Ally McBeal, attractive recent graduate from Harvard Law School, is harassed at work by a senior associate. She complains to the powers that be but ends up losing her job. By chance, Ally bumps into former classmate Richard Fish, who invites her to join his new firm. Ally hesitantly accepts and receives the shock of her life on the first day: her childhood sweetheart Billy Thomas is an associate at the firm.

Ally is dismayed to be assigned as a litigator for humiliated firm partner John Cage. On top of that, Fish invites Ally to dinner with potential client Ronald Cheanie without telling her their outing is actually a double date. Ally's fury over being set up quickly cools when she sees Cheanie kissing Fish's girlfriend in the restaurant bathroom.

Ally senses Cheanie is hiding something when he avoids kissing her after their first official date. In the office, Ally helps Georgia with an age discrimination case where the opposing litigator happens to be Billings, the man Ally sued for sexual harassment at her old firm. Ally tries to be taken off the case but Fish admonishes her for putting her personal life before the interests of the firm.

Ally is asked to be a pallbearer at the funeral of her ex-law professor who also happens to be her ex-lover. The widow, thinking her husband was a great mentor for Ally, asks her to give the eulogy. Ally's reluctance leads Billy to find out the truth about her reasons for avoiding the funeral. Billy offers his support to Ally, which unnerves both Georgia and Cheanie.

Ally is arrested for assault and attempted shoplifting after an altercation with a hostile woman at a grocery store. Renee bails her out but word spreads quickly around the office. Ally is brought before the State Bar Review Board where her unconventional past and eccentric behavior is held up for scrutiny.

Ally agrees to help defend a friend of Whipper's who is being charged with solicitation. Serving second chair to John Cage on the case proves to be a strange and unusual experience when his idiosyncrasies become increasingly difficult to ignore. To top it all off, an obese attorney on a different case passes out in courtroom hallway and Ally has to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Ally represents a Jewish woman seeking spiritual release from her marriage because her husband is in a permanent coma. Meanwhile, Georgia becomes the target of a senior partner's wife's insecurities.

Billy and Georgia face a crisis of confidence in their marriage while Ally, Cage, and Georgia tackle a ridiculous divorce case. Elaine threatens to sue the firm if Fish does not meet her demands for a better working environment.

Attorney Caroline Poop returns to represent a beautiful delivery woman who is suing Fish and Cage for same-sex sexual harassment. Ally and Renée make a bet over who can tell a better dirty joke at the bar.

Ally is forced to defend a young prostitute up on her third solicitation charge. Much to Ally's surprise, her client is a transgender woman named Stephanie. As Ally grows closer to Stephanie, she begins to realize the true dangers her client faces as a transgender prostitute. Fish, meanwhile, sues his uncle's church for discrimination because of their refusal to hold a service reflecting his uncle's prejudice against short people.

Three successful, intelligent adults approach Judge Whipper Cone about legal representation in their quest to legally obtain a three-way marriage. Fish assigns Ally and Cage to the case, despite Ally's opposition. Holiday Blues permeate the office, causing several complications for the couples in the firm.

Ally struggles to get her biological clock under control when she starts having strange libidinal impulses. She, Renée, and Georgia are enamored with a particularly well-endowed male model in their sculpting class. In the office, Ally has to defend the nineteen-year-old son of a senior partner accused of assault for slugging another guy who harassed his date.

Ally gives Glenn, the model from the sculpting class, the cold shoulder during a chance encounter at a coffee shop. John Cage takes on a case in which the adult children of a plane crash victim sue the airline for the wrongful death of their father.

Ally and Renée are bridesmaids in a friend's wedding and become fed up with the absurd rituals and traditions. Richard asks Ally to flirt with a wealthy new client. To Ally's annoyance, Cage has no problem with it because of his new therapy regimen. Ally and Georgia try a case about overturning a warden's decision to refuse marriage for a prisoner serving a life term.

The firm takes on a case for a famous 80-year old artist who is battling his heirs for control of his estate. Ally and Billy co-council the case and find that the artist's relationship with his recently deceased wife mirrors their own. Fish intervenes in the relationship between Cage and Ally when she starts behaving in an obviously cold manner around the office.

A high-profile case opens up for Cage and Fish when a jilted spouse plans to sue a U.S. Senator for "interfering with happy marital relations". The Senator's case perversely parallels the awkward love triangle between Georgia, Billy, and Ally. Uncomfortable with how close the case mirrors her own life, Georgia quits the case; Fish and Cage step in to try and keep the Senator from losing his job.

Georgia, Ally, and Renée sign up for kickboxing classes to relieve stress. As luck would have it, Georgia and Ally end up having to face each other in the ring. After much awkward pretext, the fight begins and all civility is lost. Ally tries a case concerning an attractive surgeon who performed an unauthorized and controversial transplant procedure.

Tracey tells Ally to fight the dancing baby. But Greg and Ally get in an accident, Ally is distracted by his dazzling smile, and she kicks the dancing baby, but turns out he might be real. Richard is ready to argue in court defending a woman accusing her boss of sexual harassment, and Billy and Georgia are worried that they might actually win the case.

