David Lat’s ‘Supreme Ambitions’ Is a Thriller for Lawyers
12/7/2014 The New York Times
There are no murder plots, corrupt jurors or searing cross-examinations in “Supreme Ambitions,” a new legal novel. Instead, the story turns on a jurisdictional defect that throws an appeals court case into question.
“What is the legal basis for jurisdiction?” a judge asks in an early chapter, in a heavy bit of foreshadowing. “Is it federal question jurisdiction, under Section 1331? Is it diversity jurisdiction, under Section 1332? Is it supplemental jurisdiction, under Section 1367?”
While such legalese does not exactly make for a riveting courtroom drama, for an elite niche — consisting largely of federal judges and their clerks — “Supreme Ambitions” has become the most buzzed-about novel of the year.
It was written by David Lat, a former clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and a longtime chronicler of the federal judiciary and the legal profession. And it’s the debut fiction title for a new trade imprint from the American Bar Association, whose publishing arm is known for handbooks like the 1,400-page “Compendium of State Certificate of Title Laws.”
Mr. Lat, a lawyer turned blogger, has captivated the legal world for years with his gossipy websites, Above the Law, and before that, Underneath Their Robes, an irreverent, anonymous blog about the federal judiciary. He’s gained a large and loyal following among employees at big corporate law firms and even Supreme Court justices with his catty take on the profession. (He once asked readers to vote for “superhotties of the federal judiciary,” and wrote, in an introduction to the list of nominees, “They are too sexy for their robes.”)
Mr. Lat brings the same snarky tone and blend of fact, fiction and rumor to his debut novel. The story centers on a young law school graduate, Audrey Coyne, who lands a clerkship with a callous and ruthlessly ambitious appellate court judge who is angling for a spot on the Supreme Court. Based on early reviews, it’s likely to be a hit with its elite target audience: The cover of “Supreme Ambitions” has rapturous blurbs from three sitting federal judges.
“Only a true insider could have written this book,” said Judge Kim Wardlaw, a Ninth Circuit judge based in Pasadena, Calif., where the story is set. Judge Wardlaw said she recognized several of her colleagues in the story, and noted that while she isn’t depicted in the book, she didn’t emerge entirely unscathed: The opulent décor in the fictional judge’s “jewel box of a chambers” is suspiciously similar to her own chambers, which Mr. Lat has visited, she said.
Mr. Lat acknowledges that he’s writing for a niche audience.
“I wanted to write for my people,” he said during an interview at the scruffy downtown Manhattan office where he works as the managing editor of Above the Law. “People who are reading this are people steeped in the world of appellate courts.”
While he’s unlikely to knock John Grisham or Lisa Scottoline off the best-seller list, Mr. Lat and the American Bar Association are betting that there are readers for a subgenre of highly realistic, legal procedural fiction that’s heavy on the legal material, and somewhat light on the thrills.
“Lawyers like to see the profession realistically portrayed, with good reason,” said Scott Turow, the best-selling author of “Presumed Innocent” and a pioneer of the legal thriller genre. “The average trial involves enough drama, enough confrontation and enough conflict that you don’t really have to gild the lily to make it exciting.”
With its new trade imprint, Ankerwycke, the bar association wants to broaden its appeal, focusing on legal fiction and more accessible nonfiction. Ankerwycke — named for an ancient tree in England where, according to legend, Magna Carta was signed — has 35 titles planned for 2015, including the novels “Courtship,” a Nicholas Sparks-like romance starring a public interest lawyer; “Biglaw,” a “Devil Wears Prada”-type tale about a wide-eyed associate at a Manhattan law firm; and “Tuttle in the Balance,” about a Supreme Court justice having a midlife crisis. The novels were all written by legal professionals.
“We have this captive audience of people who come to us for legal information and legal knowledge, so why wouldn’t they come to us for legal thrillers and legal fun?” said Sonali Oberg, the bar association’s director of product marketing.
The legal jargon in “Supreme Ambitions” can be dense at times, and drama is often sacrificed for realism. Mr. Lat, a former clerk for Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain, a Ninth Circuit judge based in Portland, Ore., said the story didn’t require much imagination. Though the protagonist, Audrey, is a woman, her biography mirrors the author’s. Like Mr. Lat, she’s an ambitious young Filipino American, a graduate of Yale Law School and a clerk on the Ninth Circuit who aspires to clerk for a Supreme Court justice. (Mr. Lat interviewed for a Supreme Court clerkship but didn’t make the cut.)
“The place was full of these quirky personalities,” Mr. Lat said of the Ninth Circuit, the largest of the federal appeals courts, with more than 40 active judges across nine Western states and two Pacific territories. “You don’t have to do much to turn it into a novel.”
He gave the fictional judges slightly altered names, but insiders will easily spot references to Judge O’Scannlain, Judge Alex Kozinski and Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who is described in the novel as “the Ninth Circuit’s liberal lion” and as being “too old and too liberal to ever be nominated to the Supreme Court.”
“It’s pretty clear who he likes and who he doesn’t like,” Judge Kozinski said. (For his part, Judge Kozinski said he’s pleased with his fictional doppelgänger, Judge Polanski, perhaps because Polanski is described as “an indisputably brilliant jurist, and a possible Supreme Court nominee.”)
Other biographical details and inside jokes creep into the narrative. In one plot thread, Audrey discovers the identity of the person behind an anonymous gossip blog about the judiciary, Beneath Their Robes. (Mr. Lat was working as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey for Chris Christie, at that time a United States attorney, when Mr. Lat was unmasked as the superficial, fashion-obsessed voice of Underneath Their Robes.)
Another subplot details the unnerving interviewing process for aspiring Supreme Court clerks, an experience Mr. Lat endured. “Justice Scalia sliced and diced me for half an hour then turned me over to the lions, his four law clerks,” Mr. Lat recalled.
Mr. Lat, 39, who was raised in New Jersey by Filipino immigrants, seems content writing about the world he once set out to conquer. After studying English at Harvard and law at Yale, he worked at a prominent corporate law firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and then at the United States attorney’s office.
A couple of months after Jeffrey Toobin revealed in The New Yorker in 2005 that Mr. Lat was the author of Underneath Their Robes, Mr. Lat left the profession to become an editor at the political gossip site Wonkette. But he missed writing about legal issues, and in 2006 founded the blog Above the Law, which now has four full-time writers and draws around a million monthly visitors who flock to the site for snarky, colorful reports on the profession.
He started writing “Supreme Ambitions” two years ago, working on it at night and on weekends. It provided an outlet to dish about his experience as a clerk and give an insider’s take on the federal judiciary, under the guise of fiction.
“I don’t think I’ve defamed anyone,” Mr. Lat said.
Judge O’Scannlain, who has a cameo in the novel, said he’s had a few conversations with other Ninth Circuit judges about the book, and no one, so far, has taken offense. “We’re all delighted with it,” he said. “It’s making the monastic world of appellate judges not only interesting but suspenseful.”