With his work at both Fallin & Fallin and LSP at and end, the premature delivery of Lulu‘s baby complicates Nick’s taking a new job with attorney Walter McNeil. Asked to make sure the clinic’s funding request stays on track, he arrives to find Emily Bernsley struggling with her caseload, and Alvin digesting the latest news in Taliek Allen’s death penalty appeal. Because of brain damage that wasn’t disclosed at his trial, Alvin is sure he can get Taliek’s sentence stayed. But with the illness and dreams of a trip to Antarctica making Alvin less able - and less inclined - to pursue the appeal, he asks Nick for help. Meanwhile, as the baby’s birth has him and Lulu headed for a showdown over its last name, Nick ignores Burton’s warnings and goes to work for McNeil.

When Lulu chooses not to go back to work fulltime, she asks Alvin to find a replacement. Surprised to learn of her decision, Nick refuses to take the LSP job before half-heartedly turning to help Taliek, whose refusal to take his chances of winning seriously leads the court to deny his claim. When Alvin presses him for help with an appeal to the Board of Pardons, already deep into his first assignment for McNeil, Nick cannot muster any more energy for the case. Already upset by the brewing disagreement over the baby’s last name, upon returning to Fallin for some files he’s requested, Nick’s frustrations cause him to violently lash out at Jake.

With the state’s denial of clemency leaving the Supreme Court as Taliek’s last chance, the petty bickering and outsised egos that are threatening to kill a client’s multi-million dollar deal prompt Nick to quit McNeil’s firm in disgust. Heading to the hospital to settle things with Lulu, he agrees to let the baby have her last name. And when Burton shows up after resigning from his firm, he tells his son how he hopes to be able to spend more time with him, Lulu, and their new daughter. Finally, when the appeal is rejected by the Supreme Court, Alvin asks Nick to deliver the news to Taliek. So, as Burton leaves his office for the last time and Alvin heads back to LSP before quietly slipping away for Antarctica, with no job prospects of his own and a family to support, Nick steps in to argue for the clinic’s funding as its new director.