Ally is turning 28. That is upsetting enough to her but Elaine wants to throw a party at the bar for her, and Greg won't sleep with her and she doesn't know why. She's defending a man in court who was arrested for breaking into his date's house and massaging her feet. She tries to fix things for the couple at the bar, but it's not a good night for Ally. Especially when Renee chooses to surprise her as well and it looks like it's not going to be a happy birthday after all.

Billy tries to get the firm into homicide law, something Ally has trouble coping with. Ally also needs to defend Renee who broke a man's neck.

John and Ally are defending Renee for her life and career. Renee is upset with John over his antics in court but, when Ally's former fling, Glenn, appears as a prosecutorial witness, John kicks her off the case. Georgia might be pregnant, but she and Billy are unsure about impending parenthood. If only Ally could find a theme song to help deal with Georgia's pregnancy.

A convicted felon tried to escape from jail, and John and Ally are defending him. However, the DA on the case is John's former love from college. Ally saw the love immediately, but John is worried that she won't return his feelings. A jilted bride is suing, but when the judge assigned to the case is Whipper, Elaine, Richard and Whipper all have to deal with their unresolved issues of loneliness.

John's second cousin assaults happy people. In court, his defense will be to baffle the witnesses and jury. Two men want a court order to switch their hearts, and Bobby Donnell wants Ally-to help with the case. But if Ally's imagination has any say in it, he will want her eventually.

Feeling nervous that the firm is not making enough money, Fish and Cage decide to hire another associate, a "rainmaker" who can bring in lucrative clients. They hire Nelle Porter, an attractive, late 20's litigator from a respectable firm. On her first day, Nelle manages to irritate Ally, Georgia and Elaine, but Fish and Cage seem very pleased with her. Ally defends a woman in her late-30's accused of having sex with a minor. When the boy testifies, Ally finds herself attracted to him. In Memory of PHIL LEEDS April 16, 1916 - August 16, 1998

Nelle introduces the firm to Ling Woo, her main client. They are suing a sex-talk radio host with a ridiculous lawsuit, but it's crazier that she might actually win and bring publicity to the firm. Richard's happy, but Ally just might find a way to undermine their own case. John is defending a restaurant who served horse meat, but his love for Mr. Ed has gotten him depressed, and tongue-tied - when it comes to Nelle.

Reverend Mark Newman comes to Richard for his help when church choir singer Lisa Knowles is singing about their break-up. Ally is brought in to mediate because she can speak the language of loneliness, but it hits too close to home for her and she comes to a revelation about why Billy left her. Ling is back again and this time she's making Georgia and Billy sue a nurse for having natural breasts!

Renee and Ally are throwing a party and inviting everybody from Cage & Fish, even Nelle. Elaine's boyfriend George was fired from his job and Ally is representing him in court. When she finds herself in jail for wearing short skirts, the entire firm comes to her defense and Ally starts recognizing who her true friends are.

Ally finds herself in jail again, this time for kicking a young woman. She gets herself out of it by agreeing to represent the woman as her lawyer. When George shows up at Cage and Fish again, both Ally and George struggle with their attraction to one another. John is distressed when things go from bad to worse for his show frog Stefan.

John and Ally think they must be magnets for crazy cases when they are defending a nun who had sex. Stefan miraculously resurfaces but he's put on life support and John isn't privy to everything that happened to him. Renee runs into her Billy, her old high school flame, and while Ally gives good advice to her, she gives poor advice to Whipper and Richard.

Judge Happy Boyle has died, and the whole firm shares their Happy memories of him. John is fraught over moving his relationship with Nelle forward, and then he eats a meal he will never forget.

When Ling is sued for owning a mud wrestling club, Richard gets Ally, Georgia and Nelle to defend her, and he and John go undercover. Georgia sets Ally up on a date with a former boyfriend that she may still have lingering feelings for, but just before the date, Ally gets herself stuck in a tight situation.

The whole firm is angry at Richard for accepting another ridiculous lawsuit that Ling has come up with, but as usual, Richard has no problem telling it as he sees it. Renee sets Ally up on a blind date from hell, and this time during the date, Ally gets herself stuck in another tight situation. John is continuously fraught over his relationship with Nelle, and things don't go well when he asks for advice or gets advice when he doesn't even ask for it.

It's Christmas time at Cage and Fish, and Elaine is preparing for the office party and John is trying to use the mistletoe to his advantage in trying to make a move on Nelle. Ally is happy to see the whimsical side in Billy again when they defend a man who was fired for seeing a unicorn. Meanwhile, Renee is struggling to follow common sense when she sees her old boyfriend, Matt, again.

Ally's favorite teacher from high school is dying, but she has a wonderful dream life which she would like to remain in. Ally decides to get a court order to force the hospital to put her into a coma. But things get complicated for Ally when she realizes that her teacher's doctor is Greg Butters. John pushes Nelle to the breaking point over his unwillingness to move their relationship into a physical one.

