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"It was completely unfair, but I didn't know what to do about it"Best-selling legal thriller novelist James Grippando has just written his first story for younger readers: Leapholes, published by the ABA's Criminal Justice Section in September. In a special Afterword to the novel, two dozen of the country's finest lawyers and lawyer-authors--people like David Boies, Roy Black, Ben Civilletti, David Baldacci, Lisa Scottolini, Linda Fairstein, and many others--reveal what made them want to become lawyers. Following is the contribution from Grippando himself: "My favorite subject in middle school was American history. I wasn’t so much into memorizing dates, names, and places. I was more interested in what it must have been like to live in those times. What was it like to go to school each day on horseback? What did kids do after school for fun? The time period that fascinated me most was right around the Civil War. I grew up in Illinois, the “Land of Lincoln.” Abraham Lincoln was a great president, and he was also a lawyer. I became especially interested in learning about Lincoln after my parents told me that we were related to him. As it turns out, my step-grandmother’s grandmother was Abe Lincoln’s mother’s cousin. Okay, that’s a stretch. But Abe and I are related. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. In the early 1970s, my parents took me to Springfield, the state capital. We visited Lincoln’s old law office. Imagining him at work there made me want to become a lawyer. Later that year, a little trouble at school convinced me to follow that path. I was on my way to the boys’ restroom during study break. Another boy nearly knocked me over as he was running out the door. He stopped, grabbed me by the collar, and said, “If you say a word, you’re dead meat.” I had no idea what he was talking about. When I went inside the bathroom, I found black paint smeared all over the walls. The boy had stolen tubes of acrylic paint from the art room and vandalized the place. The boy was older and bigger than me. I believed him when he said I’d be dead meat—maybe not literally, but at least missing a few teeth. I didn’t know what to do. I agonized about it through the rest of the study hour. Should I tell, or should I keep my mouth shut? Before I could decide, I was called into the principal’s office. The boy was there. He admitted to having smeared paint on the walls, but he swore that he did it only because I had dared him to. The principal believed his lie. I was suspended from school for three days right on the spot. I thought it was completely unfair, but I didn’t know what to do about it. Those three days I spent at home, I decided that I never wanted to be in that position again. I always wanted to know my rights. I decided to become a lawyer." Find out more about Leapholes |
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