L.A. Law

Set inside a high-powered Los Angeles law firm, L.A. Law follows an ensemble of partners and junior attorneys whose professional battles spill into messy personal lives. Cases range from routine civil disputes to headline-making social issues, and the series pairs courtroom strategy with office politics, romantic entanglements, and dry, off-center humor. The show alternates high-profile litigation with ordinary client work, and often injects off-center humor amid serious debates about law and morality. The lawyers include charismatic litigator Arnie Becker, principled Ann Kelsey, managerial Douglas Brackman, idealistic Stuart Markowitz, and ambitious Jonathan Rollins, among others. Over eight seasons the show mixes multiple storylines at once, showing how the legal system, power, money, and ethics clash in the city, and public spectacle.

L.A. Law premiered on NBC on September 15, 1986 and ran through May 19, 1994. It was created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, showcasing Bochco's multi-thread storytelling, produced with a rotating ensemble cast, and launched actors to fame.

The series earned wide industry recognition, winning 15 Emmy Awards during its run, including four wins for Outstanding Drama Series. Those awards covered acting, writing, and directing categories, and the show received many additional nominations that boosted its status among 1980s television dramas, shaping prestige network drama in the era.

By putting divisive legal topics like abortion, AIDS, and workplace harassment into mainstream evening television, L.A. Law changed how network dramas addressed social controversy. Its ensemble model and blend of legal detail and soap-style relationships influenced many later courtroom series, and it normalized serialized subplots and remain a reference point.

Critics often praised the show for balancing soap-like interpersonal drama with substantive courtroom scenes, and audiences responded to its topical casework. It holds a 7.0/10 average from 74 votes, with recurring themes of ethics, class tension, civil rights, and changing social attitudes in late 20th-century Los Angeles, and workplace culture.