The CW Acquires Drama ‘Family Law’

In an effort to move away from the waning superhero drama category, The CW has acquired the one-hour Canadian drama series Family Law. The logline: The series follows lawyer and recovering alcoholic Abigail Bianchi (Jewel Staite) struggling to put her career and family back together after hitting rock bottom. As a condition of her probation, Abby is forced to work at her estranged father Harry’s (Victor Garber) firm, Svensson and Associates, and practice in family law for the first time while forging new relationships with the half-brother Daniel (Zach Smadu, Cardinal) and half-sister Lucy (Genelle Williams, The Expanse) whom she’s never met. The result is a dysfunctional family law firm operating to help other families with their own dysfunctions.

Produced by SEVEN24 Films and Lark Productions for Corus Entertainment’s Global (Canada), Family Law is created, written and executive produced author Susin Nielsen (Degrassi). The series is executive produced by SEVEN24’s Jordy Randall (Heartland) and Tom Cox (Fortunate Son), and Lark’s Erin Haskett (Motive) and Andy Mikita (Stargate SG-1) serve as executive producers. eOne holds international distribution rights to the series.

There is no official launch date at press time for Family Law on The CW, which has announced more acquisitions on the way, including the Freddie Highmore drama Leonardo and the Tom Welling/Brendan Fraser action series Professionals.

Historically, this is the second time Family Law is being used for a legal drama. The first version aired on CBS from 1999 to 2002. It starred Kathleen Quinlan, Christopher McDonald, Dixie Carter and, in seasons two and three, Tony Danza.