Who was the first showrunner of Law & Order: SVU?

The first showrunner of Law & Order: SVU was Robert Palm.

Palm served as the show's first executive producer and showrunner during its inaugural 1999–2000 season. He had already worked on the original Law & Order, helping him carry Dick Wolf's procedural style into the new spin-off. The first season focused heavily on the detectives' investigations before the series more fully adopted the original show's courtroom structure.

The subject matter affected Palm personally. After the first season, he left the show because he found the disturbing cases emotionally difficult. Robert Palm is sometimes confused with Ted Kotcheff, another important early executive producer, or Dick Wolf, the creator and principal executive producer of the franchise. Those names are closely associated with SVU's launch, but Palm is specifically credited as the first showrunner.

Palm later became known for television work on projects including NCIS. His early leadership helped establish SVU's tone: serious, character-driven police investigations centered on sexually based offenses and vulnerable victims.