A homicide case against a prominent judge runs into trouble when the case's presiding judge turns out to be a close friend of the defendant — and the victim turns out to be Price's former lover.
- Backfire on the Witness Stand: Price and the detectives interview Tyler Minter, Judge Rayner's law clerk, who admits to knowing about Rayner's relationship with Rachel and having heard an argument between them when she broke up with him. However, when Price calls Tyler to the stand, Tyler gives a completely different account in the judge's favor, denting the prosecution's already weak credibility.
- Bittersweet Ending: Rayner is convicted, but Price got chewed out by McCoy and resorted to the ethically shady tactic of not turning over plausibly exculpatory information.
- Kangaroo Court: The chief problem of the trial is that the judge is biased in favor of the defendant, while Price's closeness to the victim leads him into ethically hazardous territory.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Downplayed. Price gets the conviction of the guy who most likely did it (but only by concealing potentially exculpatory information), but he shouldn't have been prosecuting the case in the first place. He was going to meet the victim the night she was killed, he was the one who discovered her body, and he had a sexual relationship with her in the past. He nearly sunk his whole case with this.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Invoked by name when Cosgrove says a lot of people would want to kill a public defender. "Both feet," Shaw adds.
- Red Herring: The detectives investigate one of the victim's clients, the son of another of her clients (who was convicted), as well as the father of a girl that was raped and murdered by a third of her clients (who was acquitted). All are innocent.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Both Samantha Maroun and Jack McCoy rip Nolan Price a new one for his taking a case in which he clearly had a personal stake and was involved with.
