Terry Louise Fisher, the former Los Angeles assistant district attorney who put her legal expertise to work when she teamed with Steven Bochco to create the acclaimed NBC drama L.A. Law, has died. She was 79.

Fisher lived in the Laguna Beach area and died Tuesday, family member Mark Zev Hochberg wrote on Facebook.

The Chicago native began her career in television in 1983 as a writer-producer on the second season of Cagney Lacey. She worked alongside writing partner Steve Brown on the iconic CBS series for three seasons through 1985, and they returned for a pair of reunion telefilms in 1994 and 95. Fisher and Bochco also created the ABC dramedy Hooperman, starring John Ritter as a San Francisco police inspector. That 20th Century Fox Television series lasted two seasons (1987-89).

L.A. Law, revolving around the fictional law firm McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak, ran eight seasons from 1986-94 and collected 15 Emmys, including four for outstanding drama series.

Along the way, it brought fame to actors Harry Hamlin, Richard Dysart, Corbin Bernsen, Blair Underwood, Michael Tucker, Jill Eikenberry, Alan Rachins, Jimmy Smits and several others in the ensemble.

Fisher received outstanding drama series Emmy nominations for her work on Cagney Lacey in 1983 and 85 and for L.A. Law in 1987 and 88. She shared the top award in 1985 and 1987, when she won a writing trophy as well.

As Hill Street Blues was winding down at NBC without Bochco after he was fired at MTM Enterprises in 1985, he signed a lucrative three-year deal at Fox and embarked on L.A. Law.

I knew I wanted to have a writing partner who was a lawyer because I didnt feel I could grasp the practice of the essence of law on my own, he noted in a 2002 discussion for the TV Academy Foundation website The Interviews.

Bochco and Fisher connected through a Fox executive and really clicked and just wrote a great two-hour script, he said. We wired up the story, we got the characters up on their feet, she wrote half of it, I wrote half of it It was a good collaboration until it wasnt.

Bochco would fire her in November 1987 during L.A. Laws second season because she behaved very badly, he said. A month later, Fisher, who had been the shows supervising producer, sued Bochco and Fox for $50 million. A settlement was reached three months later.

At this point, Ive just become terribly philosophical about it, she told the Los Angeles Times soon after the settlement. She and Bochco did wonderful work together, and it was just a relationship that wasnt working. Its kind of like a divorce; you go through a bad period, then you want to remember the good things.

The only way I can characterize it now is, its a relationship like any other relationship. There were conflicts that arose, and sometimes its just better for everyone to move on.

Terry Louise Fisher and Steven Bochco in 1987. George Rose/Getty Images Born in Chicago on Feb. 21, 1946, Fisher graduated from the UCLA School of Law in 1968 and worked in the L.A. district attorneys office. She also wrote two novels, A Class Act and Good Behavior, published in 1976 and 1979, respectively.

After about a decade as a lawyer, which included stints with Fox and MGM, she decided to pursue writing for television. I was a trial lawyer, and trial law is kind of fun, she said. But youve got to carry the grievances around with you for all those years. You feel so stuck; you cant do anything creative.

In January 1983, Fisher and Brown were hired as writer-producers to complete the remaining nine second-season episodes of Cagney Lacey. That year, the pair also wrote the film Second Thoughts, starring Lucie Arnaz, and the CBS telefilm Your Place or Mine, featuring Cagney Laceys Tyne Daly.

After the highly publicized split with Fisher, Bochco said he remained on L.A. Law a year longer than he had planned he had signed a deal with ABC as he hoped that Terry would [have taken] the show over. David E. Kelley would effectively replace her.

Fisher went on to sign a three-year development deal with Walt Disney Productions. She executive produced a couple telefilms and created the CBS primetime soap opera 2000 Malibu Road, starring Drew Barrymore. However, that lasted just six episodes in the summer of 1992.

She also was involved with another primetime soap opera, Daughters of Eve, that was to star Sophia Loren in 1995. That did not get a green light.