The Client

When a church volunteer saves a woman from being raped, he doesn't want any publicity. After his picture is published in the newspaper, the volunteer is arrested for an accidental killing 30 years ago. Reggie defends the admittedly guilty man against Roy's prosecution. The jury declares him guilty but, in view of the volunteer's exemplary life ever since the incident, the judge orders him to perform community service--exactly what he has been doing. Meanwhile, Clint's mother dies. Without her help paying for his law studies, Clint cannot afford to stay in school on the salary Reggie pays him. He plans to leave school temporarily and work a second job to save money. Reggie anonymously donates money to the law school as a scholarship for Clint so he can stay in school. To afford that, she has to sell her car.

Reggie works as a public defender for extra money and questions her ethics when she defends a police officer, Joe, who she believes is guilty. Joe claims that he thought the person whom he shot in his house at night was an intruder. But the intruder was his pregnant daughter's boyfriend whom he despised, and Joe's wife, Helen, testifies that she heard the boy identify himself before getting shot. Reggie wants to let Helen's testimony help convict her client. But Foltrigg reminds her that she must defend her client regardless of her personal feelings. Reggie destroys Helen's credibility by introducing evidence of mental instability and wins the case. She feels terrible about freeing a guilty killer. Meanwhile, Roosevelt considers his own prejudices when he becomes a contender for a federal judgeship.

When Reggie's sponsor, Gretchen, shows up at an AA meeting after roughly two years, the two are excited to see each other and agree to get together. Reggie suggests they meet after he son's soccer tournament something over which she is deeply excited. At home, Momma Love surprises Reggie by giving her a letter from her son's attorney; Chris is suing both of his parents for his divorce. To make matters worse, when Reggie tries to talk to Gus about it, she meets his new (much younger) girlfriend. Later, Gretchen steals Reggie's credit card. At the same time, Gus' girlfriend, Jennifer, hires a private detective to get some dirt on Reggie. When Gretchen wakes up in a hotel room next to a dead man after falling off the wagon (a hotel room for which she paid with Reggie's credit card), she hides out with Reggie without telling her what's really going on. Reggie eventually figures things out when the cops trace her credit card and goes looking for Gretchen at all of their old haunts.

Reggie helps a woman she meets at a battered women's shelter who is soon after accused of and confesses to killing her husband, a respected law professor. Foltrigg, an old buddy of the deceased, insists on holding the woman even when Reggie implores him to let her out on bail to be with her teenage son. While preparing her defense, Reggie comes to realize that the woman is covering for her son who killed his father and Reggie must convince him to testify about how he saved his mother and himself from further battering. Meanwhile, Jackson hires his sister to sue his boss, Michael, for ""wrongfully"" terminating him due to drinking. Reggie goes to Michael first to get his side of the story, but business turns to pleasure. Also, Momma Love takes a job at a community theatre, leading Reggie to witness another side of her mother.

Reggie and Foltrigg again work together to put mobster Waldo Gaines in jail when they bring him to trial for the murder of two businessmen. A conviction is unlikely unless Gaines' son, Eric (Reggie's young client who witnessed the murders) testifies against his father. No matter how much Reggie wants to help Foltrigg put Gaines away, she works for Eric and does everything she can to protect him from what she understands will be severe psychological damage inherent in testifying against his own father – including pleading the judge to appoint her Guardian Ad Litum. Reggie and Foltrigg go head-to-head regarding the boy's being forced to testify, ultimately resulting in Reggie's removing herself from the State's case when Foltrigg insists Eric should testify no matter what the cost to the young boy. In the end, Gaines finally does time. Meanwhile, a drunken and disorderly Jackson plays matchmaker between his sister, Reggie, and his boss, Mike, who has driven home safely.

Reggie defends John Euland in an acrimonious divorce case against his wife, Annalee. But it soon becomes a murder investigation due to the suspicious death of Annalee's father. Reggie tries to have herself removed from the case because the evidence implicates her client. Then the situation worsens when a desperate Annalee takes the people in Roosevelt's courtroom hostage and demands that her husband tell the truth without relying on legal trickery. John admits killing her father. Meanwhile, Reggie's daughter, Alison, is missing after shoplifting some jewelry with her friends. Locked in the courtroom, Reggie is unable to search for her.

Reggie defends a 30-year-old mentally challenged man, Harris Bingham. Harris is accused of murder when his girlfriend, Cissy, is found strangled in bed. Reggie fights to have him tried as a juvenile but, after talking with Harris, she realizes that he is innocent. As she investigates the case, Reggie learns Cissy was once married to an abusive man who has murdered before and is now stalking Harris. Meanwhile, Reggie accepts a divorce case and becomes attracted to her client.

Lenny, Reggie's friend from AA, double-crosses mobster Waldo Gaines by not killing (as he was ordered) a county clerk who threatened to expose a jury-tampering scheme which resulted in Gaines going free. Foltrigg had tried to convict Gaines three times but failed because of the tainted juries. Lenny goes to Reggie for help because he knows Gaines will have him killed when he learns the county clerk is still alive, and she convinces him to testify for the state about the jury tampering to put Gaines behind bars. Unfortunately, while lying in wait for his secret meeting with Reggie and Foltrigg, Lenny sees Foltrigg conversing with the head of the vice squad – the very person, it turns out, who hired him to kill the county clerk and cover up the scheme. Lenny flees to the backwoods, and Reggie and Foltrigg embark on a race to catch him before someone else does. They succeed, placing him in a witness relocation program after Foltrigg prosecutes the corrupt cop.

Reggie defends an unwed pregnant African-American teenager, Zora Ward, who wants to keep her baby. However, Zora's mother, Alice Ward, is trying to get her declared incompetent so the baby can be given up for adoption. Despite Reggie's concern, she doubts that Zora is telling the truth about the baby's father. Roosevelt tries to convince Reggie to persuade Zora to allow his rich, longtime friends to adopt her baby because they desperately want a healthy African-American newborn. When Zora is shot outside her own home, Reggie must unravel the mystery. Meanwhile, Gus allows Reggie to visit her children, but tells her that they don't want to see her. Also, she must help Lenny again.

While 11-year-old Rafe Collins waits for his father, Eddie Ray, outside a public bathroom, a man gives him a suitcase to hold. The man goes into the bathroom, followed by another man who shoots him. The police arrest Rafe's father, assuming that he committed the murder. The killer tries to get the suitcase from Rafe, who discovers that it's full of money. After hiding it, Rafe gets captured by the police. Judge Roosevelt assigns Reggie Love to Rafe's case and appoints her as his guardian, allowing Rafe to stay in her house. Reggie also harbors an abused woman whose husband, crime boss Burt Halliwell, owns a riverboat casino. Unbeknownst to Reggie, Rafe's money belongs to Halliwell, who tries to sway Foltrigg by appealing to his political goals. When Rafe retrieves the money and goes to the casino to get help from his father's friend, Reggie follows him.