The Guardian Episode Rating Graph

Nick takes a job at the law firm of Walter and McNeil. Lulu gives birth to a baby girl. She decides to work part-time at legal services of Pittsburgh to take care of the baby. Burton thinks his son made a mistake by taking the new job. Alvin tries to stop the execution of Taliek Allen because of new evidence that Alvin's client suffered brain damage when he was attacked. Alvin along with Nick must try and get a trial stating why he should live and not be executed. Lulu decides to have full custody of the baby and give the baby her last name not Nick's. Alvin is angry because of what Nick told his client regarding his chances for a clemency hearing. Nick learns that Burton has stepped down from his firm to be a grandfather to the baby. Nick also leaves his job at the firm of Walter and McNeil.

When a mother of a missing child shows up in Nick Fallin's office at Legal Services, he finds himself in the middle of an emotional struggle for closure and justice. Prior to the disappearance of her daughter Grace, Janine McGregor was in a car accident with her for which they were awarded a large settlement. However, since Grace has been missing for 10 years, the insurance company will not release the money. After years of searching for her daughter, Janine believes her only chance to get the money she so desperately needs is to have Grace declared deceased. However, just as a judge is about to sign off on the declaration, Grace unexpectedly reappears saying she had been kidnapped and taken to Europe. Nick encourages Janine to take the necessary steps to verify Grace's identity. However, with nothing but her gut feeling, Janine is convinced that the girl who has returned claiming to be her daughter is really her "Gracie." Meanwhile, Nick and Burton Fallin are faced with the death of a close friend and colleague, Judge Stanton. He was a long-time friend of Burton's and was the judge who presided over Nick's probation. His passing causes Burton to re-evaluate his life and his accomplishments as a lawyer.

After a rough turn of events at Kirk & McGee, Nick is back at Fallin & Assoc. just as Burton is looking into the case of Susan Newberg, deceased daughter of longtime client and family friend Frank Newberg. What begins as an investigation into Susan's widower Ray Harper, and the $11 million estate left to him, ends in a shocking case of suicide linked to sexual assault. Nick and Burton put their legal licenses and freedom at stake by violating their attorney/client privileges to protect Frank's youngest daughter and victim, 16 year-old. Meanwhile, first-year associate Amanda Bowles walks out of Fallin & Assoc. when Burton disapproves of her volunteer work at CLS.

Nick Fallin, a high-powered, high-priced attorney living the good life is brought down to earth when he has to pay the price for his indulgent lifestyle. Busted for drugs, he must now perform 1,500 hours of community service and so Nick juggles his white-collar world of litigation with the not-for-profit world of child advocacy working with Children's Legal Services. Under the supervision of Alvin Masterson, Nick is thrust into the life of Hunter Reed, a young boy who has witnessed the murder of his mother by his father's hand. Back at Fallin & Associates, owned by Nick's father, Burton Fallin, he is dealing with company presidents who are looking to bring their business to Pittsburgh and spoiled dot com kids who want to get rich quick.

Nick brings a lawsuit again the pharmaceutical company, Bendaprine, on behalf of Hunter Reed and his mother's estate for 10 million dollars. But, when Alvin Masterson gets wind of it he insists that Nick drop the case, being that it is a conflict of interest. Nick is quick to point out that Alvin took him off of Hunter's case and therefore he is acting within his rights as a lawyer for Fallin & Assoc. Meanwhile, James gets handed a case involving a 12-year-old boy who has been living with his older brother after their mother has been arrested for drugs. Marcus, Andre's older brother, is arrested for selling crack and James tries desperately to find a relative for the boy to act as guardian so the youth won't end up in juvenile detention like his brother. But, Andre doesn't want to be separated from Marcus and even when James succeeds in finding a relative, Andre makes it very clear he will stay with Marcus at all cost � even if he needs to get himself arrested to make it happen.

Lulu starts her job as Director of LSP, leaving Alvin to wonder if he is needed at LSP. Nick helps a couple sue a fertility clinic because the baby is black. The parents want to keep the baby and the clinic to pay for damages. Nick needs to help find Samantha Gray who lost her sight because her dad. Samantha goes to Nick's office to tell him she isn't going back to the place she came from. Nick has dinner with Mrs. Aaronson who became pregnant after doing a procedure to have a baby, now the lawsuit against the clinic will be dropped. Samantha learns her dad lost his rights to be a dad because he was drug addict. Nick waits with Samantha on a bench in the courthouse wondering if her dad will show up for the hearing. When he doesn't show up Nick finds him doing drugs.

After deciding to work together, Nick and Burton Fallin return to the old offices of Fallin & Associates to create a new firm, Fallin & Fallin. Finally working on equal ground, Nick and Burton's first big client turns out to be Allegheny County Hospital, which is under scrutiny as one of the nurses is arrested and confesses to killing patients in the oncology department during his shifts. The hospital faces several potential lawsuits from the family members of the patients who died. To assemble a strong team of attorneys, Nick and Burton bring in James Mooney to help with the case but soon discover that his grandmother died in that very hospital just a few months earlier. James immediately removes himself from the case but he eventually gives into his desire to fight for the underdogs and tries to find representation for the family members. Meanwhile, Nick is also thrown into a case as a favor to Laurie Solt, where he must defend a child's right to attend an adoption party. This is a concept that Alvin Masterson finds reprehensible, as he believes it treats the children as though they are cattle to be sold at market.

Nick is duped into representing a young woman who lied to him after they spent the night together. After Nick picks up a young woman named Dina at The Incline, they go back to his place for the night. The woman then reveals herself to be an orphaned, underaged girl whose younger sister is about to be placed in a new home where Dina is not wanted. She gives Nick an ultimatum that he must help her get placed in the same family as her sister or risk her going to the police about his underage encounter. He must uncover her true motives or risk the consequences of their ill-fated night together. Meanwhile, Alvin goes to extreme measures, including soliciting a donation from a wealthy socialite, in an effort to raise money after CLS loses its grant and the money runs out.

Nick is given the case of a wheelchair-bound boy who is about to be placed in a group home while his mother does time for prostitution. The boy, Lawrence, wants to live with his stepfather, but the man has a criminal record. The state wants him to live at St. Riley's, but Lawrence doesn't want to live among the mentally disabled. Nick thinks the only chance for him is to track down the father, a former customer of the mother's, and sue for child support. But, when the father wants to have more of a relationship with the boy, everyone is caught off guard. Meanwhile, Burton and Nick help out an old friend when his daughter, Rebecca, tries to take over his business.

Nick, now working at another law firm, is reinstated as the guardian of young Hunter Reed, his first case. Polly Draper ("thirtysomething") guest stars Both Nick and his child advocacy boss, Alvin, face Nick's father, Burton, in court. Nick, who is now working for Burton's competitors, Kirk and McGee, faces him when he is reassigned to Hunter -- the young boy who witnessed his father kill his mother -- after Hunter's father's controversial verdict comes in. Meanwhile, Alvin agrees to defend his ex-wife (Draper), for whom he still has some unresolved feelings, in a wrongful termination case, only to realize that the company they are suing is represented by Burton.