The Practice

- Season 3

(1998)

Lindsay gets suspicious when Rebecca seems to be secretly awaiting an important letter - and realizes just how much she was right when the letter finally arrives. Ellenor gets a hysterical call from a client, who ran over a man in the street while drunk, and is shocked to discover exactly who he hit. Assistant D.A. Helen Gamble prosecutes two boys accused of rape and murder, each accusing the other, and ends up making a deal with the wrong one.

Lindsay is called to defend her old professor and mentor, Anderson Pearson, when he is charged with murder. Helen must prosecute a man for murder, with the only witness being a 4 year old child. Having passed the bar exam, Rebecca tries her first case, and the firm hires a new secretary.

George Vogleman, the podiatrist who Ellenor once dated, comes to her for help with a gruesome surprise in his bag. Jimmy and Rebecca defend a man who has been planning to kill his wife for years, while Lindsay and Bobby prepare for the Pearson trial. Finally, Hellen and Lindsay move in together.

Anderson Pearson's murder trial finally begins, with Lindsay and Bobby at the helm. As the evidence mount against George Vogleman in the murder of Susan Robin, Eugene tries to find other possible suspects.

Lindsay takes on Anderson Pearson's appeal, claiming Judge Hiller was wrong in not letting them argue self defense. Ellenor and Eugene prepare for the Vogleman trial, turning over every rock to find a defense. Jimmy defends his cousin, sued for wrongful termination, after firing a woman for being Iranian.

Ellenor and Eugene head the defense of George Vogleman in the Susan Robin murder trial, with almost no prospect of winning. Scrapping to put on a defense, Eugene employs the infamous "Plan B" on the victim's brother, and Ellenor betrays Helen's confidence when she calls her to stand to testify about a private conversation they had.

A guilt-ridden Lindsay is determined to get Anderson Pearson's conviction reduced to manslaughter, and gets into a world of trouble with Judge Hiller. Eugene and Ellenor's actions during the Vogelman trial come back to haunt them, when the brother of the victim sues them for falsely accusing him of murder. Two old cases, both ending with grave miscarriages of justice, are reawakened - when Helen makes an illegal deal with a wrongly convicted man, in order to get a murderer who managed to escape punishment.

About to be sworn-in as a lawyer, Rebecca represents a man for burglary, and begins to suspect he might be guilty of a much bigger crime. As the firm prepares to defend itself against Tommy Silva in the Robin case, Bobby surprises everyone when he chooses Jimmy to first chair. Meanwhile, Bobby also takes on the case of a very religious and highly respected woman, accused of shaking a baby to death.

Bobby tries Evelyn Mayfield's murder trial, and when it becomes clear the jury is about to convict her, even Bobby begins to doubt her innocence. Roberta Baylor comes to seek Rebecca's help again, when her son is suspended from school, after passing a sexually explicit note about a girl in his class. Meamwhile, Lucy tries to get everyone into the Christmas spirit.

Jimmy leads the firm's defense against Tommy Silva's lawsuit for their actions during the Vogleman trial. Silva uses Ellenor's past actions to hang her, and Jimmy makes a questionable move during Eugene's testimony. Trying to get everyone's spirits up, Lucy insists they have a Christmas party.

Eugene is stunned when he is called to defend an old friend of his, arrested for prostitution charges, while dressed in women's clothes. Things get even more complicated when it is discovered that the man who hired him was a prominent politician, in the race for the position of DA - and Helen is forced by her boss to humiliate him in public for political gain. Meanwhile, Ellenor tries to bring in a big client to the firm, and is enraged when she is voted down by Bobby and Lindsay.

Hellen plans a relaxing day at the spa for her and Lindsay, but Lindsay foils her plans when she turns what was supposed to be a short hearing into a full day in court. Bobby and Eugene are called to the house of Bobby's old friend, where his teenage daughter gave birth to a baby, and suffocated it to death.

While presiding over a case Bobby is handling, Judge Kittleson call him into her chambers and informs him she had an extremely erotic dream about him. After he makes it clear his not interested in her, Bobby begins to feel her rulings are biased against him. Meanwhile, Hellen prosecutes a TV news producer as an accessory to murder, when he gives a live broadcast to a doctor assisting a suicide.

A colleague of Bobby's asks him to take on a case of a prostitute accused of murder, until he discovers he is much more involved than he led on. Ellenor defends one of her first clients for possession charges, and Jimmy teaches Rebecca a valuable lesson in dealing with unreasonable clients.

Helen's plans for a relaxing day at the spa are ruined when a human face is put on a cat-killing case she is prosecuting, and she decides to push for jail time. Bobby and Lindsay represent a restaurant owner, suing a TV reported who promised him a positive cover, but then aired a feature about cockroaches in his kitchen. Meanwhile, tensions at the firm are at an all-time high, when Ellenor finds out Lindsay makes twice as much as she does.

A series of chaotic events reopens the Susan Robin murder case, which results in Ellenor's arrest for concealing evidence during George's trial. The entire firm stands ready to go to war for Ellenor, but no one is ready for the shocking truth behind this turn of events.

Jimmy and Lindsay represent a couple suing a gun manufacturer, when one of their guns is used to kill their daughter. Eugene is stunned when his son is arrested for drug dealing, and is mortified to learn where he got the idea to do so. Bobby, Ellenor and Rebecca manage to make a deal with the DA, but Eugene's ex-wife announces she is suing for full custody of Kendall, claiming Eugene is a bad influence on him.

Eugene and his ex-wife battle for custody of their son, when Sharon claims Eugene's job is having a bad influence on Kendall. Hellen prosecutes a man for stealing a car, but slowly becomes suspicious that the alleged victim is lying. Rebecca represents a psychologist who was fired from his job after he became cross-eyed, due to a head injury.

The firm is assigned a horrific case of a man accused of murder, when the dismembered body of a nun was found in his closet. However, when fourth amendment issues arise regarding the validity of the search, the prospect of freeing such a violent criminal on a technicality sends everyone into an emotional turmoil.

Helen prosecutes a man for killing his wife, with his son as the only eye witness to the crime. However, her case begins to go south when the son changes his story and claims it was a accident, and Helen turns to Ellenor for assistance. Meanwhile, Lucy discovers hidden cameras planted throughout her apartment, and Judge Kittleson learns her personal life are also splattered all over the internet.

Still devastated from losing the Armbrust murder trial, an enraged Helen seeks vengeance over Gary Armbrust who lied on the stand, by charging him with murder. But a passionate and erratic closing exposes the true nature of her rage. Bobby and Eugene represent a man whose wife died shortly after a cosmetic surgery, and Rebecca clashes with Judge Swackheim, when his capricious decisions during a trial make it impossible for her to defend her client.

Eugene represents a popular Rabbi, accused of raping a young woman. While the Rabbi claims the sex was consensual, and part of a game they used to play, Eugene is horrified to discover she wasn't the only woman ever to accuse him of rape.

Working late at the office, Lindsey is attacked and stabbed, identifying her attacker as a nun before passing out. An angry Helen goes into a nun-arresting spree, while a mysterious tape reopens the question of who killed Susan Robin, until the real killer is finally revealed.