CamrynManheim.com : Part I

SYNOPSIS OF SECOND EPISODE
The second episode provided an excellent "day-in-the-life" picture of activity in "The Practice." No cases got tried, but difficult dilemmas had to be faced, making for some tense interaction. And three of the four clients whose cases had to be handled during the episode were distinctly unpleasant characters, who happened also to be guilty of the crimes with which they were charged.

Again, we got to witness the one-for-all, all-for-one attitude which prevails. Ellenor summoned Lindsay's skills to help her out of a tight spot in court. Eugene got Bobby's help in convincing the District Attorney not to go forward with a prosecution of his client's son. Ellenor and Lindsay went to bat with District Attorney Susan Alexander to try to convince her to agree to a plea bargain for a shorter sentence for Bobby's client. And Ellenor assisted Bobby in expediting a salary garnishment order against the firm's principal deadbeat client. As Lindsay said:

"We cover for each other." A day-in-the-life.

Everyone was introduced to the court-room prowess of Lindsay Dole, who because of her mastery of the constitutional nuances of automobile searches, was able to get a tough prosecutor to agree to reduce a serious "possession-for-sale" cocaine charge, to a simple marijuana possession and a traffic offense.

Eugene finally obtained the restraining order he was desperately seeking, to protect Ruth Gibson and her eleven year old son from her ex-husband Kevin. But it was too little too late. After several screaming confrontations, the boy let fly a lethal arrow, killing his father instantly. After some very difficult horse trading with Susan Alexander, the District Attorney assigned to the case, Bobby is able to convince her the son acted in self defense, so that he will not have to face a criminal trial.

And Bobby had to face the dark and difficult ethical issue of whether to trade one client's interests against another's by convincing one to take a stiffer sentence, because that was the price of getting leniency for another.

In this episode you also got to see how difficult things are for "The Practice." The rent is due. Clients are not paying. There seems to be little hope of settling the one case that might make the firm some money. Financial conditions are dire.

A possible solution is Jimmy Berluti, Bobby's long time friend, who happens, conveniently, to be a loan officer at a local bank. Seventy thousand dollars is all they need to be tided over. SEVENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS?! The solution, a "construction loan" based on canceled renovation drawings gets the needed money, and Bobby and Jimmy were suddenly out on a limb.

Will "The Practice" be able to continue limping along on its meager scrapings of its client barrel? That remains to be seen. But along the way, justice, at least a rude but realistic form of it, seems to be getting done.