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The following lists all characters, major and minor, who are/were judges in the ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' franchise.
[[foldercontrol]]
!!Current
%%Please list by order of joining
[[folder:Danielle Melnick]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrder'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent''
!!!'''Other Appearances:''' ''Series/ChicagoJustice''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/TovahFeldshuh
[=McCoy=]'s friend and rival. Zealous, crusading attorney, who often takes on cases to make political points. Appeared 13 times, between seasons 2-17.
----
* CallBack: After "Open Season," where she is shot in TheTag, she disappears for several seasons. When she returns, she's using a cane.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In her first few appearances, she's just another of the show's revolving door of {{Amoral Attorney}}s who will work for anyone with the money to pay them. She didn't start being portrayed as a crusader until the episode "Hot Pursuit."
* CrusadingLawyer: Melnick is a civil rights extremist -- she even defended a neo-Nazi who had shot a personal friend, because the principles were that important to her. Only problem is, they weren't as important to the defendant...
** WellIntentionedExtremist: ... who asked her to send messages to the outside world, in defiance of a communication ban. She did, believing that the ban was cruel and unusual punishment. The messages turned out to be the next target for her client's associates to kill. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Oops.]]
* LaserGuidedKarma: Borders strongly into DisproportionateRetribution, but she breached a court's order of a communication ban which caused her client to be able to assassinate district attorneys. [=McCoy=] manages to get her (former) client to drop the conspiracy charges on her because she didn't realize what she was causing -- only for her to get shot shortly thereafter by another associate of said client who presumably thought she ratted him out. She barely survives.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Once [=McCoy=] hit her with the results of her above actions, [[OhCrap she immediately realizes just how badly she messed up]] and how screwed her career would be for it. It doesn't stop her from trying to do her job, though, which ultimately proved the wrong choice to stick to.
* NeverMyFault: When arrested for the above actions, she insisted that she was right, the judge was wrong, and gets extremely mad at [=McCoy=] for screwing her over by prosecuting her for a crime she did commit. This goes as far as attempting to guilt trip him multiple times about "screwing over a friend", even after he presses her to begrudgingly admit she messed up.
* TooDumbToLive: ''Narrowly'' averted, as she still gets shot for her association with Preuss in "Open Season" under assumption that she sold him out, but this ultimately only gets her crippled.
* WorthyOpponent: She and [=McCoy=] are on much friendlier terms than he usually is with defense attorneys. Doesn't stop her from acting like ItsPersonal when he realizes she's crossed the line in "Open Season", however.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Morris Torledsky]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrder'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderTrialByJury''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/DavidLipman
--> ''"Your client is getting dangerously close to the textbook definition of [[YiddishAsASecondLanguage chutzpah]]!"''
An arraigning judge who enlivens his boring job with witty comments to his judgments.
----
* DeadpanSnarker
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Gary Feldman]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrder''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/CliffGorman
A judge with political ambitions, who wanted to base his campaign around targeting drunk drivers. He collaborated with [=McCoy=] to hide evidence in a case involving a drunk driver that killed three people. When [=McCoy=] backed out of the scheme, he vowed revenge and went on to run against Adam Schiff. He was backed by Carl Anderton ('Burned'), who wanted revenge on Schiff for his own reasons. Appeared 3 times in Season 8.
----
* AmoralAttorney
* CorruptPolitician
* KnightTemplar
[[/folder]]
[[folder:William Wright]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrder'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderTrialByJury''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/RonMcLarty
A judge whose defining characteristic was disagreeing with [=McCoy=] on everything. Notable appearances included setting aside a 'guilty' verdict for three boys convicted of raping a mentally disabled girl ('Damaged') and setting aside a 'guilty' verdict when [=McCoy=] convicted a gun dealer of murder due to his unethical business practices ('Gunshow'). In his final episode, 'Dissonance,' Nora Lewin threatened that she would destroy him unless he judged the trial fairly. Appeared in 4 episodes between seasons 8-11.
----
* AlliterativeName: '''W'''illiam '''W'''right.
* DependingOnTheWriter Whether Wright is reasonable or not varies drastically depending on the episode that he's in. In "Gunshow", the episode takes his side, indicating that the gun dealer, while evil, hadn't actually violated any law, and that [=McCoy=] was basically engaging in prosecutorial misconduct by trying to get him convicted for being a bad guy, not for violating any actual statute. In "Damaged", on the other hand, Wright is shown as a heartless and stupid jerk who refuses to even consider that the mentally disabled girl could have been raped, even though [=McCoy=] provided ample evidence that the girl was incapable of consenting to sex.
* NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization: Wright's reasoning for why he wouldn't reverse his decision to set aside the guilty verdict in "Damaged".