Richard and Ally passionately defend a woman whose husband is seeking an annulment to their 9-year marriage. Ally has a horrible nightmare that she was named Professional Woman of the Year and Time magazine put her as the face of feminism - ugh, how disgusting! Ling tries to get Richard to consider something other than sex for their relationship, while Nelle is still trying to get John to consider sex for theirs. But is it possible John has missed out on his one true love?

When Ally is visiting Greg in the hospital, she meets a boy dying of leukemia who wants to sue God. But Ling shows up, and then the gang at Cage & Fish learn something pretty surprising about her. Richard and John are up to their usual antics in court against Renee when they're defending a man who has been accused of attempted murder.

Richard hires Ling, and Billy, Ally and Georgia want to band together so they don't lose the firm to Ling, but Billy and Ally seem to be forming their own coalition as the lines of their friendship blur. John and Nelle make a name for the firm as they take on another big profile sexual harassment case.

Ally frets over her kiss with Billy, and tries to figure out what it says about her and Billy, and also about her and Greg. But in Tracey's office, there's a showdown between Billy and Ally and their true feelings are forced to come out.

Although Ally has finalized things with Billy, now she's trying to patch things up with Greg, but the jealousy gets to both of them. John and Ling are in court together in a case against a Senator, and John trains Ling on his usual tricks.

In court, John and Ally are arguing against Richard and Georgia. This creates civil unrest in the firm, as well as a girl-on-girl-on-girl-on-girl cat fight.

John and Ally are on a murder case, but to Ally turning 29 is much, much worse. John is turning 35 and decides he wants to live life on the edge; Nelle gives him a birthday present he'll never forget. Richard wants to break-up with Ling since she won't have sex, but he finds a way to tease her.

With the help of Barry White, John has changed. Nelle doesn't see it, but Renee does and agrees to go on a date with him. Billy and Georgia go to couples therapy, but even there they have to invite Ally in. Richard and Nelle are defending a firm that doesn't hire women, John joins them but he has a hard time understanding or accepting the case. Elaine is competing in a dance contest but needs a last minute partner. Turns out that Ling knows how to tango, but being nice is much more difficult for her.

Elaine's face bra invention should make her rich and famous, instead she has to get a lawyer. Ally defends her, but she's the only one who believes her. Billy comes off as a chauvinistic pig as he defends a man in a sexual harassment case. John seeks advice from Richard and Ally to try and get Nelle back, but when she agrees to go out with him, she actually wants to leave the building.

Ally misses Greg, but when her loneliness gives Ling a headache, Ling hires one of her escorts (a really, really attractive one) for Ally. Ally embarks on a game of jealousy with Greg that ends up involving the whole firm, especially John - even though he's currently in court. He and Richard are exasperatedly trying to defend a volatile wife. Billy becomes an over-protective husband when Georgia starts dressing sexy around the office.

Ally and John are defending a woman who has created her perfect man in her head. The case causes big problems for Ally as she starts seeing Al Green and doesn't know if he is real or not. It also causes big problems for John as he finds himself in jail. Ling finally agrees to have sex with Richard, but now he's the one with the problem and seeks pharmaceutical help. Meanwhile, Billy and Georgia's sex life has gone straight to the toilets, literally.

Ally has retreated to her room where she is still seeing Al Green who can sing her life. Her neediness angers Nelle who is upset that John can connect to her inner world. Ally decides she's going to become a dating machine, but it causes a whole lot of awkwardness when Margaret Camaro shows up in the office, especially when Ling as lined up a parade of men for Ally to choose from.

It's the season of over-sexed women at Cage & Fish. Ally has just had a spontaneous sexual fling in a car wash, her client's minister won't perform her wedding because of a last-minute affair, Nelle has sexual fantasies, and Renee and Whipper are using their womanly ways in hiring for their new firm. Ally can help her client get her wedding back on, but she may be more helpful in calling it off, and off again. Elaine (and Barry White) help John find his innate sexiness within.

Ally and Ling decide to try and be friends, but lesbian urges over-take them and they decide to have a little fun. When John learns what Nelle's fantasy is, they are both in for a world of shock. Billy has two clients both defending sexual harassment charges and he teams up with Renee in court, but Renee takes him to task for his sexist views.

Tracey's replacement, Dr. Flott, is a pill-pushing septuagenarian, and thinks Ally needs to be on Prozac. Everybody agrees, but is Ally ready to let Al Green go? Nelle and John defend a high school boy who kissed a girl; John sees himself in the boy, and doesn't think that Nelle has any compassion in her. Billy joins a club of like-minded men, but Georgia isn't very understanding.

There's a new Billy in town and he's not foolin' 'round, so Georgia meets an older man at the bar. Homewrecker Ally is back when she is sued by former client, Risa. Whipper and Renee try to defend her, but when all possible resolutions seem to lead through Joel, Ally could find herself in deep financial trouble. Richard and John are concerned that they don't know how please their women in bed.

