Writer lured back to the courtroom

They have been circling each other for nearly 40 years: Scott Turow and David E. Kelley.

- SHINAN GOVANI

David E. Kelley with his wife Michelle Pfeiffer in April. Kelley says he is fascinated by Rusty Sabich, the lawyer accused of murder in his 1986 classic “Presumed Innocent.” Jake Gyllenhaal, below, plays Rusty in a new Apple TV series based on the book.

In drama and in jurisprudence.

It was in 1986 when the former authored his bestseller “Presumed Innocent” — a modern classic as far as legal thrillers go (one that would go on to become Harrison Ford canon when the red-hot actor starred in the smash movie version, directed by Alan J. Pakula).

Around the same period, Kelley graduated from law school and — moving to L.A. — nabbed his own first writing gig when he was recruited by the legendary Steven Bochco to work on the mega-TV hit “L.A. Law” (a gig that set him off on a path of courtroom fireworks via a body of work that now includes “Ally McBeal,” “The Practice” and “Boston Legal”).

Here, in this century, the two are finally meeting, courtesy of a new eight-part adaptation of “Presumed Innocent,” starring one Jake Gyllenhaal, all puppy eyes and inscrutable gaze. A sticky, tight-coiled production — with a fresh batch of red herrings and modern twitches — it was created by Kelley using the original source material and is running now on Apple TV Plus.

“The moral ambiguity that is in this book spoke to me,” the showrunner started to muse when I caught up with him recently to chat.