* WhatTheHellHero: Calls out the jury for convicting the three boys of rape.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Janice Goldberg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrder'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/FranLebowitz
A sarcastic and outspoken arraignment judge. She makes 12 appearances between seasons 11-17, and one in season five of ''Criminal Intent''.
----
* DeadpanSnarker: Has a dry one-liner for pretty much every case.
* SeenItAll: She frequently displays this attitude throughout her cases.
* TheUnapologetic: Refuses to back down or apologize when a defense attorney wants to force her to recuse from the case on the grounds that she's a vocal opponent of the defendant's father, a Senator.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lena Petrovsky]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lena_petrovsky.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/JoannaMerlin
* IconicSequelCharacter: She is one of the prominent judges on the show, but didn't make her first appearance until Season 2.
* LongBusTrip: Hasn't been seen since Season 12.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: She has a reputation for being tough but fair. While she has frequently shown favor towards the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, she has often sought to curb the DA's power when she felt it was being abused. She is also known overexerting her authority in telling the DA's office how they should prosecute cases.
* WorthyOpponent: Despite the professional animosity between her and Alex, she respects her resilience.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Elizabeth Donnelly]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/donnelly_persona.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/JudithLight
* FirstNameBasis: Frequently goes from "Your Honor" or "Judge Donnelly" to "Elizabeth" when speaking with Alex and Casey on more personal matters.
* CoolOldLady: Light's not ''that'' old, but Donnelly's on-off appearances make it clear that she is completely no-nonsense, fierce, and intelligent.
* DeadpanSnarker: Frequently, especially when she's with Benson and Stabler.
* IconicSequelCharacter: She is one of the most prominent recurring characters on the show, but didn't make her first appearance until near the end of Season 3.
* ItsPersonal: Steps down from the bench for a case in Season 10's "Persona" due to her connection with the defendant (see PersonAsVerb below).
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Can occasionally slip into this at times.
* LongBusTrip: Hasn't been seen since Season 12.
* PersonAsVerb: As revealed in "Persona", when she inadvertently facilitated a defendant's escape from authorities, a DA goofing up big time became known as "Doing a Donnelly".
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Is also respectful of the SVU.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Barry Moredock]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/barry_moredock.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/JohnCullum
* AmoralAttorney: An extremely rare positive portrayal. Moredock is known to defend clients he finds morally reprehensible, including [[VillainByDefault Neo-Nazis, child murderers, and creators of simulated child pornography]], all because he is a firm believer in the Constitution and the right to a fair trial.
* AntiVillain: While he's a defense attorney, he's not a bad guy at all; he's shown to get along with former student Alex and, later, Casey quite well. His biggest concern is making sure his clients get a fair defense; specifically, he takes cases where he feels the defendants are having their constitutional rights violated. Even if he personally doesn't agree with their views, he maintains that everyone has rights under the law, and is willing to risk a contempt of court charge to stand up for his client's rights. The only thing really "bad" about him is that he's on the opposite side of the protagonists, and this eventually changes when he becomes a judge.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Despite his questionable client list, he doesn't condone any of their actions but instead takes their cases due to his belief for all people to have a fair trial as a constitutional right.
* FriendlyEnemy: Has worked with both Cabot and Novak on separate occasions and is a genuinely polite person.
* GracefulLoser: In his first appearance, he loses a case to Alex and graciously congratulates her on her victory, then cheerfully notes that there's still an appeal process.
* HeelFaceTurn: Downplayed. He's not much of a villain, even when serving as the defense for the side opposite the SVU team. However, when he becomes a judge, his antagonism with the detectives disappears entirely, alongside many of his more negative character traits.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: As a judge, he frequently has to throw out cases the SVU detectives bring before him due to circumstantial evidence or a lack of any real crime having been committed.
* RulesLawyer: Very strict on his constitutional law interpretations.
* SmugSnake: Comes off this way at first. However, he does temper this with being a GracefulLoser, and being willing to admit when he's only defending his client due to a legal interest and does not approve of their actions personally. For example, when defending a Neo-Nazi who killed a black child (and wounded two others) on a playground:
-->'''Casey''': Have you had a conversation with him?
-->'''Barry''': Yes, and I find every word he spews morally repugnant. But his speech, despicable as it may be, doesn't entitle anyone to trample all over his constitutional rights, now, does it?
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Delivers an ''epic'' ass-ripping to Lionel Granger when the latter engages in some particularly shady legal tactics.