It's Thanksgiving, and Ally has invited everybody to her place, but the number of affairs that have occurred is too much for Ally to handle. In Tracey's office, Ally tries to work things out between her parents and between her and her father. Meanwhile, Georgia has given up on Billy, and Richard seeks comfort with Whipper.

Billy and John are in a high-profile sexual harassment case. John is humiliated and extremely agitated when his stuttering airs on television and he gets fired from the case when his tricks malfunction. While Billy might go too far with the client, Mrs. Jones, Georgia moves on, in more ways than one. Richard and Ling try to have an actual conversation about the future of their relationship.

It's the new Christmas, where an over-weight Santa is fired and put on trial. But with Renee and Georgia versus John and Ally, the court room becomes a crying and screaming match. Ally keeps seeing a younger version of herself and decides she needs to try and save Billy and Georgia.

Elaine becomes a mother when she finds a real, live baby abandoned in a Christmas nativity display. She wants to keep him and with the support of the entire office, she, Ally and John fight a tough court battle. In preparation for the Christmas party, Elaine convinces Ally to sing a sexy song but Richard and Billy have their reservations.

A homeless man expounds to Ally about her life, and Ally becomes infatuated with him, but is he homeless, or insane, or her soul mate? Ling is arrested for running her escort service as a brothel. But while defending Ling, John's past with a hooker upsets Nelle, and Billy uses Ling's services to hire six women for himself. The Billy girls now complete the new Billy look.

Ally is convinced that John is her one true love, but John is busy making devices that make Nelle a closer match to him. After a first date who wanted in, Elaine is concerned about the image of herself that she puts out there. Meanwhile, Sandy speaks up to Billy about what she wants.

Georgia blames Cage & Fish for the new Billy, and is suing the firm for the break-up of their marriage. When Richard and John are called lascivious, John gets mad and even. But when he rips into Georgia on the stand, Billy defends his wife, Ally is outraged for being Exhibit A, and Richard is sad that his firm has turned into anger and bitterness instead of fun.

Wanting a date, Ally rear-ends a guy, literally. But when that dating prospect comes to a shrieking halt, she gets sued. Richard uncovers Ling's secret that she volunteers at a nursing home. Her favorite old man Marty could be evicted and John, Richard and Ling try to defend him, but the case and its aftermath become way too personal for Ling to handle.

Ally gets hit on by a barista, so she dumps coffee on him. When she then meets him in court, she finds herself in jail, and then surprisingly, on a date with him. Nelle shows her elitism by admitting to John that she would never date "small" people. John is quite upset over her snobbery.

John and Richard are representing four people who lost their jobs for being too odd. The case hits very close to home for him and John is determined to at least raise everyone's spirits. Elaine and Ally are in a dance competition to be Tina Turner's back-up dancers. Ally's upset with the new Billy, but even more people will be upset when the winner is named.

Paul Potts the clapping "oddball" is the prime suspect in a murder case and when all evidence points against him, John, Richard and Ally go undercover to investigate alternative suspects. Billy is hallucinating and finally decides it's time to see a doctor. Meanwhile, Nelle is up to something and even Ling doesn't know what.

Billy is experiencing hallucinations, he goes to a doctor and finds out his has a brain tumor. It's benign, so they plan on removing it in a few days, after Billy wraps up his current case. During his summation, Billy collapses and is rushed to the hospital. Ally goes back to the firm, and informs everyone of Billy's death. Nell breaks up with Cage.

After Billy's death, Ally is being chased by Gloria Gaynor and disco, and Richard has gone out and got a new puppy. The puppy is in the form of Mark Albert a new lawyer for the firm. Ally is upset because she thinks she and Ling can handle the murder trial on their own, but when Ling is coaching their client on how to fake cry, Mark intervenes to try and help win their case.

It's Ally's thirtieth birthday, and Elaine wants to throw a party at the bar with everybody singing for her; bad singing voices and cat-fights ensue. Meanwhile John and Mark are defending a woman charged with murdering her husband with her breasts but John gets very flustered when she flaunts her murder weapons in his face. In Ally's search for curing her loneliness, plastic surgery doesn't work, and turning to the church to see if God is single doesn't work, but John's surprise birthday present to her just might do the trick.

Ally has donned an Internet persona to meet a man on-line and when she and Mark are in court, Ally thinks her Internet lover is the prosecuting attorney. But when the virtual sex turns into a real date, she finds herself arrested for statutory rape. Meanwhile, Nelle pleads her case to be made partner but John thinks she's a rich, elitist, ice queen snob, and Richard has done the math but the numbers don't work out.

Nelle schemes her way into turning Elaine against Cage and Fish and starting her own firm. Nelle has hired her own lawyer in defense of stealing clients, but Richard has slept with this lawyer, John is reduced to repeatedly uttering "balls, balls, balls", and while Ally is becoming serious with Brian, it will be left to Mark, and Ally and Elaine's friendship to save the firm.

