This critically acclaimed ensemble drama looked like Hill Street in
a fancy law office, with many characters and stories intertwined
in each episode. The high-powered Los Angeles law firm of
McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney, and Kuzak took on cases of
all types, criminal and civil, usually for high fees.
Leland McKenzie was the esteemed, fatherly senior partner;
Brackman, the vain, insufferable, balding partner struggling
to fill his late father's formidable shoes; Kuzak, the savvy
but compassionate younger partner; Van Owen, the idealistic
Deputy D.A. who was Kuzak's lover and sometime courtroom
opponent; Ann, another idealistic attorney; Stuart, the
firm's nebbishy little tax attorney, who had a heart of
gold and also had the hots for Ann; Arnie, the sleazy,
womanizing divorce lawyer; Victor, the uptight young
Hispanic brought into the firm to meet racial quotas,
and he knew it; Abby, the unsure-of-herself young intern;
Jonathan, a young black lawyer; Benny, a retarded office
worker; and Roxanne, the motherly receptionist.
Plenty of office politics and sexual adventures were mixed
in with the cases. Besides its soap-opera entanglements,
L.A. Law emphasized outrageous situations and trendy cases.
As the season's wore on, cast members departed to be replaced
seamlessly by actors of equal accomplishment. Slickly produced,
sharply written and consummately acted, LA Law memorably set
the stylishly sophisticated tone for the deluge of legal series'
which were destined to follow in its impressively substantial wake.