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Home , John Grisham, Legal fiction, Legal thriller, Michael Connelly

| FEATURE |

The of legal fiction has endured for centuries, and UA is playing its part by preparing writers, bestowing honors and lending inspiration.

by HALEY HERFURTH

SPRING 2015 | 27 Actor Gregory Peck, as Atticus Finch, with author Harper Lee on the set of the adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird; below, Robert Bailey grew up a Crimson Tide fan and used the experience as inspiration. uthor Harper Lee once said of his mentor and former coach, that if one is going to write, Bear Bryant. When the young family he “should write about what of one of his oldest friends is killed heA knows,” because the truest ver- in a collision with an 18-wheeler, sion of reality is the one you jot McMurtrie enlists the help of for- down after you’ve walked through mer student Rick Drake, who soon it. The mind of a fiction writer is a uncovers a tangled web of arson, great card catalogue of sorts, with bribery and greed. every happening filed away just to “It’s a legal , but at its heart be pulled out later, to be seen again and soul, it’s a story of redemp- in the form of scenery or a plot point tion,” said Bailey. He chose to incor- or character flaw. porate a quasi-fictionalized Bryant Some re-form experiences into into the book because, the abstract, while others base whole when you’re raised in on pieces of their lives, like the South, the Bear is Lee in her 1960 classic To Kill a out of school a year already a kind of leg- Mockingbird, or popular - when he began writing end, he said. “I grew ist , who became the first—of three—drafts up an Alabama fan, drawn toward detective stories after of The Professor, a legal where you are bathed witnessing a as a child and thriller that tells the fic- in stories of Coach Bry- spending a night in a station tional story of longtime UA law pro- ant and those who played for him,” as the investigation began. fessor Thomas Jackson McMurtrie, he explained. “It was fairly easy to Legal fiction writer Robert who gave up a promising career as picture him, having heard and seen Bailey’s book The Professor is an a to teach at the request so much of him on TV. I remember amalgamation of many of his life when he passed away. They shut experiences, including his education school down. It was like the presi- at UA’s School of Law and a life- dent had died.” time of yelling “Roll Tide.” But per- Additionally, Bailey’s work as a haps what has informed him most is lawyer has given him experience his 15-year career as a trial lawyer: handling trucking cases, like the “When you are trying cases in front one mentioned in The Professor— of a ,” he said, “you are telling “I know a good bit about that,” he them a story.” At the heart of it, you said—and his extensive background are telling them what you know. in the field helped him write the Bailey graduated from UA with technical aspects. He added that his his law degree in 1999, moving two professions complement each back to his hometown of Huntsville, other nicely. “Being a trial lawyer Alabama, to practice with Lanier has made me a better writer, and Ford Shaver & Payne PC, where he’s vice versa.” worked ever since. He’d only been In addition to serving as a set-

28 | ALABAMA ALUMNI MAGAZINE Bailey signed copies of The Professor at the Books-A-Million in Gulf Shores, while his son, Jimmy, looked on. ting for Bailey’s narrative, UA itself rable cases from centuries of French is firmly entrenched in the world of history. legal fiction writing. Lee, an Alabama In 1841, Graham’s Magazine pub- native and arguably the best-known lished ’s short story legal fiction writer of the modern The Murders in the Rue Morgue, era with her Pulitzer Prize-winning the quintessential piece of detective Mockingbird, attended the Capstone fiction and murder mystery. Wilkie in the 1940s. In her honor and with Collins’ The Woman in White, pub- her authorization, UA lished in 1859, is largely considered partners with the Ameri- one of the first legal thrillers—called can Association to at that time a “sensation novel,” present the Harper Lee which brought together in one nar- Prize for Legal Fiction, rative an innocent person, a detec- given annually to a book- tive, the legal system, conspiracy length work, published and . Contemporaries of in the preceding year, While Lee’s classic Lee’s include John O’Hara and Allen that best illuminates the has become perhaps the Drury; the 1980s and saw the role of in society most recognizable and rise of Steve Martini, Scott Turow, and their power to effect popular legal novel, the and 2011 and 2014 Harper Lee change. The award has genre can be traced back Prize-winner Grisham. been given for the past four years; centuries, to Parisian lawyer Fran- Despite often morphing between winners include Havana Requiem by cois Gayot de Pitaval’s Famous and the categories of and Paul Goldstein, Sycamore Row and Interesting Cases, published in 1735, mystery, it’s clear that the legal by , a 22-volume collection of memo- thriller will continue to thrive. and Connelly’s The Fifth Witness. “It explores the system. It According to Monique Fields, man- teaches,” Connelly, the 2012 Harper ager of communications for the Lee Prize-winner and a graduate of School of Law, administrators are the , said of the not aware of another similar honor genre. “The non-lawyer may have a that competes with the Harper Lee difficult time reading a legal brief, Prize. but a human story about the factors “It’s a huge honor for the School in that legal brief can connect one to of Law to be associated with Harper one with a reader. It can take legal Lee in this way,” said Dean Mark concepts and theory and give them a Brandon. “But more importantly, flesh-and-blood reality.” it signals to the world something Legal fiction can also be a good of the values we embrace: commu- channel for discussing thoughts nity, human dignity and the highest on social or political issues, Con- values of law and the legal nelly said, though it is important to profession.” do so with what he calls “finesse.”