[[/folder]]
!!Former
%%Please list by order of joining
[[folder:Jamie Ross]]
--> see Sandbox/LawAndOrderNewYorkDistrictAttorneysOffice
[[/folder]]
[[foldercontrol]]
!!Current
%%Please list by order of joining
[[folder:Danielle Melnick]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrder'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent''
!!!'''Other Appearances:''' ''Series/ChicagoJustice''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/TovahFeldshuh
[=McCoy=]'s friend and rival. Zealous, crusading attorney, who often takes on cases to make political points. Appeared 13 times, between seasons 2-17.
----
* CallBack: After "Open Season," where she is shot in TheTag, she disappears for several seasons. When she returns, she's using a cane.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In her first few appearances, she's just another of the show's revolving door of {{Amoral Attorney}}s who will work for anyone with the money to pay them. She didn't start being portrayed as a crusader until the episode "Hot Pursuit."
* CrusadingLawyer: Melnick is a civil rights extremist -- she even defended a neo-Nazi who had shot a personal friend, because the principles were that important to her. Only problem is, they weren't as important to the defendant...
** WellIntentionedExtremist: ... who asked her to send messages to the outside world, in defiance of a communication ban. She did, believing that the ban was cruel and unusual punishment. The messages turned out to be the next target for her client's associates to kill. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Oops.]]
* LaserGuidedKarma: Borders strongly into DisproportionateRetribution, but she breached a court's order of a communication ban which caused her client to be able to assassinate district attorneys. [=McCoy=] manages to get her (former) client to drop the conspiracy charges on her because she didn't realize what she was causing -- only for her to get shot shortly thereafter by another associate of said client who presumably thought she ratted him out. She barely survives.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Once [=McCoy=] hit her with the results of her above actions, [[OhCrap she immediately realizes just how badly she messed up]] and how screwed her career would be for it. It doesn't stop her from trying to do her job, though, which ultimately proved the wrong choice to stick to.
* NeverMyFault: When arrested for the above actions, she insisted that she was right, the judge was wrong, and gets extremely mad at [=McCoy=] for screwing her over by prosecuting her for a crime she did commit. This goes as far as attempting to guilt trip him multiple times about "screwing over a friend", even after he presses her to begrudgingly admit she messed up.
* TooDumbToLive: ''Narrowly'' averted, as she still gets shot for her association with Preuss in "Open Season" under assumption that she sold him out, but this ultimately only gets her crippled.
* WorthyOpponent: She and [=McCoy=] are on much friendlier terms than he usually is with defense attorneys. Doesn't stop her from acting like ItsPersonal when he realizes she's crossed the line in "Open Season", however.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Morris Torledsky]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrder'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderTrialByJury''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/DavidLipman
--> ''"Your client is getting dangerously close to the textbook definition of [[YiddishAsASecondLanguage chutzpah]]!"''
An arraigning judge who enlivens his boring job with witty comments to his judgments.
----
* DeadpanSnarker
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Gary Feldman]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrder''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/CliffGorman
A judge with political ambitions, who wanted to base his campaign around targeting drunk drivers. He collaborated with [=McCoy=] to hide evidence in a case involving a drunk driver that killed three people. When [=McCoy=] backed out of the scheme, he vowed revenge and went on to run against Adam Schiff. He was backed by Carl Anderton ('Burned'), who wanted revenge on Schiff for his own reasons. Appeared 3 times in Season 8.
----
* AmoralAttorney
* CorruptPolitician
* KnightTemplar
[[/folder]]
[[folder:William Wright]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrder'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderTrialByJury''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/RonMcLarty
A judge whose defining characteristic was disagreeing with [=McCoy=] on everything. Notable appearances included setting aside a 'guilty' verdict for three boys convicted of raping a mentally disabled girl ('Damaged') and setting aside a 'guilty' verdict when [=McCoy=] convicted a gun dealer of murder due to his unethical business practices ('Gunshow'). In his final episode, 'Dissonance,' Nora Lewin threatened that she would destroy him unless he judged the trial fairly. Appeared in 4 episodes between seasons 8-11.
----
* AlliterativeName: '''W'''illiam '''W'''right.
* DependingOnTheWriter Whether Wright is reasonable or not varies drastically depending on the episode that he's in. In "Gunshow", the episode takes his side, indicating that the gun dealer, while evil, hadn't actually violated any law, and that [=McCoy=] was basically engaging in prosecutorial misconduct by trying to get him convicted for being a bad guy, not for violating any actual statute. In "Damaged", on the other hand, Wright is shown as a heartless and stupid jerk who refuses to even consider that the mentally disabled girl could have been raped, even though [=McCoy=] provided ample evidence that the girl was incapable of consenting to sex.
* NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization: Wright's reasoning for why he wouldn't reverse his decision to set aside the guilty verdict in "Damaged".
