“The truth drives me,” says Mickey Haller.

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The Lincoln Lawyer has an urgent task at hand: picking out the perfect tie.

In his slick, mid-century house, nestled away in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills, LA’s most in demand defense attorney Mickey Haller — or the Lincoln Lawyer as he’s been nicknamed by fans and foes alike for his automobile preference — cocks his head and smiles for the camera while standing proudly on the deck of his home. The city stretches out to the ocean behind him. On the surface, Haller is affable and at ease.

Between shots, however, he disappears to try on various neck pieces. The obsessive attention to detail that gives him in an edge in the courtroom apparently reaches all corners of his life. Back in front of the camera, he laughs, he broods, he pulls off every facial expression. It doesn’t take a judge and jury to see how he has courtrooms around Southern California eating out of his hand. After a rough ride, Haller –– as he puts it himself –– has got his “mojo” back. “Success has its good side and its bad side if you don’t know how to handle it,” he says. “And I think I wasn’t ready for it.”

If you were to spot Haller breezing down Sunset Boulevard today in one of his cavernous Lincoln vehicles — perhaps the charcoal 2019 Navigator whose license plate reads “DISMISSD” or the blue 1963 Continental Convertible with “NTGUILTY” plates — you might roll your eyes at the swagger. But the now-hotshot attorney, who went from scrappy legal brawler to national sensation following the captivating — and tragic — Trevor Elliott case, hasn’t always been cruising. The courtroom drama peaked when Haller scored Elliott a down-to-the-wire, not guilty verdict for over the murder of the tech billionaire’s wife Lara Elliott and her lover Jan Rilz.

Though the success buoyed Haller’s career, the case was steeped in darkness. Elliott was fatally gunned down soon after his acquittal. Haller was the last person to speak to his client before the shooting. Even now, six months on from the verdict, there’s a glint of the trauma in the attorney’s otherwise playful and warm brown eyes as he chats with the photographer, checking his work. As it turns out, moonlighting in the criminal underworld leaves its mark. “I did my job and I did what I had to do,” he says. “The rest is… It is what it is. It is what the system is.”

But Haller isn’t looking back. Some may assume that money, fame or the pure adrenaline of winning has put a fire under Haller’s upholstered leather seats. He thinks those people are wrong. “It’s the truth,” he says as the photo shoot wraps, a birria taco from La Unica in hand. (The Lincoln Lawyer also tends to be the Hungry Lawyer — there’s a half-empty box of donuts lying out when we arrive at his home, and he also insists we stop by Pink’s Hot Dogs during the afternoon we spend together.) “I’m passionate about law and all that. But in the end, the truth drives me.”

Peter Yang for Netflix

That’s the passion that brought Haller out of one of the toughest periods of his life. A year and a half prior to the Elliott case, Haller found himself battling a serious addiction to painkillers, after a near-fatal surfing accident and multiple surgeries. Haller credits the support of his family — including powerful city prosecutor and ex-wife Maggie McPherson — along with his close-knit office team with his recovery. He’s gradually getting back into surfing.

But another life-altering incident drew him back into the legal game. His colleague, Jerry Vincent, was shot dead in his car; Vincent had left his practice (and client list) to Haller. The Elliott case was Haller’s first high profile win in a while. “Coming from that place where I was without a job and in a dark place, having that success and momentum helped me to build my confidence,” he says. “It feels good.”

At this point, no one can doubt Haller’s bravado. Initially, he was dubbed the Lincoln Lawyer because he mainly worked out of his spacious rides, zipping from courtroom to courtroom. Now, Haller has a driver for that: loyal confidant and former client Izzy Letts, whose case served as his initial courtroom comeback. Watching Haller happily devour his stewed goat taco as he leans on the hood of his convertible, only one question springs to mind: Why a Lincoln?

“I’m a traditional kind of guy… and I’m superstitious,” he says with a grin — after a lifetime of asking people questions, he clearly knows this one is inevitable. In the same way Haller will only wear one type of watch during a trial, he can only drive one type of car. He settled on Lincolns, which have a connection to his father, the late great LA lawyer Mickey Haller Sr. (During our conversation, Haller is proudly wearing one of his dad’s rings; he credits his father with his dapper courtroom appearance. “He used to say a good suit is like armor.”) But there’s a practicality to the car choice, too. “There’s a lot of room in a Lincoln,” he explains. “So it’s perfect for the office, especially with all this paperwork.”

Haller’s document load isn’t going to going to get lighter anytime soon. His slam dunk Elliott win has catapulted him to a level of fame that puts Haller alongside names like Cochran and Kardashian, Esq. During the afternoon we spend together, his phone rings off the hook with calls from inquiring journalists, cable news producers, TV personality Jake Tapper, restaurateurs — we told you, he’s hungry — and Haller’s paralegal-slash-ex-wife, Lorna Crane. The Haller business is so booming, his office space is undergoing a glitzy revamp which, according to Crane, is costing “a fortune,” but according to Haller is “the price of success.”

Still, Haller is more interested in talking about the work than the glamour of being the Lincoln Lawyer, and his appetite is whet for another challenge as complicated as the Elliott case. “Like I said, the truth for me is very important,” he says. “And, no matter what, I’m going to go all the way to find it.”

But, for now, Haller has to make a reservation across town. Any LA foodie can tell you: It’s impossible to grab a seat at Mexican fusion hotspot elysium, led by activist and longtime Frogtown resident Lisa Trammel. Somehow, Haller has a table for two waiting at the warmly lit Eastside eatery which just made our cutthroat “Best of LA” list.

It really is all green lights for the Lincoln Lawyer.