MONICA POTTER ("ALONG CAME A SPIDER," "CON AIR," "PATCH ADAMS") TO JOIN THE CAST OF ABC'S "BOSTON LEGAL"

Monica Potter ("Along Came a Spider," "Con Air," "Patch Adams") will join the cast of "Boston Legal." Potter will play Lori Colson, a junior partner at Crane, Poole & Schmidt, who is an excellent attorney and role model to her younger female colleagues. Burdened with doubt about her career choice, Lori finds unexpected satisfaction in taking on the occasional pro-bono criminal defense matter, forging a kinship with Alan Shore.

Alan Shore and Denny Crane lead a brigade of high-priced civil litigators in an upscale Boston law firm, in a series focusing on the professional and personal lives of brilliant but often emotionally challenged attorneys. Joining Shore and Crane is Brad Chase, a consummate guy's guy, who recently headed up the Washington, DC. office, and has been recruited to Boston to keep an eye on loose cannon senior partner Denny Crane. He also finds himself in an unending test of wills with fellow attorney Alan Shore. Fast-paced and darkly comedic, the series will confront social and moral issues and the pursuit of happiness and money, with varying degrees of priority.

"Boston Legal" premieres on SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.

The series stars James Spader as Alan Shore, Monica Potter as Lori Colson, Mark Valley as Brad Chase, Rhona Mitra as Tara Wilson, Lake Bell as Sally Heep and William Shatner as Denny Crane.

"Boston Legal" was created by David E. Kelley. Kelley, Bill D'Elia, Scott Kaufer and Jeff Rake are executive producers. The series is produced by David E. Kelley Productions in association with Twentieth Century Fox Television.