David E. Kelley's Emmy Award-winning legal drama, The Practice, returns for its eighth season, promising more provocative, issue-related stories, coupled with the writer's trademark humor.

Set in Boston, The Practice centers on a firm of passionate attorneys to whom every case is important and every client worth a fight to the end. Legal maneuvering is the firm's modus operandi, and they have it down to a science, making even the most questionable arguments convincing. And while they can't — and don't — win every trial, the pursuit of justice remains the priority until the final verdict is announced … and sometimes afterwards. Pursuing justice, however, often confronts them with serious ethical and moral issues of conscience.

The end of last season saw Bobby Donnell quitting the firm and leaving Eugene Young (Steve Harris) in charge. This season finds Eugene not only tackling his new role as head of the firm, but also the new dynamic with co-workers Ellenor Frutt (Camryn Manheim), a single mom known for her fervent commitment to clients and for refusing to take "no" for an answer; Jimmy Berluti (Michael Badalucco), a hard-working "good guy" with a winning record and unparalleled loyalty to the firm; and a budding relationship with Jamie Stringer (Jessica Capshaw), a young associate recently out of law school.

In addition to returning cast members Manheim, Harris, Badalucco and Capshaw, this season Kelley will inject the series with intriguing new characters, including acclaimed film actor James Spader, who will play Alan Shore, a complicated and ethically challenged lawyer, and Rhona Mitra, who will play Tara Wilson, a confident paralegal in her third year of law school who is also the firm's new tough-as-nails assistant.

The multiple Emmy Award-winning drama has also earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Drama Series, a Peabody Award, a Viewers for Quality Television Award, an American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award and, most recently, a coveted Humanitas Award.

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