Lawyers Who Write
Five Madison-area lawyers gather for a panel discussion on how they have found a successful second career as writers. Whether writing fiction, history, or biography, these lawyers have brought their research and evaluative skills to bear creating new works.
Susan Gloss
Susan Gloss is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Wisconsin Law School. When she's not writing fiction, Susan can be found working as an attorney, blogging at GlossingOverIt.com, or hunting for vintage treasures for her Etsy shop, Cleverly Curated. She lives with her family in Madison, Wisconsin.
E.M. Kokie
E. M. Kokie writes for teens because she is drawn to stories that grapple with issues of identity and self-determination, and characters confronting the line between childhood and adulthood. Her most recent novel, Radical, explores such themes as family, identity, trust, guns, and what it really means to survive, through the eyes of a teen lesbian who is active in the survivalist movement. Her first novel, Personal Effects, was a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults and Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults Top Ten, a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, and a 2013 IRA Young Adult Honor Book. She also contributed to the anthologies Things I'll Never Say: Stories About Our Secret Selves, and Violent Ends. A lawyer by training, Emily lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her wife and pet Wookie.
Jay Ranney
Joseph A. Ranney is the Adrian P. Schoone Fellow in Wisconsin Law and Legal Institutions at Marquette University Law School and a partner with the firm DeWitt Ross & Stevens in Madison, Wisconsin. He is the author of several books, including Trusting Nothing to Providence: A History of Wisconsin's Legal System, honored by the American Library Association as a notable book on state and local government.
Carl Rasmussen
Carl J. Rasmussen is a lawyer with the firm of Boardman & Clark LLP, Madison, Wisconsin. A Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, Carl is a former Chair of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Section of the State Bar of Wisconsin. He currently represents the United Church of Christ on the Unity and Relationships Commission of the Wisconsin Council of Churches. He received his PhD and JD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dean Strang
Dean A. Strang is a criminal defense lawyer in Madison, Wisconsin, and an adjunct professor at the law schools of the University of Wisconsin and Marquette University.