* WhatTheHellHero: Calls out the jury for convicting the three boys of rape.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Janice Goldberg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrder'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/FranLebowitz
A sarcastic and outspoken arraignment judge. She makes 12 appearances between seasons 11-17, and one in season five of ''Criminal Intent''.
----
* DeadpanSnarker: Has a dry one-liner for pretty much every case.
* SeenItAll: She frequently displays this attitude throughout her cases.
* TheUnapologetic: Refuses to back down or apologize when a defense attorney wants to force her to recuse from the case on the grounds that she's a vocal opponent of the defendant's father, a Senator.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lena Petrovsky]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lena_petrovsky.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/JoannaMerlin
* IconicSequelCharacter: She is one of the prominent judges on the show, but didn't make her first appearance until Season 2.
* LongBusTrip: Hasn't been seen since Season 12.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: She has a reputation for being tough but fair. While she has frequently shown favor towards the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, she has often sought to curb the DA's power when she felt it was being abused. She is also known overexerting her authority in telling the DA's office how they should prosecute cases.
* WorthyOpponent: Despite the professional animosity between her and Alex, she respects her resilience.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Elizabeth Donnelly]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/donnelly_persona.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/JudithLight
* FirstNameBasis: Frequently goes from "Your Honor" or "Judge Donnelly" to "Elizabeth" when speaking with Alex and Casey on more personal matters.
* CoolOldLady: Light's not ''that'' old, but Donnelly's on-off appearances make it clear that she is completely no-nonsense, fierce, and intelligent.
* DeadpanSnarker: Frequently, especially when she's with Benson and Stabler.
* IconicSequelCharacter: She is one of the most prominent recurring characters on the show, but didn't make her first appearance until near the end of Season 3.
* ItsPersonal: Steps down from the bench for a case in Season 10's "Persona" due to her connection with the defendant (see PersonAsVerb below).
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Can occasionally slip into this at times.
* LongBusTrip: Hasn't been seen since Season 12.
* PersonAsVerb: As revealed in "Persona", when she inadvertently facilitated a defendant's escape from authorities, a DA goofing up big time became known as "Doing a Donnelly".
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Is also respectful of the SVU.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Barry Moredock]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/barry_moredock.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/JohnCullum
* AmoralAttorney: An extremely rare positive portrayal. Moredock is known to defend clients he finds morally reprehensible, including [[VillainByDefault Neo-Nazis, child murderers, and creators of simulated child pornography]], all because he is a firm believer in the Constitution and the right to a fair trial.
* AntiVillain: While he's a defense attorney, he's not a bad guy at all; he's shown to get along with former student Alex and, later, Casey quite well. His biggest concern is making sure his clients get a fair defense; specifically, he takes cases where he feels the defendants are having their constitutional rights violated. Even if he personally doesn't agree with their views, he maintains that everyone has rights under the law, and is willing to risk a contempt of court charge to stand up for his client's rights. The only thing really "bad" about him is that he's on the opposite side of the protagonists, and this eventually changes when he becomes a judge.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Despite his questionable client list, he doesn't condone any of their actions but instead takes their cases due to his belief for all people to have a fair trial as a constitutional right.
* FriendlyEnemy: Has worked with both Cabot and Novak on separate occasions and is a genuinely polite person.
* GracefulLoser: In his first appearance, he loses a case to Alex and graciously congratulates her on her victory, then cheerfully notes that there's still an appeal process.
* HeelFaceTurn: Downplayed. He's not much of a villain, even when serving as the defense for the side opposite the SVU team. However, when he becomes a judge, his antagonism with the detectives disappears entirely, alongside many of his more negative character traits.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: As a judge, he frequently has to throw out cases the SVU detectives bring before him due to circumstantial evidence or a lack of any real crime having been committed.
* RulesLawyer: Very strict on his constitutional law interpretations.
* SmugSnake: Comes off this way at first. However, he does temper this with being a GracefulLoser, and being willing to admit when he's only defending his client due to a legal interest and does not approve of their actions personally. For example, when defending a Neo-Nazi who killed a black child (and wounded two others) on a playground:
-->'''Casey''': Have you had a conversation with him?
-->'''Barry''': Yes, and I find every word he spews morally repugnant. But his speech, despicable as it may be, doesn't entitle anyone to trample all over his constitutional rights, now, does it?
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Delivers an ''epic'' ass-ripping to Lionel Granger when the latter engages in some particularly shady legal tactics.
[[/folder]]
!!Former
%%Please list by order of joining
[[folder:Jamie Ross]]
--> see Sandbox/LawAndOrderNewYorkDistrictAttorneysOffice
[[/folder]]