Nelle and John sing the blues. Nelle is lonely after having left Cage and Fish and realizes that she actually liked it there, and John is reliving past pain since it's his birthday. Ally is in hysterics when introducing Brian to her parents, and her father doesn't take kindly to the new man in her life.

Brian asks Ally to move in with him, but torn between wanting marriage and wanting a more exciting man, she turns to her therapist for help. After meeting Larry Paul, a lawyer she mistakes as her old therapist's replacement, Ally concludes that he's an asshole, her and Brian's sex life is terrible, and now she can't get Larry off of her mind. Meanwhile John is defending a woman who wants an annulment because she doesn't think her husband found her attractive.

Heartbroken after her break-up with Brian, Ally and the girls form the Cage and Fish Women's Bar Association and put themselves out there, with every available man in the area. Richard and Ling are defending Cindy, a woman who still has one piece left over from her manhood. Mark pursues her, unaware of her little secret. John is defending a female sexual predator but has a hard time separating their professional relationship from their personal one.

Richard is morally conflicted over knowing the secret of Mark's girlfriend Cindy and goes to Ally for advice, but Ally is currently dating, not only Jonathan (who is her age), but also Michael, who is old enough to be her father. Nelle enlists the help of Elaine to attend a seminar by a relationship "doctor" who they are suing, and after hearing some of her advice, they are more than happy to continue the lawsuit against her.

Ally is dating a father and son, and then gets herself sued by a puritanical classmate over fallacious snide remarks. She hires Larry as her lawyer but becomes irrational upon learning that he's married, and then becomes even more irrational when she sees him dating Nelle. Mark is having a hard time dating Cindy because of everyone's phobia over his girlfriend's genitalia.

Ally's puritanical classmate, Kimmy, is back, this time claiming she was fired for being a prude and she needs Ally and John to defend her. But in court they are up against Larry. Ally and Larry are about to go on their third date, so Ally thinks she needs to be coached on how to kiss, and when the date doesn't go as planned she's ready to throw it all away. After seeing Ling use John as a kissing test dummy for Ally, Richard tries to find his own sexual persona.

It's almost Christmas and Elaine's desperation is making her cranky, while Ally is frustrated that Larry doesn't like the season. Trying to get Larry to open up, she uncovers one of his secrets. A newscaster has been fired for telling the truth about Santa Claus, and it's up to John and Ling to get his job back. But John is busy trying to figure out how to begin his relationship with Kimmy when she insists on bringing her mother along on their dates and she thinks that John is a rock and roll singer.

The attorneys of Cage and Fish are auctioning themselves off for charity in a date auction. Nelle and Ling have a rivalry as they each believe that they are the hottest woman and the desire of all men's fantasies. For Nelle, her date turns into a day with a stranger where she learns to let go of her intimacy issues. Whereas for Richard, his date completely plays into his severe homophobia issues. Elaine, John and Ally all have love issues to work out with their respective partners too.

Nelle hires John to defend her father when he's been fired for believing he's Santa Claus. The case is going to need some magic since he really does believe he's Santa. Larry's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child, Jamie, shows up in his office, and Ally tries to deny that she's jealous. When Jamie then gets invited to the office Christmas party, Ally no longer feels like partaking in the festivities.

John's idol, Nicholas Engblume, shows up and needs his help in court, and then Nicholas's wife shows up and needs his help in getting a divorce. John hires Larry to mediate the relationship between Nicholas and Brandy, while John and Ally defend a woman with Tourette's syndrome who is accused of murdering her boyfriend.

Ling's ex-fiancé is about to get married, but he's still in love with Ling. Larry's ex, Jamie, is back in town, and she's determined that it's going to work out for them this time. The love that Larry and Ally have for each other might not be enough to send Jamie back to Detroit. John and Melanie fight intolerance when she gets fired from her school.

Much to Richard's surprise, Chubby Checker is not dead, but is in fact at the bar with a charity Twist contest. Elaine & Mark, Ally & Larry, and Ling & Richard are in their competitive mode, and Ling gets a hot Spanish dancer to team up with and coach Nelle. Meanwhile, Melanie invites John back to her place and introduces him to local homeless man, Mr. Bo. John think he's being stalked by him, but then finds out he means more to Melanie than he assumed.

In search of the most homophobic, bigoted lawyer she can find, Mark's ex-girlfriend Cindy comes to Richard to get the courts to allow her to marry. Nelle's dance partner hires her to sue over patents to his dance moves, but when the woman they're suing is his ex-girlfriend, it becomes very personal for Nelle. Young Sam Paul is in Ally's office wanting to sue his parents for separating. As she puts two and two together, Ally realizes that Larry will need to be with the mother of his son.

With Larry gone, Ally is hallucinating. This time it's Barry Manilow and therapy has taught her to physically fight her hallucinations. Richard has just hired a new lawyer, Jackson Duper, but he thinks it must be all a joke since his trial has a man wanting to dissolve his marriage to a nymphomaniac and then suing the priest who married them. It doesn't help matters that he was once biblical with Ling but never told her his real name, and Elaine sweats profusely at the sight of him. John thinks it's time to show Melanie something that is very special to him, but then finds out her views are fundamentally different than his.

