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Jamie Ross is a former defense attorney who became an assistant district attorney on Law & Order from 1996 to 1998. She became a defense attorney again, going up against her former partner Jack McCoy twice. She later became a judge and then an assistant district attorney once again.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

All that is known about Ross' early life is that she grew up with four brothers. She attended Columbia University, although whether she went to law school there or only received her undergraduate degree from that school is uncertain. Ross was married to fellow attorney Neil Gorton and has a young daughter named Katie.

Law Career[]

First Term as Assistant District Attorney[]

Ross Justice

A younger Ross

Ross spent five years working as a criminal defense attorney, with her husband's firm, Gorton and Steinhart. She was an excellent defense attorney, getting acquittals in seven out of eight homicide cases she argued. Ross left her husband's firm to join the Manhattan DA's office as an ADA. Although McCoy vehemently opposed it at first, after only six months, she began working closely with him at Adam Schiff's insistence. She soon developed an amicable relationship with McCoy. (L&O: "Causa Mortis")

During the trial of Eddie Newman, she was forced to face off with her ex-husband Neil who was his lead defense attorney. Gorton assembled a large defense team, forcing McCoy and Ross to work longer hours to keep up with their greater manpower. Her ex used this against her, as she was forced to fight for custody of her daughter and quit for a job with more flexible hours. McCoy, however, asked her to come back and Newman was eventually found guilty. Gorton then withdrew his petition for custody (though he tried to get Jamie to take the death penalty off the table before he did). (L&O: "Turnaround", "Showtime") 

She was in favor of the death penalty (L&O: "Causa Mortis") but is not in favor of the death penalty anymore. (L&O: "Bad Girl")

She started dating a man named David at an unknown time (first mentioned in L&O: "Under the Influence") and gets engaged to him (L&O: "Damaged"). After her ex-husband Neil hears about the engagement, he later files another motion challenging Ross' custody of Katie. Gorton asserts that if Ross gets married, Katie will start to spend more time with David than Ross and is better off with him instead of a stranger. (L&O: "Tabloid") Ross leaves the DA's office as a result and she retains custody even after getting married. (L&O: "Monster")

As a defense attorney[]

Ross becomes a law professor, but also acts as a defense attorney again when Michael Gordon calls her. This leads her to go up against McCoy and her replacement, Abbie Carmichael. (L&O: "Justice") She also went up against them again in another case. (L&O: "School Daze")

As a judge[]

Jamie eventually became a judge and had lunch with Amanda Anderlee while she was presiding over the Bruno Johnson case. Jamie mentioned that during her third trial as a judge, Mike LaSalle, Bruno's attorney, sexually harassed her in chambers and she responded by threatening him with contempt of court and went straight home to take a hot shower. Anderlee advises her that if she sees him again she'll have to have to be fair to him despite his actions as that is what the robe demands. (TBJ: "41 Shots")

Second Term as An Assistant District Attorney[]

Ross eventually returns to the District Attorney's office as an ADA, once again working for now District Attorney Jack McCoy. She prosecuted the serial rape case against singer Henry King. King's conviction was overturned after three years because Ross buried King's criminal immunity when deposed for a civil suit. While investigating King's murder, Officer Dani Vertiz managed to find footage of Ross and King having an argument, and Ross was approached by Detectives Bernard and Cosgrove. Ross claimed that King was repeatedly harassing her, threatening to ruin her and even trying to stalk her through a private investigator, and Cosgrove started to suspect Ross of King's murder. When confronted with this suspicion, Ross firmly told the detectives to exit her office immediately. She then called Kate Dixon about Cosgrove's behavior, and Dixon let Cosgrove know. Later, Ross was put on the stand after it was revealed that Ross spoke with King's actual murderer, Nicole Bell, the first accuser who received justice and the plaintiff of the civil suit, the night of his death. Ross refused to say anything that might incriminate her, especially when Nolan Price, the prosecutor in Nicole's trial, implied she knew directly from Nicole her plans to shoot King dead. (L&O: "The Right Thing")

Clients[]

Cases tried[]

  • Granted Soin's motion to represent himself after firing his attorney while strongly warning him that this is a bad idea.
  • Denied Soin's request to visit his son Joey at the hospital every Thursday.
  • Questioned the jurors after they overheard a conversation between a witness, Mr. Mudgett and the victim's husband and dismissed juror #9 when he stated he favored Soin and replaced him with an alternate.
  • Denied Soin's motion to dismiss the case due to prosecutorial misconduct but instructed the jury that they may consider Mudgett's testimony was given with a promise from the State not to prosecute him.
  • Held Soin in contempt for ignoring her instructions to limit what he said when talking about his son Joey.
  • Instructed Sharaud Williams that the jury was only to consider the fact of the case in deliberations.

Cases Prosecuted[]

  • Prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned King for the drug rapes of Nicole Bell.
  • Appellate court overturned the conviction due to King's criminal immunity in a deposition for a civil lawsuit Nicole filed. The immunity wasn't rescinded when King was tried after 39 more women abused King of drugging, raping, and sodomizing him.
  • King hired a private investigator to find information to ruin her life. When King was murdered, she was briefly suspected from a filmed confrontation between the two.
  • Subpoenaed in the murder trial of Nicole, who shot King dead. Was accused of knowing Nicole's plans for murder directly from her, but refused to incriminate herself on the stand.

Appearances[]


Icon L&O Law & Order - Main Characters
Law

Senior Detectives: Max GreeveyPhil CerretaLennie BriscoeJoe FontanaEd GreenCyrus LupoKevin BernardFrank CosgroveJalen Shaw

Junior Detectives: Mike LoganRey CurtisEd GreenNick FalcoNina CassadyCyrus LupoKevin BernardFrank CosgroveJalen ShawVincent Riley

Commanding Officers: Captain Donald Cragen • Lieutenant Anita Van Buren • Lieutenant Kate Dixon

Order

Executive Assistant District Attorneys: Benjamin StoneJack McCoyMichael CutterNolan Price

Assistant District Attorneys: Paul RobinetteClaire KincaidJamie RossAbbie CarmichaelSerena SoutherlynAlexandra BorgiaConnie RubirosaSamantha Maroun

District Attorneys: Adam SchiffNora LewinArthur BranchJack McCoyNicholas Baxter

Others

Elizabeth OlivetAlfred Wentworth

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