The assistant district attorneys are important characters inLaw & Order: SVU, with the best ones among the show’s most compelling characters. The long-running police procedural focuses equally on the courtroom side of cases involving sex offenders. Thus, ADAs heavily influence whether the victim in each case gets the justice they deserve, and many ofLaw & Order: SVU’s best episodesinvolve ADAs going above and beyond the call of duty to secure convictions against powerful people that seemed unlikely at best.
During the 26 years thatLaw & Order: SVUhas been on the air, many ADAs have either helped or hindered justice. Many of these attorneys have become close friends to Olivia Benson and the rest of the SVU squad, though some have been thorns in their side. Current ADA Sonny Carisi is the latest in a long line of attorneys who have prosecuted fictionalcrimes based on real-life cases inLaw & Order: SVU. Here is how Sonny compares to the rest of the show’s best ADAs.
14Sonya Paxton
Played By Christine Lahti
Sonya Paxton is the worst ADALaw & Order: SVUhas ever had. Actress Christine Lathi’s ADA Paxton was arrogant and cynical, often assuming that defendants were guilty until proven innocent instead of the other way around. Worst of all, she had nothing but contempt for Benson and Stabler and made little effort to hide her true feelings. Thus,her presence on-screen sapped the audience’s energy and every scene she was in was became frustrating for some audiences.
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Paxton’s incompetence led to her downfall. When she accidentally played a tape that had not been allowed into evidence instead of one with faceless, computer-generated characters during a trial, the judge dismissed the charges against the defendant. Paxton turned to alcohol to cope with her guilt and embarrassment over her failure. Thankfully,after she came to court intoxicated, she was ordered to attend rehab, and the SVU squad was finally rid of her.
13Mikka Von
Played By Paula Patton
Mikka Von was also an annoying and incompetent ADA, but fortunately, she only lasted one episode. She came from Chicago duringLaw & Order: SVUseason 12, episode 5 to help out with a case involving a biology professor accused of using poisoned mushrooms to kill a woman. During that case,Von showed herself to be as ridiculous as Paxton when she offered the defendant’s attorney a vacation so that he would not be in court when trial resumed.
Von’s short tenure makes her a mostly forgettable character.
This trick deservedly got Von fired, saving the audience’s aggravation. Had she stayed in the series beyond her first episode, she might have surpassed Paxton as the worst attorney in the series' history. As it was,she did some damage to the court’s integrity. However, justice was served in the end, both for the victim and for the DA’s office. Von’s short tenure makes her a mostly forgettable character.
12David Haden
Played By Harry Connick Jr.
Although Haden could have been an interesting and effective assistant district attorney, he is best known for having a relationship with Benson that compromised his ability to prosecute effectively. Haden was initially introduced as having been from a family of district attorneys, which could have made him analogous to the cops on CBS’Blue Bloods,and was played by well-known actor Harry Connick, Jr. Thus,his relatively unmemorable presence onLaw & Order: SVUis particularly disappointing.
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Furthermore, Haden leftLaw & Order: SVUafter his relationship with Benson ended, further cementing in the audience’s mind that their affair was the only purpose of his character.The affair ultimately put Benson in a precarious position when defense attorney Bayard Ellis (Andre Braugher) deduced that the two were seeing each otherwhile pushing Haden to let a wrongfully convicted man that Benson had arrested eight years ago out of prison. Benson broke things off with Haden after that, and he was not seen again, but their affair hurt her otherwise impeccable reputation, making Haden even less likable.
11Sherri West
Played By Francie Swift
Sherri West was not incompetent or unethical. However, she only appeared in a few episodes and is best known for becoming a defense attorney after she was finished with her stint asLaw & Order: SVU’s assistant district attorney. Thus,she is mostly forgettable to all except the most die-hard fans of the series,as she was not there for long enough to make much of an impression.
West’s appearance as a defense attorney inLaw & Order: SVUseason 13, episode 4 cemented her image as a goofy character, as she had turned to defense work to pay for her shoe collection.
West’s first appearance involved prosecuting a child molester in a case where one of the young victims was so traumatized that she initially couldn’t speak, but was unable to persuade a judge to hold the defendant without bail. This was followed by the defendant almost immediately took his own life. Thus,she likely would not have been a strong ADA if she had stayed longer. West’s appearance as a defense attorney inLaw & Order: SVUseason 13, episode 4 cemented her image as a goofy character, as she had turned to defense work to pay for her shoe collection.
10Casey Novak
Played By Diane Neal
Novak prosecuted some ofLaw & Order: SVU’s saddest casesand is one of the better known attorneys from the series. She was meant to be a replacement for Stephanie March’s Alex Cabot once the popular ADA left the series, but was not nearly as likable or interesting. Although Cabot and Novak both sometimes engage in unethical behavior, Novak became more associated with it. Additionally,she didn’t get along with Benson and Stabler and was often overly aggressive in the courtroom.
