The Client is an American legal thriller drama television series developed by Judith Paige Mitchell that aired on CBS for one season, premiering with a two-hour pilot on September 17, 1995, and airing new episodes through April 16, 1996. The series was based on the 1994 film The Client, itself adapted from the 1993 John Grisham novel. It starred JoBeth Williams, John Heard, and Polly Holliday in the roles created in the film by Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, and Micole Mercurio, respectively.

John Ray Grisham Jr. is an American novelist, lawyer, and former member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his best-selling legal thrillers. According to the American Academy of Achievement, Grisham has written 37 consecutive number-one fiction bestsellers, and his books have sold 300 million copies worldwide. Along with Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling, Grisham is one of only three anglophone authors to have sold two million copies on the first printing.