The Client (1995)

Due to money problems, Reggie accepts a job with a prestigious law firm. However, she soon realizes that the firm only wanted her to help defend a congressman, Jim Addison, on a sexual harassment charge. Because the case is politically volatile and the firm had no female attorneys, the firm's partners need Reggie to help win the case. When Reggie learns that the congressman is guilty, and that the firm's attorneys have paid off a witness, she threatens to expose them unless they can get Addison to plead guilty. Meanwhile, Momma Love takes a part-time job in Reggie's building and tries to match her boss up with a date.

While 11-year-old Rafe Collins waits for his father, Eddie Ray, outside a public bathroom, a man gives him a suitcase to hold. The man goes into the bathroom, followed by another man who shoots him. The police arrest Rafe's father, assuming that he committed the murder. The killer tries to get the suitcase from Rafe, who discovers that it's full of money. After hiding it, Rafe gets captured by the police. Judge Roosevelt assigns Reggie Love to Rafe's case and appoints her as his guardian, allowing Rafe to stay in her house. Reggie also harbors an abused woman whose husband, crime boss Burt Halliwell, owns a riverboat casino. Unbeknownst to Reggie, Rafe's money belongs to Halliwell, who tries to sway Foltrigg by appealing to his political goals. When Rafe retrieves the money and goes to the casino to get help from his father's friend, Reggie follows him.

Reggie succeeds in overturning a court ruling that forced her to relinquish parental control of her children. Now she must gain visitation rights. Meanwhile, she defends a despondent, unpopular young girl whose date for a high school dance abandons her. Later, the boy is murdered, and the girl is the prime suspect. Foltrigg wants to try the girl as an adult after she confesses to the crime, but Reggie is convinced that the girl is just trying to protect the real murderer. Reggie questions the girl's family and discovers that her father killed the boy after his daughter told him the boy raped her. Also, Reggie tries to help Lenny Barlow, an old friend from Alcoholics Anonymous, who gets jailed when he starts drinking again and breaks into a car. She bargains with Foltrigg to lessen the charges.

Reggie defends an unwed pregnant African-American teenager, Zora Ward, who wants to keep her baby. However, Zora's mother, Alice Ward, is trying to get her declared incompetent so the baby can be given up for adoption. Despite Reggie's concern, she doubts that Zora is telling the truth about the baby's father. Roosevelt tries to convince Reggie to persuade Zora to allow his rich, longtime friends to adopt her baby because they desperately want a healthy African-American newborn. When Zora is shot outside her own home, Reggie must unravel the mystery. Meanwhile, Gus allows Reggie to visit her children, but tells her that they don't want to see her. Also, she must help Lenny again.

Momma Love enlists Reggie's help when Momma's friend Verna accepts a marriage proposal from a wealthy retiree whose daughter wants to destroy the marriage for her own financial gain. What begins as a simple temporary restraining order request turns deadly when Reggie discovers that all of Buddy's previous girlfriends have mysteriously disappeared. While helping her on the case, Clint puts his probation in jeopardy when he gets in a fight with a nursing home worker whose bedside manner isn't up to par. Meanwhile, Reggie struggles to prepare a speech honoring her late father, a beloved high school football coach, with whom she had a distant at best relationship. At the same time, she anxiously anticipates the first visit from her own estranged children; though her daughter, Alison, gets right back on the plane after arriving, her son, Chris, very much wants to stay with her.

Lenny, Reggie's friend from AA, double-crosses mobster Waldo Gaines by not killing (as he was ordered) a county clerk who threatened to expose a jury-tampering scheme which resulted in Gaines going free. Foltrigg had tried to convict Gaines three times but failed because of the tainted juries. Lenny goes to Reggie for help because he knows Gaines will have him killed when he learns the county clerk is still alive, and she convinces him to testify for the state about the jury tampering to put Gaines behind bars. Unfortunately, while lying in wait for his secret meeting with Reggie and Foltrigg, Lenny sees Foltrigg conversing with the head of the vice squad – the very person, it turns out, who hired him to kill the county clerk and cover up the scheme. Lenny flees to the backwoods, and Reggie and Foltrigg embark on a race to catch him before someone else does. They succeed, placing him in a witness relocation program after Foltrigg prosecutes the corrupt cop.

In a production of ""Romeo and Juliet"" at a predominately white school, Jamal James Garrett, a black kid, plays Romeo. This aggravates racial tensions because a white girl, Leigh-Ann, plays Juliet. When Jamal is taunted, he retaliates by burning a Confederate flag. Community outrage erupts, and he is expelled from school. Reggie sues the school to have Jamal reinstated, but her own life is in danger from a group of bigoted assailants. Momma Love defends the Confederate flag as a great symbol of their Southern heritage. Roy, who weighs the virtue of the law against the typical character of his political supporters, publicly urges Jamal's indictment for burning the flag, while privately masterminding his release.