John and Richard get into a squabble over Richard borrowing John's baseball glove without asking, since they insist they are 35 year-old men and not little boys, Melanie suggests they go to couple's counseling. In defending his gender-biased client, Jackson portrays all the women in the court room as sexual objects. That trick just might lose him to Ling but win over Renee. Ally plays match-maker to Elaine and Mark when he gets jealous over Elaine's attraction to Jackson.

Getting concerned that Larry is never coming back, Ally starts seeing his face everywhere. Which is a problem since Renee and Jackson have just started dating and Jackson is put off by Ally's many issues. John starts a war in the office with Nelle, at home with Melanie, and in the court room when he and his client staunchly believe that the entire point of marriage is to have children.

Cage and Fish are off to Los Angeles for vacation, not the whole firm but just Richard and John and they have left Ally in charge as senior partner while they're gone. But before they've even landed Richard has been ordered to keep his mouth shut and then is arrested. At the hotel pool, Richard then meets a hot, young actress but when flirting with her, they both get arrested. Meanwhile, John defends an older woman who wants alimony after her fidelity-less marriage.

Jackson has drafted a pre-nup for a man about to marry, and when Larry represents the man's fiancée, a war is created between Jackson and Larry at home and at the office where they are likely to tear apart the couple before they marry. Ally caught Elaine cheating on Mark and now either Elaine is going to have to learn how to tell the truth, or Ally will have to learn how to lie.

On the day of the trial, Ally starts defending a little person who was sued for defrauding his date. The bigger surprise is that Larry represents his date. Going against each other in court, neither are prepared to lose when they wager a foot massage on the case. Cassandra shows up in John's office all the way from L.A. ready to pursue him, but John is currently in a lull professionally and personally.

A man wants to clone his dead wife, and nobody, even John, thinks that's a good idea, but when he finds out the opposing lawyer is Larry, John takes on the challenge. John uses Ally to try and get an advantage and Ally wagers another foot massage with Larry. But Barry White is missing and with the case falling short on merit, John is desperately going to need to find him or else he just might lose. Meanwhile, Ling keeps seeing Jackson in slow motion, and fearing that she might be in love, she throws herself at Richard.

It's Ally's birthday and she's upset because she's alone. Not alone alone, but alone with somebody else. While everybody is planning their song choice for her party, Larry is in a deposition. Sting is in town and is being sued by a jilted husband for wooing his wife. Larry is going to have to pull out something extraordinary to make up for missing Ally's birthday.

An attractive woman has come to the office to hire Richard and John, but she's the queen bee, and all Richard wants to do is suck on her toe and John has to try and win the case while fighting the urge to lust after her. Meanwhile, the Reverend and Lisa Knowles are fighting again, this time because he's dating a new woman in the church choir and Lisa keeps singing at her. Jackson and Nelle are supposed to mediate, but they seem to be making things worse by accidentally making fat, dumb and ugly jokes about Lisa's lawyer.

Richard flies to L.A. when Jane asks for his help in keeping photographs of her from being published in a magazine. But he keeps being asked if he's a real lawyer and he calls on John to help him. Meanwhile, John is trying to cheer Ally up when she's convinced that Larry is about to dump her, even though it's something completely different that he is planning.

With Larry gone, Richard assigns Ally to a case. A high school boy is seeking a court order to force a girl to take him to the prom. It's a long shot, but Ally wants to help the boy out, and she also thinks that Larry is the opposing lawyer. Richard has just hired Jane as his new secretary, but when she points out to him that everybody in the office is cold, he is sad and with John's help, decide that drastic measures need to be taken.

On her way to Cage and Fish, Ally runs into herself, better known as Jenny, a young lawyer just fired and heartbroken over her ex. So Ally hires her. Problem is Richard has also hired Glenn, Jenny's ex, better known as the cute uterus-tickler. To help her deal, Ally hires Attorney Steven Mittler as her therapist. John is irreparably fraught when he thinks Ally loves him as a lover rather than a friend.

When Ling is sarcastically nice to a stranger, she gets a surprise promotion as a judge. John is still irreparably fraught over thinking that Ally loves him, but he's concerned that only crazy people are attracted to him. That worry is not alleviated when Claire Otoms arrives at Cage and Fish as the main plaintiff in Jenny's class action lawsuit. Jenny thinks Ally likes Glenn when Ally keeps finding herself looking at him while they are second and third chair in Jenny's case.

Jenny is concerned when Ally has a dream that Jenny had a dream that had Glenn and Raymond boxing. Glenn assures her that it has nothing to do with their case, but just that Ally has repressed feelings of sexual intimacy for him. After crawling out from underneath her desk, Ally finally admits that she's interested in him, but he denies having any sort of feelings for her. Meanwhile, John is embarrassed by the new body suit that Coretta designed for him, and just has to bite the bullet and let Ally know the truth about what he feels for her. He is not prepared when Ally counters back with her own harsh truth.

