I have been a fan of Scott Turow and his writings ever since publication of his first book, One L, a work of nonfiction subtitled The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School. That book came out during my own first year at Harvard Law School. As you can imagine, I was hardly the only One L at Harvard to purchase a copy of the book that year. Ten years later, Scott published his first novel, Presumed Innocent–and three decades later it remains at the top of most lists of the greatest legal thrillers of all time.
Scott and I have had several overlaps in our lives. He was four years ahead of me at Amherst College and one year ahead of me at Harvard Law School. We both began our legal careers in Chicago–Scott at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, me at a litigation boutique that specialized in media litigation. And now my daughter Hanna and her family live one block away from where Scott raised his children in the Village of Wilmette, a North Shore suburb of Chicago.
Our next overlap will occur at 7:30 on Sunday, November 6th. That’s when Scott will take the stage as the featured speaker in the keynote event that kicks off his year’s St. Louis Jewish Book Festival. I will be honored to take the stage with him to conduct a conversation on a wide range of topics that will range from his early days as a prosecutor in a high profile series of criminal cases against various Cook County judges to his experiences with Hollywood in the motion picture production of Presumed Innocent to his occasional gig as a singer in the Rock Bottom Remainders, a quirky rock band that includes Stephen King, Ridley Pearson, Amy Tan, Dave Barry, and other writers.
It’s sure to a fun and fascinating evening with a fun and fascinating guy. And even though Scott is, alas, a fervent Cubs fan, he is otherwise a true mensch.