Bailey with Tom Hammond, a longtime employee of the Locker Room in Tuscaloosa, where Bailey held a signing in April 2014

SPRING 2015 | 29 MARK DELONG PHOTOGRAPHY

“If you think there is a particular considered crime novels. This was issue in the system that needs to be his 16th book, but Connelly said the addressed, then you think up a sce- transition was fairly simple. “In a nario that will take your character way, it was like moving to a different right into that room,” he said. “And position on the team,” he said, “like then rather than talk or preach about going from shortstop to second base. it, you show it.” Many consider this It was close but also very different.” to be what Lee did with Mocking- While Bailey said his law back- bird—she raised issues ground made writing The Professor related to Southern life, easier in some ways, Connelly said social injustice, classism, that not being a lawyer pushed him and gender roles, to work harder on his finished prod- but rather than preach- uct. “What made the transition was ing to her readers, she not being a lawyer and knowing that set scenes where char- many lawyers would read and prob- acters like lawyer Atti- Bahia Mar, where the fic- ably critique the book,” he said. “So I cus Finch addressed the tional detective docked really had to do much more research issues in a more nuanced his houseboat,” Connelly and fact-checking to make sure it manner. added. didn’t come off as having come from In various ways, Lee , a complete amateur.” used parallels of personal experi- Connelly’s 2005 novel that was His resolve to write convincingly ences in her novel; like she advises, made into the 2011 film of the same and entertainingly within the genre and like Bailey did, she wrote about name starring Matthew McCo- earned him the Harper Lee Prize familiar things. As an author of naughey, was his first venture into three years ago, which he said was more than two-dozen novels that legal fiction; his prior books were an honor. “Being a non-lawyer, it span detective, crime and legal fic- was very special for me to receive it,” tion, Connelly said that, much like he said. “It told me that all the time Bailey and Lee, his personal experi- invested in research, sitting in - ences have served as inspiration to rooms, having lawyers vet the books, him. In addition to his childhood is all worth doing.” memory of the police station, he Mockingbird’s influence extends calls on recollections from working from the social, legal and artistic as a crime reporter in Florida and world into the academic; while law Los Angeles in the years following school dean Brandon’s schedule is his graduation. He had grown up often too hectic to allow much time in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where for reading, he said he does enjoy one of his favorite authors, John D. legal novels, particularly books by MacDonald, set many of his crime Grisham. However, he said he has novels. “I even had a summer job at a special affinity for Lee’s book.

Michael Connelly signed books at the 2012 Harper Lee Prize award ceremony.

30 | ALABAMA ALUMNI MAGAZINE “I can’t think of a work of legal dios released the first season of what I do. I did spend a lot of time fiction that’s had a greater impact Bosch, based on Connelly’s 21-book on the first season of the TV show on me than To Kill a Mockingbird,” series, and he said that, because I really wanted to establish he said. “The elegant rhythms of while he was very involved in help- the character and world of the show. language and the quiet, poignant, ing create the show, writing is his It was great fun and very interesting heartbreaking beauty of the story are first love. His novels have sold more and fulfilling, but when we wrapped unmatched in my view. The book is than 58 million copies worldwide, on the season, I was happy to go an achievement.” and he has won numerous writing back to writing a book.” Bailey, who plans to enter The awards, including the Edgar Award Professor for the 2015 Harper Lee (named for Poe), the Los Angeles Some details were referenced from Prize, said he read her novel when Times Best Mystery/Thriller Award “Collins to Grisham: A Brief History of he was young, and it impacted and the Nero Award, among others. the ,” by Marlyn Robinson, him in many ways. Connelly said a “I am a book writer first,” he said. published in Legal Studies Forum, 1998. librarian encouraged him to read the “My hope is that the show will lead classic when he was 12, and that “it people to the books, because that is has been engrained in my creative mind thereafter. “Every lawyer in Alabama wants to be Atticus Finch,” Bailey said. “And in a way, all writers are inspired by that book.” Lee’s writing career seemingly began and ended with To Kill a Mockingbird, her only published work, until she recently announced who they’ve read plans through publisher HarperCol- lins to release a second novel, origi- Check out these works by the authors who have inspired nally written in 1950, which catches Bailey and Connelly. up with the same characters 20 years later. Her fans were ecstatic, and a Bailey: bit stunned, after a 55-year wait. But On Writing, , 2000 both Bailey and Connelly intend to Defending Jacob, William Landay, 2012 keep going strong, with no hiatus Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn, 2012 in sight. Between the first and final drafts Connelly: of The Professor, Bailey wrote a sec- The Big Sleep, , 1939 ond book, Between , The Underground Man, Ross MacDonald, 1971 which he plans to publish as a sequel. The March, E.L. Doctorow, 2005 In February 2015, Amazon Stu-

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