When her partner is hospitalized after a breakdown in court, criminal defense attorney Kathleen Maguire's already bulging caseload doubles. Will Froman, a P.D. who's eager to go into private practice, convinces her to take him on as a partner to save the firm.

Kathleen represents a client with poor impulse control, is forced to exchange favors with Judge Hawes to get another client released in time for his mother's funeral, and has a nice moment with her mother. Will's tactics in defending another attorney on assault charges are irritating, but effective; he and Lisa go their separate ways.

Kathleen starts out her day in tears -- it's the 12th anniversary of her marriage to Dan, and she grieves over the sad end to which the marriage came. Later, Kathleen runs into Dan in the courthouse. He's grieving over the end of the marriage as well, and they have a nice moment on the stairs, which ends with Dan giving her a small peck on the cheek and saying ""Happy Anniversary"".

A bad day gets worse when Kathleen is unsuccessful in her defense of Janice Bonner, a female corrections officer charged with institutional sexual assault on a prisoner. Kathleen then miscalculates when she asks Judge Hawes for an immediate sentence so that she can file an immediate appeal. After the trial is over, he lets her know that he would have given her client a lighter sentence had she waited for the sentencing reports and psychological evaluation.

On another matter, she appears before Judge Armstrong, who can't seem to make up her mind about whether or not the photo array used to identify Kathleen's

Ripley comes under fire after Chris Maguire is busted for falsely claiming to have bribed the judge involved with his sister, while Dan sees the whole investigation as a plot to keep him from running for office. Meanwhile, Will puts his life on the line to get firsthand proof that his client has reliable testimony about a wanted killer.