Perry Mason

Perry Mason is a criminal defense attorney who specializes in defending seemingly indefensible and unwinnable cases.

Perry Erle Mason was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. His father was an airline pilot and former U.S. Navy fighter pilot, while his mother was a social worker.

After Mason graduated from high school, he went on to the University of California, Los Angeles. Upon graduating from UCLA with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, he went on to Stanford Law School. After graduating from Stanford Law, Mason passed the California Bar Examination and was admitted to the State Bar of California. He was then accepted into the United States Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps. After receiving his commission in the United States Navy and attending The Naval Justice School at Naval Station Newport in Rhode Island, Mason was assigned to Naval Legal Service Office Southwest at Naval Station San Diego as a legal assistant attorney. He later became a defense counsel.

Mason left the U.S. Navy after four years of service. He then returned to Los Angeles and applied for a job with the Federal Public Defender's Office for the Central District of California. Upon successfully completing the entire application process, Mason was hired as an assistant federal public defender. He left the Federal Public Defender's Office after three years and obtained employment with a prestigious downtown Los Angeles criminal litigation law firm as a senior associate.

A couple of years later, Mason left the firm and set up his own solo law practice specializing in criminal defense. Soon after, he hired a young woman named Della Street as his legal secretary. A little while later, Mason hired a former Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agent named Paul Drake as his law practice's investigator. He had first met Drake when they were both stationed in San Diego, California.

As a defense attorney, Mason is specifically known for taking on cases where all the evidence leads to his client, but ones where he believes that the client is innocent in spite of the evidence. The cases that he accepts are also based upon his curiosity regarding the problem that the client is facing. Quite often, the clients and even law enforcement officers regard Mason as a better detective, as he entails every minute detail of the crime so as to get to the bottom and solve the mystery.

With the aid of Della Street and Paul Drake, he often finds that by digging deeply into the facts, startling facts can be revealed. Relying on surprise witnesses and his outstanding courtroom skills displayed by his stern cross-examinations, Mason often tricks or traps people into unwittingly admitting their guilt.

A frequently foe in his cases is deputy district attorney Hamilton Burger.