Boston Legal is an American legal drama-comedy (dramedy) created by David E. Kelley, which was produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for the ABC. The series aired from October 3, 2004, to December 8, 2008.
Boston Legal is a spin-off of long-running Kelley series The Practice, following the exploits of former Practice character Alan Shore (James Spader) at the legal firm of Crane, Poole & Schmidt.
A prominent business man who is originally a Sudanese native wants to sue the U.S. government for the lack of action taken against the mayhem happening in his country and Paul looks to Lori to take the case; founding partner Shirley Schmidt arrives with a mission to bring order to the firm and while making herself known, she has to deal with Denny who does not want her there, help with Lori's extremely high profile case, and learns that she has to keep her eye on Alan; Alan ends up defending a man who killed his mother by accident, or so he says.
Lori, along with Denny and Shirley, defend a school superintendent who fired three science teachers because they refused to teach creationism and is now being sued by them; Alan learns his assistant has expressed concern about their work relationship; Alan discovers that his client Bernard Ferrion, who killed his mother, may have killed again, and this time his neighbour; Sally is fired and learns that a close associate is not too keen on lending a supportive hand; Alan is surprised to see a familiar face appear – Catherine Piper (from an earlier episode of The Practice where she was a witness in Alan's hometown murder case – most noted for shaking Alans hand with "poop" on her gloves as payback for his childhood pranks).
Alan, Denny and Brad represent Kelly Nolan (Heather Locklear) who is on trial for poisoning her husband; Tara Wilson second-chairs for Shirley Schmidt and is shocked to find that the opposing counsel is her former lover, Malcolm Holmes (Rupert Everett); Garrett Wells and Sara Holt assist Denise Bauer on a case where a Jewish man felt violated when his Christian co-workers held Bible readings in the workplace. Making things worse, Denise is served with divorce papers.