In countless surveys, lawyers come out among the least respected professions out there, but that doesn’t stop Hollywood from making movies about them. In Tony Gilroy’s twisty legal thriller “Michael Clayton,” which premiered in Toronto and opens Oct. 2, George Clooney plays an ethically compromised former prosecutor turned legal “fixer” who has to decide whether to stop a renegade colleague (Tom Wilkinson, channeling Peter Finch in “Network”) at the behest of their boss Sidney Pollack and their client’s slimy chief counsel (Tilda Swinton). Meanwhile in the problematic “Reservation Road,” also due next month after a Toronto bow, Mark Ruffalo plays a lawyer assigned to help a client (Joaquin Phoenix pressure the cops to find the hit-and-run driver who killed Phoenix’s son. What Phoenix doesn’t know is that Ruffalo is the guilty party. Another reason not to trust your lawyer.