of those accused say the other did the crime. Mike continues to try to woo Ronda, even though she is married with kids, and brings her in to help with the case.
Mark Mitchinson
Mike Bungay
Beth Allen
Anne Chalmers
Rowan Bettjeman
Mr S
Matthew Arbuckle
Dean Wickliffe
Awhina-Rose Ashby
Esther Solvoll