The body of Emily Trudeau, a court clerk, is found in the home of her married lover, Judge Peter Blakemore, a candidate for an open seat on the appellate court. Goren and Eames find that, despite being held in high regard by the legal community as an expert in the area of intellectual property law, the law review articles attributed to Blakemore were actually written by Trudeau. The murder investigation leads the Major Case Squad to Arnie Cox, a low-profile ex-convict with links to one of Blakemore's appellate seat rivals, Judge Raoul Sabatelli, who has authored a number of internationally successful crime novels. Despite Cox refusing to cooperate, and Carver's positive feelings towards Sabatelli, the detectives press on with their case, and find Sabatelli was incensed that the legal community wanted to see Blakemore gain the appellate seat rather than himself. While Blakemore's success came only from being born into a wealthy and well connected family, Sabatelli feels that he deserved the seat because he had worked hard all his life to get where he is today, with no money to fall back on. Goren and Eames discover that after Sabatelli found some of Trudeau's unpublished legal articles, he killed her so he could take them for himself.