NBC’s Next ‘Law & Order’ Series Will Put America’s Criminal Justice System ‘Under the Microscope’

May 3 (UPI) — NBC announced Monday it has ordered straight-to-series Law & Order: For the Defense from producer Dick Wolf.

The network said in a press release the latest entry in the Law & Order franchise “will take an unbiased look inside a criminal defense firm” and “put the lawyers under the microscope, along with the criminal justice system with every week delivering the promise of a contemporary morality tale.”

Carol Mendelsohn — whose credits include CSI — will serve as showrunner and executive producer, along with Wolf, Arthur Forney, Julie Weitz and Peter Jankowski.

“This new show is exciting for me personally,” Wolf said in a statement. “We spent the last 30 years on shows that played offense. Now it will be great to play defense, and being able to do it with Carol is an honor and an opportunity for both of us to do television that hasn’t been done before.”

The next series in the Law & Order franchise: #LawAndOrderForTheDefense. Coming soon. https://t.co/VKjh2tpi6T pic.twitter.com/mhYFUF7enX

— Wolf Entertainment (@WolfEnt) May 3, 2021

No casting has been announced yet.

The original Law & Order debuted in 1990 and ran through 2010.

Law & Order: SVU, starring Mariska Hargitay, is now in its 22nd season, and Law & Order: Organized Crime, led by Christopher Meloni, premiered last month.