I agree, I used to watch L&O back years ago and it was great. I ocassionally watch a rerun now (how can you miss them), but it feels like it's on autopilot and the writers are just copy and pasting headlines stories and changing the names.

I think SVU has been a lot better in terms of staying fresh.

a gues star coming back though is different from someone that had a full part for a whole season
and although conviction didn't use the L&O name it was in the same "universe" as it had the same ADA from SVU

simple solution here it to have her be jacks assistant and have the one they picked for jack's assistant begreen's new partner