User Profile

((I am not Sam Waterston or the character Jack McCoy. I am merely utilizing him in the Law and Order roleplay found at lawandorder_siu. For more information, visit that community.))

Joined the DA office in 1975, and appointed Executive Assistant DA in 1994 by DA Adam Schiff, McCoy quickly established himself as a more unconventional, ruthless litigator than his predecessor, Ben Stone; he was infamous for bending (but not breaking) trial rules to get convictions, finding tenuous rationales for charging defendants with crimes when the original charges didn't stick, and making passionate — to the point of inflammatory — closing arguments. He was more than once found in contempt of court for such behavior, and his tactics occasionally incurred bad press for Schiff. His underlying motivation, however, is not corruption, but a sincere desire to see justice done. To that end, McCoy has gone after defendants accused of perverting the justice system with just as much conviction as his more mundane cases. Such aggressive actions in the courts have earned him the nickname "Hang 'em High" McCoy.

While a brilliant legal mind, McCoy has more than a few personal demons; he was abused by his father, who died of cancer, and rejected his Catholic faith as a child after his best friend's death. A workaholic, he occasionally takes cases personally, especially when they involve racism or child abuse. He is also a notorious womanizer, having had sexual relationships with four of his female assistants. This has often blown up in his face, however; one such assistant, Diana Hawthorne, was later found to have suppressed evidence so they could win a case (unbeknownst to McCoy and to his horror upon finding out); another, Claire Kincaid, was killed in a car accident just as their relationship was starting to unravel, a source of great pain for him. Since Kincaid's death, McCoy has kept his relationships with assistants (who have all been female) professional, although he nurtured friendships with all of them, particularly Jamie Ross.

In 1998, he was brought before the New York Bar Association on misconduct charges stemming from a case in which he hid a material witness from the opposing counsel to win a case.

Unlike Stone, he embraces the option of the death penalty, claiming it is a suitable punishment for particularly heinous crimes and a useful threat to use in plea bargaining. This often has led to heated arguments with his more liberal colleagues. He has shown mercy on occasion, however, such as when he prosecuted a boy with bipolar disorder for murdering his sister; when the boy's rich grandfather (an old friend of Schiff's, who suffered from the disorder himself) interfered with the case to prevent the boy to being committed to a mental institution, McCoy led the effort to prevent an unjust punishment for the boy.

McCoy is divorced (his ex-wife having been a former assistant) and has a grown daughter. While McCoy was not exactly a part of the 1960s counterculture, he did protest against the policies of the Nixon administration, particularly the Vietnam war. He retains some of the wild streak from his youth; he has a Yamaha motorcycle, which he sometimes rides home from work, and is a huge fan of punk rock bands like The Clash.

Having grown up in the Midwest, McCoy attended the University of Chicago before obtaining his law degree from New York University (NYU). He appears to have a penchant for scotch.

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