Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: In his follow-up to House, David Shore is returning to his legal roots. After heated bidding between ABC and CBS, a legal drama from the House creator/executive producer has landed at ABC with a pilot production commitment. Shore will write and executive produce the untitled drama, described as a high-end, character-driven procedural about a former cop who’s now a cunning but charming low-rent lawyer who uses his street smarts to work the system for his clients while battling his own demons and wooing his ex-wife.

This marks the first project Shore has set up since the end of House‘s eight-season run, which he shepherded. It was the first pitch he took out with Sony Pictures TV, where he signed a three-year overall deal in July after eight years at NBCUniversal. For ABC, the aggressive pursuit of a character procedural indicates a desire to balance the network’s drama portfolio, currently dominated by serialized shows.

Shore is a lawyer by trade and former partner at a boutique law firm in Toronto. A legal drama script, an L.A. Law spec, landed him his first writing job on Paul Haggis’ Due South. In 1996, David E. Kelley picked Shore as one of the three original writers on his hit ABC legal drama The Practice. Shore, repped by ICM, the Shuman Co. and attorney Bill Sobel, worked on two other legal dramas — NBC’s Law & Order and CBS’ Family Law, which he ran — before he wrote the pilot script for medical drama House, which grew into one of Fox’s biggest scripted hits ever.

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