James Morgan "Jimmy" McGill, also known by his business name Saul Goodman and later by the alias Gene Takavic, is a fictional character who appears in the television series Breaking Bad and serves as the titular protagonist of its spin-off prequel series Better Call Saul. He is primarily portrayed by Bob Odenkirk, and was created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould.

The character is an Albuquerque-based lawyer who embraces his tendencies as a former scam artist and begins to represent criminals while he himself becomes increasingly involved in the city's criminal underworld. Saul is an Irish American but pretends to be Jewish to attract clients. His business name, "Saul Goodman," is a play on the phrase "it's all good, man."

Jimmy is of Irish descent and was born on November 12, 1960 in Cicero, Illinois, outside Chicago. His older brother Chuck became a successful lawyer as one of the partners at an Albuquerque law firm, Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill (HHM). As a child, Jimmy worked at his father Charles Sr.'s general store in Cicero, and watched as customers took advantage of his naïve father; Jimmy soon began stealing money from the store himself. According to Chuck, Jimmy embezzled $14,000 from his family's store, leading to his father's bankruptcy. His father died six months later; Jimmy cried inconsolably at the funeral.

Determined not to be like his father, Jimmy becomes a con artist, and earns the nickname "Slippin' Jimmy" for staging "slip and fall" accidents. He also ran petty scams including the "fake Rolex" with the help of his partner-in-crime Marco Pasternak. Jimmy begins to use the alias "Saul Goodman", a play on the phrase "It's all good, man". He initially uses it as a fake name when performing his scams with Marco. Later, he uses the alternate identity for the high-energy pitchman in television ads he produces, and makes use of it when he begins a business reselling prepaid cell phones on the street.

At some point prior to the start of Better Call Saul, Jimmy had been married and divorced twice. One of his ex-wives cheated on him with a man named Chet. Jimmy ran into trouble with the law when he drunkenly defecated through the sunroof of Chet's car, an act known as a "Chicago Sunroof". Unbeknownst to him, the man's children were inside. Facing the possibility of having to register as a sex offender, Jimmy asked Chuck for help, despite a five-year separation from his family. Chuck successfully defended him, but required that he move to Albuquerque and work a legitimate job in HHM's mail room.

While working in the HHM mail room, Jimmy befriended Kim Wexler, an HHM employee attending the University of New Mexico School of Law at the firm's behest. Inspired by her success and Chuck's career, Jimmy secretly resumed his education, completing first his undergraduate degree and then a J.D. from the University of American Samoa's correspondence law school. He passed the bar exam and hoped to be hired at HHM, but without Jimmy's knowledge, Chuck compelled senior partner Howard Hamlin to deny Jimmy the opportunity. Jimmy then began a solo practice as a lawyer, working out of the utility room of a Vietnamese nail salon at a strip mall. During this period, he took whatever cases he could get, including low-paying public defender work.

Some years later, near the time of his divorce with Rebecca, Chuck develops a psychosomatic aversion to electricity and becomes semi-reclusive. Jimmy cares for Chuck, bringing him groceries and running his errands. However, Jimmy still struggles with finances, and at the start of the show drives a signature Suzuki Esteem with mismatched doors, a visual pun reflecting on Jimmy's current poor self-esteem at this stage of his life.While arriving at and departing from court, Jimmy frequently butts heads with Mike Ehrmantraut, a former Philadelphia police officer who works as the courthouse parking lot attendant.