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.
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.
Alan defends Denny for smuggling fat overseas to be made into fuel; Clarence tries his first case with Paul and Bethany, a first degree murder where a Haitian restavec brought to America killed her employer, a man who allegedly planned to sell her child into slavery; Jeffery Coho decides to leave the firm.
* Final regular appearance of Paul Lewiston Shirley is sued by Stanford University after she reneges on a $3 million donation, and she asks Alan to represent her – only to find him useless against an old flame and opposing counsel, Lorraine Weller (Saffron Burrows); Alan's problems are compounded by Judge Gloria Weldon's desire to be pregnant by him; Denny is arrested for solicitation, but is more enraged to learn that his nemesis, senior partner Carl Sack (John Larroquette), has transferred to Boston to run litigation; Junior associate and recent Harvard-grad Katie Lloyd tries her first case, a murder trial, with Jerry Espenson; Clarence gets into hot water for entering a dance competition as Clarice.
Alan's word salad returns, but he refuses to acknowledge the cause; Shirley represents Denny's friend, General "Fitz" Fitzgerald, who is threatened of being discharged from the Army after he revealed his homosexuality; Whitney Rome (Taraji P. Henson) arrives at the firm from New York, and Carl assigns her and Katie to take over the custody battle over a nine-year-old bullfighter.