The big braggart on ''The Law Firm" is Roy Black, a barking-crab of a trial lawyer known for his defense of William Kennedy Smith and his appearances on NBC news shows. Black stares down his 12 players over a boardroom table, promising the winner of the competition $250,000 and ''recognition by me as the finest young trial lawyer of the law firm." Not exactly a job offer, and not exactly modest, but I digress. Black clearly takes his Trump imitation seriously, right down to the exaggerated word pronunciation and the stern efforts to inspire histrionics at the ''dismissal" meetings at the end of every episode. His big trademark line is: ''The verdict is in, and you're out."
Tonight's episode divides the players into four teams of three. Two teams argue either side of a dog-on-dog attack case, and two argue either side of an officer-impersonation case. It all has the tabloid air of ''Judge Judy" about it, but with the added feature of having the lawyers bicker with one another, and the judges bicker with the lawyers, and Black bicker with the lawyers about the judges. And the bickering isn't namby-pamby when you've got 12 lawyers in the house. These guys don't give up easily. When Olivier, who looks like Simon Baker of ''The Guardian," and Regina clash over their approach to the dog case, it's a fierce battle of wills, and we're not talking last testaments.
