Danielle Melnick

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Danielle Melnick is a fictional character on the NBC crime drama Law & Order, portrayed by Tovah Feldshuh. She has been periodically featured on the show since 1991.

Melnick is a New York City-based defense attorney who has been practicing for more than 20 years. A well-established, high profile litigator, she regularly goes up against the toughest, most powerful prosecutors in the New York City District Attorney's office. Her role in the Law & Order universe has been as a foil for Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty) and Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston). She has had an affectionately competitive friendship with the latter since the early days of their careers.

An idealistic, utterly professional workaholic, Melnick is so dedicated to her job that she often makes the lives of her opponents in the DA's office miserable. Much like McCoy, she is so zealous in her job that she will bend (but never break) trial laws to win a case, and sometimes risks being put in contempt of court for antagonizing a judge.

The series has revealed nothing about her personal life.

In the 2002 episode "Open Season," she was very nearly disbarred in a case in which she was representing a white supremacist accused of murdering a series of lawyers who worked for the DA's office. Angered by the gag order the trial judge had put on her client, she passed along an address to one of the man's associates, assured that it would produce evidence that could clear him; unbenkownst to her, however, it was actually the address of one of the terrorist's intended targets, who was soon murdered. She was arrested and charged as an accessory. She was mortified by what her client had done, but refused to break attorney-client privilege, even if it meant she would go to prison. (Ironically, all her sacrifice was on behalf of a client who hated her for being Jewish.)

McCoy, who was reluctant to prosecute his old friend, ending up saving her by lying to the man, telling him that Melnick had confessed to unwittingly helping him, and that he would go to prison for life unless he admitted that she hadn't known what he was going to do with the information. Melnick was cleared of all charges, but was shot soon after by one of her former client's followers. She eventually recovered, however, and returned to her practice.