Paul Robinette

Paul Robinette, played by Richard Brooks, is a fictional character who appeared in the TV drama series Law & Order from the pilot episode in 1990 until the final episode of the third season, "Benevolence," in 1993. He is the first of the eight Assistant District Attorneys who have been featured on Law & Order, and the only one who was Black and male. He appeared in 69 episodes. Character overview Robinette was born in 1961 and is introduced as having been raised in Harlem and worked his way through law school. He had the chance to work on Wall Street, but turned it down in favor of the Manhattan District Attorney's office, where he felt he could make a difference. He works under Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty). He was mentored as a teenager by Deputy Police Commander William Jefferson (Ron Foster), who inspired him to become a lawyer. In the pilot episode, "Everybody's Favorite Bagman", however, he and Stone discover that Jefferson is corrupt, and that he conspired to murder a city councilman. In his appearances during the show's first three seasons, Robinette advocates racial equality through equal treatment, including equal punishment; while he abhors racism, he feels no sympathy for Black people who break the law. He insists on being treated as the equal of his white colleagues, without what he feels are added advantages from affirmative action policies. Robinette's views on race change throughout the series. In the first-season episode "Out of the Half-Light", Stone asks Robinette if he thinks of himself as "a Black lawyer or a lawyer who's Black". Robinette at first says "It depends", but by the time he leaves the DA's office and becomes a defense attorney, he thinks of race as a more integral part of his reasons for practicing law, misremembering the discussion he had with Stone.