Jamie Ross

LawandOrderCharacter
name = Jamie Ross


time on show = 1996—1998
succeeded = Abbie Carmichael
proceeded = Claire Kincaid
start = "Causa Mortis"
finish = "Monster"
portrayed = Carey Lowell

Jamie Ross is a fictional character on the TV drama "Law & Order", created by Rene Balcer and portrayed by Carey Lowell from 1996 to 1998. She also appears in the short-lived "Law & Order" spin-off '. And also see Capt. Daniel Ross of the currently airing "Law & Order" spin-off ', it is unknown if the two are related or not.

Main character arc

The character was introduced in 1996 (in the episode "Causa Mortis") as a former defense attorney who enters the Manhattan District Attorney's office as an Assistant District Attorney, replacing Claire Kincaid (Jill Hennessy), who had been killed in a car accident in the previous episode ("Aftershock"). She initially has a rocky relationship with her superior Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) because he has a penchant for bending trial rules, which leads to personality clashes with her liberal idealism and sense of legal ethics. While the two never see perfectly eye-to-eye, however, they eventually grow to be close, trusted friends.

During 1997, a bitter custody battle with Ross' ex-husband, Neil Gorton, over their daughter throws her personal and professional life into disarray. For the next year, the brutal litigation against her ex-husband (who is also a lawyer, with whom she used to work) leaves her with less and less time to devote to her job. She leaves the DA's office in 1998 ("Monster") to remarry and find a job that gives her more time to be with her family. She is replaced by Abbie Carmichael (Angie Harmon) in the following episode.

Additional appearances

The next time Ross and McCoy share a courtroom, in the 1999 episode "Justice," it is as adversaries; once again a defense attorney, she is representing a client McCoy is prosecuting for murder. When McCoy discovers she had provided legal advice to a man previously incarcerated for the crime, however, Ross recuses herself. She was reported to the Disciplinary Committee of the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, which eventually exonerated her with help from McCoy's testimony on her behalf.

They are again on the opposite sides of the aisle in the 2001 episode "School Daze," when she represents a student who had killed several classmates in a shooting at his school. At first, Ross has the upper hand, getting a handgun and other evidence dismissed due to a suppression ruling against detectives Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin), who use privileged medical information from a school psychiatrist to identify the suspect following an anonymous e-mail threatening to "come back and finish the job". However, when new evidence emerges and the judge decides the boy is competent to stand trial, the case is reinstated. After the boy's father (who believes his son would kill again if freed) testifies on the stand that his son had admitted the crime to him, the boy is convicted.

In 2005, she is reintroduced in the spin-off series "Law & Order: Trial by Jury" as a trial judge.