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We, The Jury by Robert Rotstein
Rich Blood by Robert Bailey
After the Fact by Jeff Cooper
By the Book by Jasmine Guillory
The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff
Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict

I didn’t actually leave my 13-year litigation career to write novels; I left to catch my breath. I had a New York City legal career that largely resembled the rumors. Long hours, expensed everything, temper tantrums (only some of them my own). 

While I was catching my breath during a one-year sabbatical (that lasted a decade, who’s counting?), I started exploring the versatility of my law degree and legal training and found that my experience and skill set made me a unique candidate for many other positions, including in academia, start-up ventures and the non-profit sector. I started using my legal background in all of those areas, and on the side, I began writing as well. And guess what? Turns out, the writing thing was not nearly as easy a transition as you might think. Just because we lawyers are professional writers does not necessarily mean we can write fiction. The development of voice, point of view and accessible writing is not something that comes naturally to lawyers. 

In fact, ever since the American Bar Association asked me to write a book called Lawyer Interrupted, I’ve been asked to speak at many lawyer conferences all across the country. Inevitably, a group of lawyers with novelist aspirations will corner me before or after to ask: how?

How can we quit our day job to write novels?

I always answer them the same way: Don’t. Yet. At least not until you spend some time studying the craft and honing your voice. 

The whole truth is that it’s not nearly as easy as one might think. This is what makes successful lawyers-turned-novelists so aspirational. Everyone knows John Grisham and Scott Turow and Lisa Scottoline have figured out the magic formula for turning a legal career into a successful novelist career. But they aren’t alone. Here’s a list of 6 recent and upcoming titles from lawyers-turned-writers that I think get it right. But don’t take my word for it — you be the judge.


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We, The Jury by Robert Rotstein

We, The Jury by Robert Rotstein

In a novel that turns conventional legal drama upside down, this novel is told from the perspectives of the 12 very different jurors and is written by Robert Rotstein, who is still a practicing attorney. Rotstein is not a criminal attorney but rather specializes in intellectual property and entertainment law, with a client list that has included Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Lionel Richie, John Sayles, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds and James Cameron. His most recent novel, We, the Jury, is a standalone legal drama that is equal parts entertaining and chilling.


Rich Blood by Robert Bailey

Rich Blood by Robert Bailey

Another civil litigator, Robert Bailey is a lawyer from Huntsville, Alabama who moonlights as a Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Rich Blood, out this fall, is a brand new kind of legal drama that takes on small-town politics and family secrets as it follows an ambulance-chasing lawyer who — after a stint in rehab and with no criminal law experience — reluctantly takes on the defense of his sister. The sister, who is accused of her husband’s murder, has a colorful history and no shortage of enemies making this page-turner a great study in legal dramas done right.


After the Fact by Jeff Cooper

After the Fact by Jeff Cooper

A small-town lawyer trades it all in for the big city New York law firm gig and just might get more than he bargained for. A twisting, turning story revealing secrets and double-crossing from multiple points of view After the Fact is a legal drama that will keep you guessing and will also show you how a law professor figured out how to practice what he teaches.


By the Book by Jasmine Guillory

By the Book by Jasmine Guillory

In interviews, New York Times bestselling author, Jasmine Guillory has described needing a creative outlet after 8 years of practicing law, which led her to novel writing. With a specialty in writing romance novels featuring fierce Black protagonists, Guillory has undoubtedly found her own voice. By the Book features a re-telling of the Disney classic Beauty of the Beast set against the backdrop of the complicated world of publishing in a very meta (and successful!) experiment by this talented lawyer-turned-novelist.


The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff

The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff

Since leaving her legal career, Pam Jenoff has been writing meticulously researched historical fiction, inspired by her experiences working at the Pentagon and as a diplomat for the State Department handling Holocaust issues in Poland. The Woman with the Blue Star is inspired by a true story and features the unlikely and dangerous friendship between a young girl living in the Kraków Ghetto during World War II and an affluent Polish girl living a life of relative ease with her stepmother, who has developed close alliances with the occupying Germans.


Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict

Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict

A former lawyer who has made it her mission to bring to light untold stories of fascinating women in history, Marie Benedict is a lawyer-turned-novelist who uses her legal training to tell stories that are not courtroom dramas or legal thrillers but are carefully and uniquely crafted nonetheless. Honing a voice uniquely her own, Benedict’s stories delve beneath the surface to tease out the full potential of lives shrouded in secrets. Her Hidden Genius, released earlier this year, tells the story of Rosalind Franklin, the woman whose discovery of the double helix of DNA was stolen by two other male scientists at the time. (For insider access, check out the interview of Marie Benedict on the I Know How This (Book) Ends podcast, where Marie takes readers behind the scenes of her research, her passion and an exciting sneak peek of her next books!)


Amy Impellizeri

Amy is a reformed corporate litigator, former start-up executive, award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction, and host of the Speak Studio original podcast, I Know How This (Book) Ends. Amy’s novels have earned awards and recognition including INDIEFAB Book of the Year awards, the inaugural Francis Ford Coppola Book & Bottles Pick, National Indie Excellence Awards and more. Amy's newest novel, In Her Defense, is her sixth novel and the first in a new legal drama series. Amy is a Tall Poppy Writer, a past President of the Women’s Fiction Writer’s Association, a 2018 Writer-In-Residence at Ms-JD.org, recipient of Ms. JD’s Road Less Traveled Award, a faculty member in Drexel University's MFA in Creative Writing program, and a frequently invited speaker at legal conferences and writing workshops. Connect with Amy on her website.

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