Before being cast as Casey Novak in season 5 ofLaw & Order: SVU, Diane Neal appeared in season 3 episode 10, “Ridicule,” as a woman accused of sexually assaulting a man. That character had no clear connection to Novak.
Novak was disbarred after she lied about evidence in order to try to get a convictionagainst a cop who had raped two undocumented women. Although this same incident led to Detective Chester Lake’s arrest for fatally shooting the defendant, it was not the end of Novak’s career. Instead, she returned on a recurring basis in seasons 12 and 13 before leaving without explanation, which further cemented her legacy as an overzealous ADA who got away with more than she should have.
9Peter Stone
Played By Philip Winchester
Peter Stone’s family connections should have made him one ofLaw & Order: SVU’s most interesting characters, but unfortunately, he didn’t work out as an ADA specializing in sex crimes cases.Stone was the son ofLaw & Order’s Benjamin Stone, who was the original ADA when the flagship series premiered in 1990. Peter had an emotional storyline involving his feeling that he had never lived up to his late father’s expectations.
Stone may not have been as popular as he should have been because he was a transplant from the failedOne ChicagoseriesChicago Justice.
Stone may not have been as popular as he should have been because he was a transplant from the failedOne ChicagoseriesChicago Justice. This meant his inclusion in a procedural set in New York felt out of place for some audiences. Nevertheless, his abrupt decision to leave because of his feelings for Benson was disappointing, especially because he had become close with her son, Noah.Stone feels like a wasted opportunitywithinLaw & Order: SVU.
8Jo Marlowe
Played By Sharon Stone
Jo Marlowe is another ADA who was only in a handful of episodes. However, she is more interesting than most because of her background. Like Carisi,Marlowe is a former cop that became an attorney and now prosecutes sex crimes— in fact, she was an old partner of Stabler. It would have been interesting if she and Carisi were ever to have a reason to share stories.
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Marlowe’s short time onLaw & Order: SVUmakes her less memorable than other ADAs. However, she had an emotional storyline in which she dealt with an aggressive type of breast cancer, which allowed actress Sharon Stone to do great work. Surprisingly, Marlowe’s exit did not have to do with her cancer, and in fact was never explained at all on the series. However,she might have been too traumatized to continue working after being held hostage in a morgue by a distraught suspect who stole an officer’s gun.
7Abbie Carmichael
Played By Angie Harmon
Abbie Carmichael was originally an ADA onLaw & Order. She was brought over from the flagship show forLaw & Order: SVU’s first season to help establish the new spin-off as part of the same universe. Thus,she felt somewhat like a filler character who was there to hold the space until a permanent ADA character could be created to take her place.Additionally, she didn’t quite fit the survivor-centered culture of the Special Victims Unit, which may be part of why she didn’t last beyond the first season.
Carmichael’s heart was in the right place even if she didn’t completely fit into the new series.
Carmichael was unapologetically conservative, so some of her pro-life views didn’t really fit the ethos of a unit dedicated to women’s rights. However, when she was inLaw & Order, she had sympathy for a defendant who had been sexually assualted and revealed to McCoy that she had also once been a victim of this type of crime. Thus, her heart was in the right place even if she didn’t completely fit into the new series.
6Michael Cutter
Played By Linus Roache
Cutter is a popular character, butit is hard to judge him relative to other ADAs because he had been promoted to SVU Bureau Chief by the time he appeared onLaw & Order: SVU.Thus, he generally did not try cases himself, instead directing the ADAs underneath him when they took on cases involving special victims. However, the fact that he came from the originalLaw & Ordergave him a stronger connection to the show than the new Bureau Chief that Carisi works under.
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Given Cutter’s association with the franchise,it is disappointing that his exit is never explained. Instead, the Bureau Chief position stopped being important enough to feature inLaw & Order: SVUuntil Carisi gained a position as an ADA, moving over from the cop side, and a new chief was required to be an antagonist who interfered with the way Carisi wanted to try cases.
5Gillian Hardwicke
Played By Melissa Sagemiller
Hardwicke followed on the heels of Marlowe, Von, and West, making her the first longer-term ADALaw & Order: SVUhad in a while. She also was excellent at her job, boasting a 92% conviction rate before she joined SVU. Unlike many of the previous ADAs,she wanted this job because she admired Benson and Stabler. This was a marked improvement from the parade of ADAs who had contempt for them or treated them like they were obstacles to justice instead of colleagues who were equally important in their mission.
Melissa Sagemiller, who plays Hardwicke, also played Jules in the pilot episode ofChicago PD.
Hardwicke’s passion for getting justice for survivors made her a compelling character as well as as a good fit forLaw & Order: SVU. Unfortunately, the character did not get the respect she deserved when she left the show, as she disappeared without explanationafter a bizarre case involving a woman who was secretly the twin of the man she accused of violence against her current boyfriend. This makes her departure all the more disheartening.
