About the Author

Scott Turow is a practicing attorney and the author of seven best-selling novels, beginning with Presumed Innocent. As a practicing attorney, both for the U.S Attorney's office in Chicago and in private practice, Turow has had intimate experiences with the criminal justice system and capital punishment. Turow served on the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment. He wrote about his journey from a self-described “death penalty agnostic” to becoming actively opposed to the death penalty in Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty.

Turow has contributed essays and op-ed pieces to The New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Playboy and The Atlantic. His first book, One L: the Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School is a virtual bible for prospective law students. In 2003, he won the Heartland Prize for Reversible Errors and in 2004 received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Ultimate Punishment. His books have been translated into more than two dozen languages and sold more than 25 million copies. Presumed Innocent was adapted into a full-length film.

Turow is a partner at Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal in Chicago and concentrates on white collar criminal defense. He devotes significant time to pro bono work, including a 1995 case that resulted in the release of Alejandro Hernandez who had spent 12 years in prison, including five on death row, for a murder he did not commit.

Turow was born in Chicago in 1949 and lives in a Chicago suburb.

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