CamrynManheim.com : The Pilot

SYNOPSIS OF FIRST EPISODE
In the first episode, we were able to get acquainted with the principal characters by following them around and watching them interact. We got to see how they cover for each other, how they back each other up. Ellenor began with an appearance on behalf of "Free Willy," a repeat offender on an indecent exposure charge. Then she passed "Free Willy" off to Eugene, who had just rescued Office Manager Rebecca from the early advances of client Cruickshank the check-passer. Ellenor then went on to back Bobby up as second chair in the defense of Rachel Reynolds, which became the principal trial of the hour.

In the Reynolds case, we saw Bobby Donnell under maximum pressure, terrified by having to defend seventeen year-old Rachel Reynolds on a cocaine possession charge that would have sent her to prison for a minimum of fifteen years. He was able to coax an acquittal out of a case in which the state proved that Rachel had custody and control of over a hundred thousand dollars worth of street-packaged cocaine which she was frantically stuffing into a pillow case when she was arrested. Fancy lawyering. Now we know that Bobby is good on his feet. And we have experienced his agony.

Through the episode, we were able to become acquainted with Rebecca, conscience and heartbeat of "The Practice." Rebecca always knows what has to be done, knows how to manage Bobby, sense his moods. Everything revolves around Rebecca.

Nothing much really happened in the on-going case of Ray vs. T.L. Michaels Tobacco Company. Lindsay Dole is getting her first experience in a major civil case. The deposition of Emerson Ray has gone forward and been continued. Mr Ray believes that tobacco smoking killed his wife. You saw his frustration that his wife did not survive to get the justice he is sure she deserved. He is determined to continue. "I will never die!" he declared, and the defense lawyer responded acidly: "The record will reflect the witness refuses to die." A token offer to settle the case has been made and rejected. We saw Lindsay begin to gain her sea legs after faltering at first in the shadow of her former Professor, lead counsel for the tobacco. And Eugene Young got to make his entrance by going head to head with the professor, Anderson Pearson.