NBC is going straight to series with Law & Order: For the Defense, the latest installment in Dick Wolf’s list of Law & Order series. The series will take an unbiased look inside a criminal defense firm, NBC said, putting the lawyers “under the microscope, along with the criminal justice system with every week delivering the promise of a contemporary morality tale.”
Carol Mendelsohn will be showrunner and executive producer, along with Wolf, Arthur Forney, Julie Weitz and Peter Jankowski. The series will be produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, and Wolf Entertainment.
“This new show is exciting for me personally,” Wolf said. “We spent the last 30 years on shows that played offense. Now it will be great to play defense, and being able to do it with Carol is an honor and an opportunity for both of us to do television that hasn’t been done before.”
The original Law & Order premiered in 1990. Law & Order: SVU is in season 22.
“We can’t wait to bring audiences the latest chapter of Law & Order, which will explore a different angle of the criminal justice system,” said Lisa Katz, president, scripted programming, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. “We’re excited about Dick Wolf’s perpetually thought-provoking approach as well his collaboration with Carol Mendelsohn, who we have been eager to do a series with for a long time.”
Wolf is also the executive producer of Law & Order: Organized Crime, which stars Christopher Meloni and premiered April 1. Over 18 million watched that premiere.
Wolf is executive producer of NBC’s Chicago series, and the CBS shows FBI and FBI: Most Wanted.
