Profile : The Attorney People Love to Like : ALAN ROSENBERG FINDS A NEW NICHE FOR ELI AND HIMSELF

Transplanted New Yorker Eli Levinson, the character Alan Rosenberg plays on “L.A. Law,” is getting used to Los Angeles. He’s finally learning how to drive, he’s unruffled by aftershocks and he’s even tolerating the “cottony” bagels.

Rosenberg, who went with the soulful Eli from ABC’s now-defunct “Civil Wars” to NBC’s “L.A. Law” in an unprecedented network-jumping move, is also feeling quite comfortable in his surroundings. “At first, I was nervous. It was a bit like going to a new junior high school and wondering whether you’ll have friends or not,” he says about joining NBC’s oldest continuing series as a new lawyer from New York City. Although it helped that Debi Mazar, who plays the brassy secretary Denise, made the move with him.

“I felt some pressure,” he confides. “I wasn’t 100% sure the audience would accept me.”

Judging by the reaction Rosenberg gets from fans, it looks like acceptance isn’t a problem. Just what is it about the character that makes people approach Rosenberg in public wherever he is--in a hotel lobby in Italy, at the Barbra Streisand concert in Las Vegas, in L.A. supermarkets--to spill their guts, give their opinions and generally gush about Eli?

“He listens to people, and he has a strong moral center,” says the 42-year-old Rosenberg. And he’s open. “Most men of my generation don’t discuss their problems . . . He’s the least macho character in television that I’ve ever seen.

“People love this character, and it’s thrilling. I get carried away; you can get egotistical about it, and then I remind myself that he’s a great character. Every Jewish actor I knew in L.A. wanted to play the role.”

William M. Finkelstein, who created “Civil Wars” and is now executive producer of “L.A. Law,” gives the credit to Rosenberg’s ability to give the character depth and breadth.

“I think he brings a certain truthfulness to Eli because he’s a very good actor,” Finkelstein says. “Alan conveys a certain intelligence. He’s very deft at the way he uses language . . . In courtrooms, a gift for oratory goes a long way. And that’s combined with something that’s always going on behind his eyes.”

At first, Rosenberg seems shockingly unlike Eli. Don’t expect a nebbishy , soft-spoken guy in a tailored suit. This former East Coaster comes to the door of his Spanish-style house in Santa Monica with an after-work drink in hand, wearing jeans, black boots, a hip shirt.

But after a little conversation, Rosenberg’s Eli-ish combination of intellect, sensitivity and New York-edge comes through. He chain smokes, he talks fast, but as he puts it, “I’m a pretty laid-back guy.”

He’s not even phased when his 3-year-old son Hugh (Rosenberg is married to actress Marg Helgenberger) repeatedly interrupts because he wants to be asked the questions. “You can sit here, but you’ve got to be quiet. Be as sweet as you can be,” Rosenberg coos to his son, then teases in a tough-guy voice, “This is bizzzness, buddy boy.”

When Rosenberg compares himself to Eli, he starts off with the differences. “I’m somewhat tougher than Eli. I have thicker skin. I mean, I’ve faced tragedy in my life and I didn’t have a nervous breakdown.” (Eli had a breakdown on “Civil Wars,” but now he’s recovered.)

Two years ago, Rosenberg’s older brother Mark, “my best friend” and the president of the worldwide theatrical production division of Warner Bros., died suddenly of a heart attack at 42. “I’ll never get over my brother dying, but life is fate and you’ve got to test yourself against those things. I think I’m pretty strong.”

But the more he thinks about it, he sees striking similarities between himself and Eli. “Like Eli, I get obsessed with the moral truth of things.” That’s what led the Passaic, N.J., native to acting while at Case Western Reserve University in the ‘60s. “It was a way to effect social and political change.”

Rosenberg also was drawn to the law. After working as an actor in New York for five years with mixed success, he heard his father’s voice in the shower one day. “ ‘Do something with your life,’ he said, and I don’t hear voices often,” Rosenberg recalls. He applied to law school and was accepted to Syracuse University. At the same time, he was cast as the lead in an off-Broadway play. “I told my mother I’d rather starve being an actor.”

The scene that touched him most deeply on “L.A. Law” so far this season was not high courtroom drama. It was when Michael Tucker, who plays Stuart Markowitz, Eli’s cousin, welcomed him to Los Angeles. “He was welcoming me, in a sense, on behalf of the cast.”

Since those first days in L.A., Eli has changed. For one thing, he’s gotten more action in the love-life department, including a tense moment with Denise. In fact, Rosenberg was recently labeled one of TV’s “unlikely heartthrobs” in a magazine. “I got to tell you it was fun,” he admits.

Helgenberger breaks into giggles about her husband being called a sex symbol. “It’s not that I don’t think he’s sexy, it’s just that no one has ever seen him like that. I’m happy for him,” she says.

But he would rather not have too many of those “L.A. Law”-style sexy scenes. “Eli is sexy because he’s compassionate. I think to see him with women kind of dissipates that.”

Can Rosenberg imagine life after Eli? “Well, after ‘L.A. Law,’ I’m going over to ‘Matlock’ to play Eli there,” he says with a sly smile.

“L.A. Law” airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on NBC.