I am a fiction writer and a lawyer who is often intrigued by the overlap between my two professions. I believe, with John Updike, that the purpose of literature is to expand our sympathies; and I believe that when the rights of society's most vulnerable members are denied, everybody's rights are imperiled.

I was in law school when my middle-grade novel was published. So many people asked why a fiction writer went to law school that I wrote an essay called “Why Fiction Writers Become Lawyers and Lawyers become Fiction Writers.”  San Francisco’s legal newspaper, The Recorder, published the essay, and changed the title to “From Literature to Litigation,” probably because they needed a title short enough to fit inside the column. Read more.