By Kellie Freeze
In Bluff City Law, premiering Monday, Sept. 23, on NBC, Caitlin McGee plays Sydney Strait, who grew up in the shadow of her father, Elijah (Jimmy Smits), a legendary Memphis attorney whose morality is as well known as his legal prowess. But where most view her father as a hero, Sydney only sees a hypocrite, and their relationship has been strained for years. After the sudden death of Sydney’s philanthropist mother, Elijah begs her to rejoin his boutique law firm in an effort to reforge their shattered bond and change the world for the better, together.
“There’s a reason it was a disaster the first time,” explains Sydney to her father in the pilot. “We’re both alphas. Two alphas just don’t mix. Not to mention we’re total opposites with how we do the job — you’re conservative; I wage war.” But where Sydney sees polarity, Elijah sees a positive. “Our differences could be our strengths,” he tells her.
Smits has played attorneys throughout his acting career — most notably L.A. Law‘s Victor Sifuentes — and says he’s drawn to the focus and forte of Strait & Associates: social justice. “They do all types of cases, but their proclivity and specialty is cases that have a civil rights tone to them,” he says. “It’s all about justice and the aspirational qualities of what the law system can be.”
The series from writer and executive producer Dean Georgaris also incorporates elements of a family drama, not only between Elijah and Sydney, but among the firm’s staff, each of whom has been handpicked by Elijah. Smits says, “There’s two tiers of what the family is to Elijah Strait: there’s his immediate family and then the family that is the firm.” Each member of the team is deliciously complex in his or her own right and mirrors Elijah’s passion of fighting for the little guy while striving to right wrongs from inside of a courtroom.