The long arm of the Law & Order franchise reached beyond New York City in 2012, when Dick Wolf welcomed firefighters to the procedural fold with the premiere of Chicago Fire. The veteran TV producer has since widened his first-responder focus to include detectives and medical personnel in the Second City, whose big shoulders will also soon bear the weight of his Chicago Law series. The fourth installment in his Chicago franchise has reportedly been fast-tracked, as the recently-renamed series is scheduled to be introduced in an upcoming episode of Chicago P.D. And according to Deadline, Justified’s Joelle Carter will help prosecute the fictional offenders.
Carter will play Lori Nagle, who’s described as “a tough-as-nails investigator,” in the vein of The Good Wife’s Kalinda Sharma, though it remains to be seen how much leather will be in Lori’s wardrobe. She joins Philip Winchester (The Player, Strike Back) and Nazneen Contractor (Heroes Reborn) in the regular cast of Chicago Justice née Chicago Law. Contractor will star as Assistant State’s Attorney Dawn Harper, with Winchester set to play the lead prosecutor, because everyone—that is, Dick Wolf—knows that lead prosecutors are invariably men. Viewers will get their first look at Wolf’s latest legal team in the 21st episode of Chicago P.D.