Loophole

.. a completely mistitled episode of The Untouchables. The term "loophole" usually means something that a clever attorney has found within the law to sway things in favor of his client. Here Klugman plays attorney Morton Halas who does all kinds of things outside of the law - steals evidence, suborns perjury, and pays off witnesses to just disappear - in service of his mobster clientele.

This causes Ness' cases brought against Halas' clients to go down in defeat, and obviously irks him. But Halas gets in over his head when he allies himself with a headstrong mobster and becomes aware of a murder before it even happens, yet says and does nothing.

This episode oddly makes Ness a - somewhat - friend of Halas, in the sense that they have mutual respect for one another. And that would seem totally odd so a backstory is invented for Halas' character that tries to explain his behavior. He was a poor abused kid who has grown up to be a Robin Hood of sort. He gives some of his time to defend poor but innocent defendants and gives out money to poor kids who remind him of himself. From that he has managed to justify, at least to himself, his many crimes.

The Untouchables always had lots of talent in their episodes, but this one is particularly stacked (no pun intended). Not only does it have Klugman as the primary guest star, but Martin Landau is a dapper mobster who is out of his league, Gavin MacLeod plays his muscle, and George Tobias is Landau's rather benign mobster rival.