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Webposted April 23, 2002
by: Kay Kellam

I don't know who he is guarding -- but I like his lawyering!

    In the early episodes of this show the Guardian was appointed to serve 1500 hours of community service for a drug arrest by using his law skills to protect children via Children's Legal Services of Pittsburgh.  However, Children's legal services lost their financial support after only a few episodes, & took the only grant they could get which means they now represent adults as well as children.

    Perhaps it is fortunate for the title of the show that so often the issues of adults directly effect the children in their lives.  Whether it is a mother upset about her son breaking a strike line & taking a job to support a girlfriend the mother doesn't approve of, or a man getting out of jail after serving his time only to discover his wife has decided to sever his parental rights, the cases are thought provoking & hard to resist caring about given the puppy dog eyes of child after child, week after week.

    According to the Guardian's official site Nick works along the following talented gang at Legal Aid:

Alvin Masterson founded Children's Legal Services in 1976 after working for the prestigious Mandel & Moore firm in Pittsburgh.

James Mooney put himself through law-school with athletic scholarships & a job working at Children's Hosptial of Pittsburgh. When he finished night school, James interviewed at Fallin & Associates but did not get the job. He later interviewed with Alvin Masterson & has been working for Children's Legal Services for eight years.

Barbara Ludzinski has worked for Children's Legal Services for twelve years.

Lulu Archer attended law school at Ohio State University. After graduating, Lulu served a federal clerkship with Judge McHenry. Lulu was offered a position at Fallin & Associates but turned down the job to become the assistant director of Legal Services of Pittsburgh.

    The group at Legal Aid is a tight knit group of friends, however that is not the only place in which we see lead character Nick Fallin.  Fallin & Associates, his father's law firm, where he works full time is full of ambitious people who seem willing to do anything to get ahead.  Jake hit a man while not paying attention to the road, & found enough evidence to raise doubt as to whose fault it was & persuaded the widow he could get the man's life insurance company to believe it was suicide & not pay unless she told the authorities she thought it wasn't Jake's fault.  How much of that was legit, & how much of that was Jake doing anything to cover his own behind should be anyone's guess!

According to the official website Jake & Nick's father are the only other people at Fallin & Assoc. the viewers might need some back story on, & here it is:

Burton Fallin put himself through law school while working at the same steel plant as his father. At the plant, Burton attempted to unionize the men, a plan that ultimately cost his father his job. His father died the week Burton passed the bar. In 1971, Burton founded Fallin & Associates.

Jake began his law career at the University of Pittsburgh where he finished in the middle of his class. Despite the Ivy League sensibility that Fallin & Associates carries with its name, Jake was hired by the firm & is now a seven year associate.

And of course there's Nick, Nicholas Fallin -- A junior associate at Fallin & Associates, Nick has been with his father's company for almost five years. Before that, Nick worked for Swann & Cranson in New York City. As part of his probation, Nick must serve 1500 hours of community service, three years probation & pay a $10,000.00 fine.

In the end... I tune in week after week.  Simon Baker (Nick Fallin) said it quite well when he suggested that the internal struggles of Nick is what drives all the drama.  He is a tortured young man with seemingly no one to turn to, & week after week he delivers an amazing performance.

(C) Kay Kellam, 2001 for PopArtsPlace.com
Prior to having her first novel, A Life to Di For, published author Kay Kellam enjoyed a variety of jobs that helped to shape her outlook on the world, and her profession.   more...

 

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