Profile of Scott Turow on Famous Like Me

Scott Turow (born April 12, 1949) is an American novelist and author, as well as a practicing lawyer. Turow has written six fiction and two nonfiction books, which have been translated into over 20 languages and have sold over 25 million copies. Movies have been based on several of his books.

Biography

Turow was born in Chicago and graduated from Amherst College in 1970. He later received an Edith Mirrielees Fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, where he attended from 1970 to 1972. In 1971, he married Annette Turow, a painter.

Turow later became a lecturer at Stanford, serving until 1975, when he entered Harvard Law School. In 1977, Turow wrote One L, a book about his first year at law school. After earnining his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1978, Turow became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago, serving in that position until 1986. There he prosecuted several high-profile corruption cases, including the tax fraud case of state Attorney General William Scott. Turow also was lead counsel in Operation Greylord, the federal prosecution of Illinois judicial corruption cases.

After leaving the U.S. Attorney's office, Turow became a novelist, writing his famous legal thrillers, including The Burden of Proof, Presumed Innocent, Pleading Guilty, and Personal Injuries. All four became bestsellers, and Turow won multiple literary awards, most notably the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers. In 1990, Turow was featured on the June 11 cover of Time magazine, which described him as as the "Bard of the Litigious Age."

Turow was the president of the Authors Guild from 1997 to 1998 and continues to serve on its board. During the same two-year period, Turow was a member of the U.S. Senate Nominations Commission for the Northern District of Illinois, which recommend federal judicial appointments.

Turow is currently employed in the Chicago offices of Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, an international law firm. Turow works pro bono in most of his cases, including a 1995 case where he won the release of Alejandro Hernandez, who had spent 11 years on death row for a murder he did not commit. He was also appointed to the commission considering the reform of the Illinois death penalty by former Governor George Ryan and is currently a member of the Illinois State Police Merit Board. He lives with his wife Annette and his three children.

Books

• Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty, 2003
• Reversible Errors, 2002
• Personal Injuries, 1999
• The Laws of Our Fathers, 1996
• Pleading Guilty, 1993
• The Burden of Proof, 1990
• Presumed Innocent, 1987
• One L, 1977

See Also

• List of bestselling novels in the United States

External Links

• Official website
• 1990 Audio Interview with Scott Turow - RealAudio

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