Nick takes the case of genius schoolboy Matthew Damira, who opposes being adopted by former social worker Suzanne Diamond because she backed down on the promise to adopt his big, handicapped-but-inseparable brother Justin. After losing the first ruling, he challenges the parental waiver signed by their cognitively-challenged mother. Jake learns from his mother that father Ed Straka, whom she suspects of gambling on the tracks again, is in major debt, likely to get their house foreclosed upon. Having failed to bluff loan-shark Mike Fritas or get a pay advance from Burton, Jake resorts to passing on insider stock information, but the SCE finds out. Desperately out of place in addicts group therapy, Nick accepts Alvin as alternative sponsor.
—anonymous