Reggie defends a 30-year-old mentally challenged man, Harris Bingham. Harris is accused of murder when his girlfriend, Cissy, is found strangled in bed. Reggie fights to have him tried as a juvenile but, after talking with Harris, she realizes that he is innocent. As she investigates the case, Reggie learns Cissy was once married to an abusive man who has murdered before and is now stalking Harris. Meanwhile, Reggie accepts a divorce case and becomes attracted to her client.

Reggie attempts to help a young boy, Ryan Nichols, find his father, Dewey, who was in the witness protection program, so that Dewey can donate bone marrow for the boy's severely ailing younger sister. Reggie and Foltrigg were responsible for convincing the missing Dewey to testify against two notorious gangsters who were sent to prison as a result. They then helped him and his family hide in order to avoid retaliation. But when he lost his job and couldn't get another, Dewey fled, leaving his family with no way to find him. Clint and Reggie locate him, but a hit man takes Dewey hostage. Foltrigg arrives and saves him.

Reggie helps mobster Waldo Gaines' young son, Eric, after the boy accidentally witnesses his father murder two people whose bodies are later found on Gaines' dump site. Gaines' wife, Claudette, hires Reggie to help her get custody of Eric who was drugged against his will and committed to a sanitarium by Gaines to prevent him from remembering the killings. When Reggie gets Eric released, Gaines incapacitates his wife, and Momma Love must care for the youngster. Meanwhile, Foltrigg uses Waldo's own lawyers to help arrest him. In Reggie's personal life, she realizes too late that it was a mistake to reunite with her ex-husband, Gus, for a brief sexual encounter.

Reggie defends John Euland in an acrimonious divorce case against his wife, Annalee. But it soon becomes a murder investigation due to the suspicious death of Annalee's father. Reggie tries to have herself removed from the case because the evidence implicates her client. Then the situation worsens when a desperate Annalee takes the people in Roosevelt's courtroom hostage and demands that her husband tell the truth without relying on legal trickery. John admits killing her father. Meanwhile, Reggie's daughter, Alison, is missing after shoplifting some jewelry with her friends. Locked in the courtroom, Reggie is unable to search for her.

During their investigation of a child abuse case, Clint surprises Reggie when he makes an off-the-cuff remark to her about his own childhood scars from his father. The case itself is also much more complicated than it appears on the surface; the victim's mother, Dora – a crack addict – is an unfit parent, but she insists it's her son's foster parents who are abusing him while the boy, Jeff, claims his injuries are self-inflicted. The investigation soon turns up frightening connections to a series of child pornography cases involving the foster parents. Meanwhile, Christmastime brings excited preparations by Reggie and Momma Love for Alison and Chris' Christmas-day visit just as it forces Clint to finally acknowledge his abuse before visiting his father for the holiday.

Reggie and Foltrigg again work together to put mobster Waldo Gaines in jail when they bring him to trial for the murder of two businessmen. A conviction is unlikely unless Gaines' son, Eric (Reggie's young client who witnessed the murders) testifies against his father. No matter how much Reggie wants to help Foltrigg put Gaines away, she works for Eric and does everything she can to protect him from what she understands will be severe psychological damage inherent in testifying against his own father – including pleading the judge to appoint her Guardian Ad Litum. Reggie and Foltrigg go head-to-head regarding the boy's being forced to testify, ultimately resulting in Reggie's removing herself from the State's case when Foltrigg insists Eric should testify no matter what the cost to the young boy. In the end, Gaines finally does time. Meanwhile, a drunken and disorderly Jackson plays matchmaker between his sister, Reggie, and his boss, Mike, who has driven home safely.

After speaking negatively about gangs, Reggie's friend, Delores Mayfield, is shot and killed by a gang member. Her son, Justin, who saw his mother get killed, thinks he was the intended victim because he is dating the killer's sister. Justin disappears and joins a rival gang to get revenge on his mother's murderer. Meanwhile, Reggie and Clint try to locate the boy's father, Earl Blount, a reformed ex-convict, so he can help his son and remove him from gang life.