Raymond is sued for sexual harassment and he hires Jenny to defend him. The closer Raymond and Jenny get, the more they think they might like each other, and fewer reasons that Glenn and Ally have for not dating each other. Meanwhile, John is gone and Richard inhabits his hole.

Jenny's mother arrives at Cage & Fish in need of a lawyer. She has been fired for dating a younger man and she's suing for sexual harassment. Ally and Glenn take the case, and once again find themselves dancing around the idea of dating each other. Meanwhile, Elton John is at the bar singing about wanting love.

Ally has Glenn all hot and bothered on the dance floor, but then Glenn has Jenny all hot and bothered while singing Elvis Presley on her birthday. They're on a double date that is more awkward than imagined. John is back, but he's upset that Richard has violated his hole. Richard has become a trial lawyer, or a litigator, either way he's off to court, or to meet the client. This is the type of confusion that John's disappearance has caused in the office.

A widowed Reverend who no longer believes in God believes that Ally has been brought to him by fate and he hires her as his lawyer which brings Ally back to a former client. John is helping a man sue his town for cancelling Christmas, but the case hits a holiday nerve and John has become disappointed in mankind. Elaine is preparing a Christmas party duet with Glenn but Jenny is having nothing of it and is willing to fight over her man.

With Jenny's mother's wedding approaching, Richard is trying one last time to get with her, while Ally is concerned about all men's philandering ways and may have lost all hope for love. Meanwhile, Kimmie needs John's help to sue a matchmaker who has declared that there is nobody on this planet to love her. Kimmie brings out John's lip twitch and Coretta brings out his anger when she attempts to introduce surprises in the courtroom.

A wayward wind blows Ally's hat, causing it to land on a post with a "For Sale" sign. The house is in probate and the bank is anxious to sell it, so Ally buys it. Ally defends a man who is addicted to his wife's happiness, so he commits larceny in order to obtain gifts for his wife. Jenny's neck is hurt, so Corretta recommends a chiropractor who has a vibrating chair that induces orgasms in women.

The staff visit matchmaker Harriet Pumple, who matches Elaine with Victor Morrison. Victor talks to Ally about dumping Elaine. John Cage walks out of the initial session, and later the staff and Harriet do an intervention in his office and sing "We've Got to Get You a Woman". Ally defends a man who is dying of cancer and wants to fly off of his roof using custom-made wings.

A 10 year-old girl knocks on Ally's door, and suddenly Ally is a mother. The fertility clinic is mortified, but that doesn't change the fact that there is a girl looking for her mother, her irate aunt wanting her back, and a confused Ally contemplating how to be a mother. Meanwhile, Richard is on his first murder trial. The client, who kicked his wife in the head mistaking her as a soccer ball, is pleased that Richard has graciously guaranteed acquittal, but John is suffering from stress that Richard's trying of the case is causing him.

John decides to leave the firm as a named partner and work part-time. Fish makes Ally partner. Nelle is upset. Ally reviews the books and discovers that Richard has been paying the employees out of his own pocket. Richard agrees to Ally's terms of working no later than 5:00pm, no weekends, and missing some days entirely. Ally tells Richard they need to let some people go. The realities of motherhood collide with Ally's fantasy of what motherhood is about. The show starts with Ally squeezing orange juice and milking a cow. Ally then fights with Maddie because Maddie doesn't want to go to school. Maddie tests Ally in several other ways. Ally over-involves herself by attending Maddie's class. Victor steps in and helps clear things up. Maddie has a bad day at school and Ally gives her bad advice for getting even. Victor offers to watch Maddie after school while Ally is at work. Ally comes home to a home-cooked meal made by Victor. Corretta defends Kelly Bridgeman, a junior attorney who says she was fired because she has AIDS. She has become symptomatic and the doctors give her two years. Owen Cobb, one of the senior partners, fired her because she's dying, and because the firm lost two lawyers on the first plane that hit the Twin Towers. It's revealed that his son died from AIDS a year before. Raymond defends the employer, but loses.

In her first duty as senior partner at Fish, Cage & McBeal, Ally has to fire someone. It goes even worse than she expected when Jenny takes it personally and Glenn takes the stand that if she goes, he goes. Nelle does not get fired but Ally makes her sing at the bar and her plan of deception backfires once Richard hires Claire Otoms as a secretary. At home, Ally has to deal with Maddie's first sleepover and leans on Victor for support.

An old woman shows up at Ally's house and mistakes Victor as the former tenant and her soul mate. Ally, concerned that somebody might be able to come and take Maddie away, decides they need to get DNA tests done, but then fails to recognize the cause of Maddie's recent outbursts at school and home. After the loss of Glenn and Jenny, Ally extends a job offer to Raymond but only on the basis that he is not allowed to act like a misogynistic, chauvinistic pig.

