In March 2018, prior to the play's opening, the Harper Lee estate filed a lawsuit against the play's production company based on allegations that the play deviates too much from the novel. Sorkin had previously admitted that, "As far as Atticus and his virtue goes, this is a different take on "Mockingbird" than Harper Lee's or Horton Foote's. He becomes Atticus Finch by the end of the play, and while he’s going along, he has a kind of running argument with Calpurnia, the housekeeper, which is a much bigger role in the play I just wrote. He is in denial about his neighbors and his friends and the world around him, that it is as racist as it is, that a Maycomb County jury could possibly put Tom Robinson in jail when it’s so obvious what happened here. He becomes an apologist for these people." The following month, producer Rudin countersued for breach of contract. The legal dispute was settled by May 2018.