Legal thriller author David Ellis day job? Appellate court justice
The Modern Law Library
Legal thriller author David Ellis’ day job? Appellate court justice
August 29 2024, 8 :41 am CDT
Justice David W. Ellis is the author of more than a dozen legal thrillers. But readers may know him better as author David Ellis, bestselling writer of more than a dozen legal thrillers.
Ellis had enjoyed creative writing as a youth, he tells the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles in this episode of The Modern Law Library podcast.
But during his college and law school years, he was focused solely on his legal career path. This didn’t change until he was in practice for several years. He decided to write a book during a beach vacation. Once he set that goal, he worked tirelessly towards it. In 2002, he was awarded the prestigious Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. In 2009, he made national headlines as the prosecutor in the impeachment trial of the then-Illinois Governor. Rod Blagojevich appeared before the state senate. In 2014, he was the youngest justice to serve on the Illinois Appellate Court of the 1st district, which serves Chicago and Cook County. Along the way, he also published 11 novels, among them the four-book Jason Kolarich Series. He was a finalist for ABA Journal’s Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, sponsored by the Journal in 2012 and 2013 In this episode, Ellis & Rawles discuss The Best Lies, his July release. The Best Lies began with the idea of a character who was a pathological liar. The police have collected fingerprints and DNA at the scene which match a bar fight from college that Leo had been charged for. The victim also had a bad history with one of Leo’s clients. Over the course of The Best Lies the twists and turn across multiple timelines reveal what actually happened. Ellis weaves together corporate espionage with violin concertos and police corruption, as well as the Estonian mob. The Modern Law Library can be listened to on a variety of podcast services. Google Play
In This Podcast:
David W. Ellis. (Photo by Kevin Kuster).
David Ellis is a judge, and a No. Edgar Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of 11 crime fiction novels, Ellis also co-authored nine books with James Patterson. In December 2014 Ellis was sworn as the youngest justice of the Illinois Appellate Court, 1st district. Ellis lives outside Chicago, with his wife and their three children.
