Click photo for larger version Scan courtesy of Danie- please ask her permission if you'd like to use it! Law & Order Book - Serena Southerlyn Profile [pages 146-147] by Dick Wolf Although every cast change on Law & Order is given a lot of thought, season twelve's vacancy in the district attorney's office brought a special challenge. Jack McCoy had been the executive ADA for seven seasons and in that time, had had three female deputies, each with very different and distinctive personalities. I knew that I was going to give McCoy another female ADA, but it was necessary to devise a character that could maintain a level of dramatic conflict without seeming reiterative. I decided that the best solution was a character that, initially, would be a mixture of predecessors Kincaid and Ross, yet whose own perspective and prejudices would evolve over time. For this new character, Serena Southerlyn, I selected Elisabeth Rohm. In her backstory, I gave Southerlyn an East Coast sophistication. She's the daughter of a Wall Street lawyer and has had an Ivy League education. Having lived a relatively sheltered life, Southerlyn was curious to explore other dimensions. Thus, rather than take a job in the private sector, she chose to work in public service. Fresh out of law school, her first job was in civil investigations. Finding the work unsatisfying, Southerlyn transferred into the distric attorney's office, when McCoy offered her the job as his deputy. She first appears in the episode "Who Let The Dogs Out?" Like Kincaid, Southerlyn is young, unmarried, and from a privileged background. Also like Kincaid, Southerlyn comes to the job with an eagerness to learn and her early relationship with her boss is tutorial. But, unlike Kincaid, Southerlyn does not come with her predecessor's staunch feminist agenda. Like Ross, she is more interested in the business of the law. While Kincaid became more self-assured as time went on, Southerlyn has more quickly displayed the kind of strength seen in Ross. Although McCoy is sitll her mentor, Southerlyn has been straining at the leash. That Southerlyn traded in her pearl necklace look for a more urban wardrobe is emblematic of her growing understanding of the real world. Her wide-eyed naivete has, thus far, been transformed by the eye-opening realities of an imperfect justice system. Ultimately, like Kincaid and Ross, Serena Southerlyn cares about doing the right thing. This profile is the intellectual and creative property of Dick Wolf. It is transcribed simply for fan purposes. No copyright infringement is intended.       2008 Rohm with a View. Rohm with a View (lis-rohm.net) is an independent publication and is not endorsed by Elisabeth Rohm, her management or any related companies. Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of Elisabeth Rohm or her management.