Reggie helps a woman she meets at a battered women's shelter who is soon after accused of and confesses to killing her husband, a respected law professor. Foltrigg, an old buddy of the deceased, insists on holding the woman even when Reggie implores him to let her out on bail to be with her teenage son. While preparing her defense, Reggie comes to realize that the woman is covering for her son who killed his father and Reggie must convince him to testify about how he saved his mother and himself from further battering. Meanwhile, Jackson hires his sister to sue his boss, Michael, for ""wrongfully"" terminating him due to drinking. Reggie goes to Michael first to get his side of the story, but business turns to pleasure. Also, Momma Love takes a job at a community theatre, leading Reggie to witness another side of her mother.

Reggie's long-time friend, Karen, visits with her mother and her daughter, Amy, a gymnast in training for the Olympics. The visit turns into an investigation after Reggie observes a practice session and suspects the coach of abuse, culminating in the suspicious death of one of Amy's teammates. Meanwhile, Foltrigg considers hiring a political consultant to help him in his quest for the governor's office, and Reggie finds herself in hot water with the IRS when she's arrested for owing backtaxes thanks to Gus' not reporting their divorce. Though her accountant, Arnie, is able to straighten out the immediate situation at hand, he reminds Reggie that her financial situation will only continue to get worse if she doesn't finally start getting some paying clients.

When Reggie's sponsor, Gretchen, shows up at an AA meeting after roughly two years, the two are excited to see each other and agree to get together. Reggie suggests they meet after he son's soccer tournament something over which she is deeply excited. At home, Momma Love surprises Reggie by giving her a letter from her son's attorney; Chris is suing both of his parents for his divorce. To make matters worse, when Reggie tries to talk to Gus about it, she meets his new (much younger) girlfriend. Later, Gretchen steals Reggie's credit card. At the same time, Gus' girlfriend, Jennifer, hires a private detective to get some dirt on Reggie. When Gretchen wakes up in a hotel room next to a dead man after falling off the wagon (a hotel room for which she paid with Reggie's credit card), she hides out with Reggie without telling her what's really going on. Reggie eventually figures things out when the cops trace her credit card and goes looking for Gretchen at all of their old haunts.

Two elderly sisters seek Reggie's representation on behalf of their nephew, a delusional man who believes he is living the Civil War and must defend the South's women from Yankee men, culminating in his killing a man during an assault on a woman. Since no murder is reported at first, Reggie must first determine whether or not her client imagined the murder since attorney/client privilege prevents her from going to the police. It soon becomes clear that he was telling the truth when he confessed – and his mission to protect Southern women from Yankee men is unyielding and dangerous. Meanwhile, Arnie goes over Reggie's accounting and continues to encourage her to stop taking clients who can't pay so she can continue her practice. Meanwhile, Momma Love goes looking for a job and Arnie takes her on as his assistant; while working together, Momma realizes Arnie is in love -- with Reggie.

Reggie works as a public defender for extra money and questions her ethics when she defends a police officer, Joe, who she believes is guilty. Joe claims that he thought the person whom he shot in his house at night was an intruder. But the intruder was his pregnant daughter's boyfriend whom he despised, and Joe's wife, Helen, testifies that she heard the boy identify himself before getting shot. Reggie wants to let Helen's testimony help convict her client. But Foltrigg reminds her that she must defend her client regardless of her personal feelings. Reggie destroys Helen's credibility by introducing evidence of mental instability and wins the case. She feels terrible about freeing a guilty killer. Meanwhile, Roosevelt considers his own prejudices when he becomes a contender for a federal judgeship.

When Reggie is stalked by a crazy person, she and Foltrigg repeatedly fail to stop him. As the stalker becomes more and more aggressive and threatening, Foltrigg asks Reggie to use herself as bait to apprehend the man. Reggie thinks the stalker is someone she knew when she was drinking alcohol heavily. Meanwhile, Momma Love's cousin, Estelle, asks Reggie to settle a request in her deceased husband's will by giving a piece of property to a black woman who saved her husband's life years ago. However, Momma Love learns that Estelle's husband actually killed the woman's husband and wanted to make amends. Also, Clint enrolls in a dating service.

When a church volunteer saves a woman from being raped, he doesn't want any publicity. After his picture is published in the newspaper, the volunteer is arrested for an accidental killing 30 years ago. Reggie defends the admittedly guilty man against Roy's prosecution. The jury declares him guilty but, in view of the volunteer's exemplary life ever since the incident, the judge orders him to perform community service--exactly what he has been doing. Meanwhile, Clint's mother dies. Without her help paying for his law studies, Clint cannot afford to stay in school on the salary Reggie pays him. He plans to leave school temporarily and work a second job to save money. Reggie anonymously donates money to the law school as a scholarship for Clint so he can stay in school. To afford that, she has to sell her car.