Alan Shore is a fictional lawyer on the television show Boston Legal, portrayed by James Spader. The character of Shore first appeared on the final season of The Practice.

He was born in 1962 in Dedham, Massachusetts. His childhood friends were Paul Stewart, whom he first met in kindergarten and Paul Dougan, a future priest. Shore slept with Paul's mother, Victoria, when he was 16. One of his neighbors was his future secretary, Catherine Piper. According to one of his courtroom speeches, Shore has a sister, although he might have made her up for that speech.

In The Practice, Shore was hired during the show's final season to be a lawyer at Donnell, Young, Dole & Frutt. He brought in vast amounts of money to the firm (by his count over $9 million), but his highly unethical behavior finally forced the firm to fire him with $15,000 in severance pay. Shore sued the firm for more money, winning the case with a judgement of $2.2million that cast financial hardships on Donnell, Young, Dole & Frutt. Shore went to work with Denny Crane at Crane, Poole, & Schmidt.

His character continued into Boston Legal, and displayed most of the same traits. Shore is considered to be an extremely unethical attorney due to the sometimes questionable means that he goes through to try to help his clients. On the other hand, he also seems to be able to help clients and his fellow attorneys when no one else can, due to his quick wit and apparent lack of fear of the consequences of his illegal actions. He once had an unlicensed doctor remove a bullet from one of Lori Colson's clients after her client refused to have it extracted in a hospital due to the fact it might convict him; Shore helped him out because the bullet might have had a life-threatening impact on the man. Shore is very pompous and extremely conceited, with a savage sexual appetite that he usually takes out on professional woman.

Shore, like his current boss Denny Crane, is a womanizer. He has had relationships with Sally Heep and Tara Wilson, the latter having had a major effect on his psyche. His sexual harassment of Nora Jacobs, his former secretary (which mainly included him giving a score on a scale of one to ten with regards to what kind of sweater she was wearing), drew a strong rebuke from senior partner Shirley Schmidt. He was married once, however his wife died (cause unknown).

Shore also has some strange quirks; he suffers regularly from night terror, has an irrational fear of clowns and at least in one episode spoke in word salad, which was caused by anxiety.

Shore was once charged with inciting a riot after he and Tara pretended to try and pick each other up at a college frat bar. Tara did this because she wanted to see how Shore tries to pick up women. During this chain of events, a rather big man tried to pick up Tara; he eventually punched Shore, then condescendingly claimed that he was only reaching for his wallet. Shore then offered several bar patrons $300 to beat up his assailant. At trial, he was acquitted after giving a speech to the jury which (may have) convinced them that his seemingly cold and calculated incitement was simply a coward's way of avoiding the fight. He also aided Schmidt in keeping nude photographs taken of her in her youth from circulation by the simple expedient of buying them himself and keeping them at his home. More recently, he discouraged a predatory court conservator who had gotten himself appointed custodian of an old woman who was a friend of Piper's by having two large men break into the man's home, bind and gag him and steal records.

Alan Shore's character is deeply complex. During the show 'The Practice', Ellenor Frutt, a close friend of Alan, described him as a "self-loathing person, who breeds contempt from other people through his actions."

During the episodes of season one, he was again analyzed by Sally Heep. He had seemingly used her for purposes of blackmailing a witness, but Sally thought it was the reverse at the end of the show. Instead of Alan using her, he was using the witness instead like a tool of sorts, to show that how despicable and utterly unethical he was. He used the word "run", and perhaps was trying to manipulate Sally to stay away from himself. Sally countered that it was "the incredibly decent man" lying buried underneath the bad stuff, trying to warn her.

Tara Wilson also stated that Alan had three sides: the good side, the bad, and the naughty. The good side is his honorable intentions during court defending innocent people, but the bad side of him could not bear that burden of being the good. So, in an attempt to get to Alan, she attempted to appeal the naughty side of him.

The bar fight has also seemingly reflected Alan's personality. Tara has stated before that "it's always about Alan Shore." Always, being the key point. Alan has a very grandiose sense of himself, and that the world is only about him. There is a dialogue between Alan and Denny where the former states the best part about Denny is that he doesn't seem to be in the room at all.

Alan has an interesting narrative that he remains absolutely alone during a relationship, and serves to more of his self-hating, narcissistic attitude. Schimdt who appeared later in the show, described Alan the way exactly he is. Alan is most likely a loyal friend, and he will not break his promise if he gives his word.

Fictional lawyers | Dedham, Massachusetts