Ally tries teaching her daughter some moral lessons but they backfire when Maddie suggests that Ally and Victor should be a couple. Richard and Raymond are defending a teenage girl with a heart defect who is trying to get a healthy heart from her father, a convicted felon.

The firm has a new case where they up against a formidable young lawyer named Lolita ('Christina Ricci'). Concerned about her reputation, Nelle and Richard are off to a Mexican restaurant to retrieve their own Biscuit, John Cage. Ally is attempting to hire a top billing lawyer Todd (nm0001612) but she's concerned about the lack of action in her and Victor's relationship and has decided that Todd is attracted to her.

John is up against Lolita (real name Liza) in court but he has met his match when the young vixen ups the ante of his usual tricks. Todd reminds Ally of Larry and as she tries to pick a fight with Victor she ends up in the arms of Todd. Claire Otoms' wedding is put on hold when the firm decides she needs a pre-nup, but Coretta is off to play matchmaker again.

John extended an offer of employment to Liza and she is happy to join the firm with a hire of her own, Wilson. Wilson recruits Nelle to join him in playing cold and dirty lawyer tricks with a sexual harassment case. Liza and John are defending a polygamist who isn't satisfied with only one husband.

Ally represents Victor when he's sued by an ex-girlfriend, and is appalled to discover that Victor created a painting of her... complete with cellulite.

When Fish's father is sued for sexual harassment, Fish's mother asks for a divorce; Elaine has high hopes when she tries out for a role in A Chorus Line; Fish finds himself increasingly drawn to Liza.

The attorneys represent a woman with a split personality: the submissive Helen, who's deeply in love with her husband; and the aggressive Helena, who wants a divorce.

When Maddie suffers a nervous breakdown, Ally decides to move to New York, leading to tearful goodbyes with her friends; Fish and Liza decide to wed.

Ally is forced to defend a young prostitute up on her third solicitation charge. Much to Ally's surprise, her client is a transgender woman named Stephanie. As Ally grows closer to Stephanie, she begins to realize the true dangers her client faces as a transgender prostitute. Fish, meanwhile, sues his uncle's church for discrimination because of their refusal to hold a service reflecting his uncle's prejudice against short people.

Ally McBeal, attractive recent graduate from Harvard Law School, is harassed at work by a senior associate. She complains to the powers that be but ends up losing her job. By chance, Ally bumps into former classmate Richard Fish, who invites her to join his new firm. Ally hesitantly accepts and receives the shock of her life on the first day: her childhood sweetheart Billy Thomas is an associate at the firm.

Ally is arrested for assault and attempted shoplifting after an altercation with a hostile woman at a grocery store. Renee bails her out but word spreads quickly around the office. Ally is brought before the State Bar Review Board where her unconventional past and eccentric behavior is held up for scrutiny.

Ally is dismayed to be assigned as a litigator for humiliated firm partner John Cage. On top of that, Fish invites Ally to dinner with potential client Ronald Cheanie without telling her their outing is actually a double date. Ally's fury over being set up quickly cools when she sees Cheanie kissing Fish's girlfriend in the restaurant bathroom.

Ally senses Cheanie is hiding something when he avoids kissing her after their first official date. In the office, Ally helps Georgia with an age discrimination case where the opposing litigator happens to be Billings, the man Ally sued for sexual harassment at her old firm. Ally tries to be taken off the case but Fish admonishes her for putting her personal life before the interests of the firm.

Ally frets over her kiss with Billy, and tries to figure out what it says about her and Billy, and also about her and Greg. But in Tracey's office, there's a showdown between Billy and Ally and their true feelings are forced to come out.

A 10 year-old girl knocks on Ally's door, and suddenly Ally is a mother. The fertility clinic is mortified, but that doesn't change the fact that there is a girl looking for her mother, her irate aunt wanting her back, and a confused Ally contemplating how to be a mother. Meanwhile, Richard is on his first murder trial. The client, who kicked his wife in the head mistaking her as a soccer ball, is pleased that Richard has graciously guaranteed acquittal, but John is suffering from stress that Richard's trying of the case is causing him.

Ally has donned an Internet persona to meet a man on-line and when she and Mark are in court, Ally thinks her Internet lover is the prosecuting attorney. But when the virtual sex turns into a real date, she finds herself arrested for statutory rape. Meanwhile, Nelle pleads her case to be made partner but John thinks she's a rich, elitist, ice queen snob, and Richard has done the math but the numbers don't work out.

John's second cousin assaults happy people. In court, his defense will be to baffle the witnesses and jury. Two men want a court order to switch their hearts, and Bobby Donnell wants Ally-to help with the case. But if Ally's imagination has any say in it, he will want her eventually.

Ally and Renée are bridesmaids in a friend's wedding and become fed up with the absurd rituals and traditions. Richard asks Ally to flirt with a wealthy new client. To Ally's annoyance, Cage has no problem with it because of his new therapy regimen. Ally and Georgia try a case about overturning a warden's decision to refuse marriage for a prisoner serving a life term.