The Lawyer from ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ on What It’s Like Litigating Against the Gang from Paddy’s Pub

After a nine-year absence, the Lawyer is finally back in tonight’s episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia — and now he’s got an eye patch! 

The Lawyer, played by the expertly straight-faced Brian Unger, first appeared in Season Three of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia when Dee and Dennis’ mom dies and the two of them, along with Frank, are called to hear the reading of her will. True to form, Dee, Dennis and Frank all lash out at the Lawyer for what’s included in the will — despite the Lawyer having never met her. The scene is one of the most memorable moments from the show’s early years and highlights a dynamic that always helps the show shine: Whenever The Gang interacts with a regular person, things go poorly.

Since then, the Lawyer has appeared a total of five more times, and with each appearance, his hate for The Gang only intensifies. Most recently, he showed up in Season 11’s guest star-studded “McPoyle vs. Ponderosa: The Trial of the Century,” during which he gets mauled by a Poconos swallow (hence the new eye patch).

Given his return tonight, I reached out to Unger to discuss his new eyewear, his history on the show and to follow up on a thread from Season Five: Who would win an IRL duel between Charlie Day and the Lawyer?

To get started, how did you become the Lawyer on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia?

Rob McElhenney called me and asked if I would do it. Rob and I were in a Yoo-hoo Chocolate Drink commercial when I was on The Daily Show, and I was the spokesperson for Yoo-hoo Chocolate Drink. Rob and I became friends, and I have said frequently that he struck me as this ambitious, smart, funny, good-looking young guy. I was happy to give him whatever limited advice I had at the time that he thought might have been beneficial, and fast-forward years later, one of us is a multimillionaire.

Some of the best It’s Always Sunny scenes feature The Gang with a straight man, like the Lawyer. Is it tough to keep a straight face in those scenes?

It hasn’t been difficult with them. I find them to be such oddities, and a lot of the outrageousness they exhibit is met with my genuine reaction and my amazement at them. When the script comes to life in a scene, it strikes me as absolutely outrageous. And as far as the satire goes, I’m not really paying attention to the comedy so much. The only person who has made me break in the show over the years has been Uncle Jack.

Yes, Andrew Friedman, what was it about him that got you?

He’s very improvisational. Not that the other guys and Kaitlin aren’t, but he’s trying things out in the moment and you really don’t know what he’s going to throw down. The hardest scene to get through was the scene in the apartment when Uncle Jack comes in and he’s just fascinated with me and he’s oddly fetishizing my hands. I don’t know how they cut that together because I was laughing through it and he was laughing through it.

Tell me about your first scene on the show — the will reading scene.

When you go into any show that’s long established, there’s nerves — and I was a little nervous. I was also really struck by the energy in the room. You have Danny (DeVito), you have Kaitlin, and that scene is really forceful. My reaction was very genuine. It’s less so now, but back then, there was more opportunity as an actor to do improvisation after you did the script. So, after we read the script and shot the scene with what was scripted, we did a couple of takes where we kind of did anything we wanted. And, surprisingly, they used quite a bit of the moments that we improv-ed there. Playing a straight man to them is easy because they’re just so intense.

I’m guessing that you assumed the Lawyer would be a one-off character?

I did. I thought it’d just be one and done. So, it’s been this huge gift to come back. And, as I came back more, I’ve tried to develop more of a backstory for him. I just wanted to know more about him because he’s obviously re-engaging these people for some reason.

What is that backstory?

It's funny because, in the show, I went to Harvard, but I don’t see him as a Harvard lawyer. I see him more as a UCLA lawyer. I don’t know if he’s as sharp as a Harvard attorney. He’s more like a guy who wanted to go to Harvard but didn’t get in. There’s a real soft, vulnerable side to him, and obviously that can be got at, yet he’s not very good at getting back at the gang. He’s flustered a lot. He sees the gang as completely beneath him. All of their trials, their tribulations, he doesn’t want to have anything to do with them or the McPoyles. I just saw him as a middle-of-the-road, Midwestern regular guy who likes to golf on weekends. There’s nothing really special about him.

That said, whenever I come back, it feels really special. Even this most recent episode that I did, without spoiling anything, I have a really memorable scene with Danny that I loved. It’s classic Sunny. They haven’t lost it, I’ll tell you that.

This is the biggest gap you’ve had, right? You last played him in Season 11.

When we shot the new episode, Rob was like, “How has it been this long? That’s impossible.” He said that they’d written episodes with me over those nine years that somehow just didn’t work out for some reason. Or, I believe there was another time when I wasn’t available. But yeah, we were both surprised by that.

That last one was the courtroom episode, which was a big one.

Yeah, it was like a live performance because the courtroom was filled with all the cast members. I love that one because the Lawyer has broken down twice as a character — once in the car when he’s living in a motel, and then he breaks down in the courtroom episode where he really loses his shit in front of the judge and they turn it into such a circus that I’m apoplectic. And then, of course, a bird pecks my eye out at the end of the episode. So, I was curious to know how I would come back in this new season, would I have vision? Would I be wearing a patch? I didn’t know until I got there.

We do see you in an eye patch in the trailer.

Yes, and there’s another character in the show who wears an eye patch. He drew an eye over it.

Liam McPoyle. Also, I think Cricket is blind in one eye as well. 

We’re all going to be a cast of blind recurring characters at some point.

The Lawyer’s name is never mentioned in the show. Do you have a name for him?

I don’t, but it would be something banal like Steve or Mike or Bob, and his last name would be just as banal, no hint of ethnicity, nothing unique, nothing special. He hatched out of a pod with a legal pad in his hand.

Which member of the gang do you think he hates the most?

It’s certainly Frank. He just detests Frank, and there’s the most electricity in their back-and-forth. There’s a really nice scene in the upcoming episode where I’m one-on-one with Frank that I love. There’s something I get to play differently in this episode because of my experiences with him and knowing what to expect. 

Also, there’s this great line in the kitten mittens episode where I walk in, and Frank says something like, “Who told the Jew lawyer to come?” I just glibly say, “Oh, still horrible, I see.” I detest him the most for sure.

One of my favorite scenes with you is when Charlie challenges you to a duel and you immediately agree and pull out a gun from your desk.

We had a blast shooting that. The night before we shot that episode, I was watching an A&E documentary about the assassination of JFK, and they were talking about the magic bullet theory and how it entered Kennedy's head and how it popped out the back of his head, and that that bullet traveled through and hit Governor John Connally as well. They said it was almost an impossibility that a bullet could travel through one person and hit and injure another person and then be lodged into the body of a car. Anyway, I remember seeing that, and when we were shooting the scene the next day, I just spit that out when I told Charlie, “I’m going to put one right through your teeth, and it’s just going to pop out the back of your head.” 

That was my version of the magic bullet. And Charlie reacts with his hand over his mouth, not because he’s horrified, but because he’s laughing.

Speaking on that, who would win in a duel between the Lawyer and Charlie Kelly?

Charlie would be dead before he knew it. And it would probably be because of the superb technology that I’m using in my weaponry. And, of course, I would have already gone to the range and I would have practiced with an expert. Charlie would probably shoot himself in the foot before he had it out of a holster, or the gun would be improperly loaded. But without a doubt, I would shoot him between the teeth, and it would pop out the back of his head.