Shonda Rhimes and her Shondaland production company will executive produce a new project that ABC has put into development, titled Lawless.

To be written by KJ Steinberg (Mistresses), the drama, said to be inspired by real life of trucker-turned-lawyer Wynona Ward, founder of Have Justice Will Travel, will tell the story of a lawyer who returns to her hometown to mend some fences, she left broken.

Ward’s story, courtesy of Deadline:

A former victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her father, Ward got compelled at age 41 by the news of another child in her family getting sexually abused by relatives to go to college and law school and start a group that provides free legal representation and support services to victims of domestic violence in rural areas.

Shonda Rhimes and Steinberg previously worked together on anothe ABC project, Gilded Lilys, a period drama set in 1895, revolving around the family who owned New York’s first true luxury hotel, the staff who work there and the people who pass through.

This was in late 2011. ABC did order a pilot of Gilded Lilys, but it never went to series.

Rhimes has already launched three successful series for the network – medical dramas Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice (which ended its run last season) and legal/fixer drama Scandal.