Casey Novak is an ADA who was with the Manhattan DA’s office since 2001 after she graduated from Harvard. She first appeared in season 5, episode 5, “Serendipity” and is the third-longest-running ADA in the franchise and the only female ADA to appear in five complete seasons across Dick Wolf’s shows. Novak is young, fierce, and ambitious and when she jumps from white-collar crime to the SVU, she’s set on making her mark on the department, no matter whose toes she steps on.

Diane Neal previously appeared in an SVU episode in season 3, episode 10, “Ridicule”, as an unrelated character named “Amelia Chase”, one of three women accused of raping a male stripper.

After getting some advice from Capt. Don Cragen (Dann Florek) about working as a team, Novak softens up in season 6 onward but continues to be a formidable prosecutor. The crimes Novak investigates often deeply affect her, and she takes her job incredibly seriously, with a much higher success rate than her contemporaries in cases she prosecutes. Novak is tough on the criminals she encounters and provides a look into how a ferocious defender can sometimes be a necessity when it comes to these disturbing crimes.