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Law of Attraction

By Main Justice staff

Editor’s Note: Allison Leotta is an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s office. She is also the author of “Law of Attraction,” a legal suspense thriller published by Simon & Schuster this week.

In a Q&A provided by her publicist, Leotta talks about her novel, being a prosecutor, and what it’s like to have your boss read sex scenes you’ve written.

Allison Leotta, a D.C. Assistant U.S. Attorney, and her book "Law of Attraction." (Simon & Schuster)

Q: Tell us a bit about your debut legal thriller, ?Law of Attraction.?

Allison Leotta: I?m a federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., specializing in sex crimes and domestic violence.  ?Law of Attraction? is about  ? surprise! ? a federal prosecutor in D.C. specializing in sex crimes and domestic violence. The book is part courtroom drama, part love story, and part murder mystery. My heroine investigates a misogynistic killer, while her own boyfriend, a public defender, represents the accused. As her love life collides with her professional life, she learns she may be just as vulnerable as the victims she works to protect.

In writing ?Law of Attraction,? I tried to create the type of story I like to read myself: a fast-paced tale of crime and punishment, infused with authentic detail, which will give the reader an inside glimpse into how the criminal justice system really handles the most intimate crimes.

Q: Is your book based on a real case?  Are the characters based on real people?

Leotta: I describe real elements of many cases that I?ve seen, but ?Law of Attraction? isn?t based on any one case and the characters aren?t based on particular Assistant U.S. Attorneys (AUSAs), judges, officers or defense attorneys (I swear!). Although the story is fictional, I expect that any lawyer working in the criminal justice system will see a bit of themselves, and cases they have prosecuted, in my book.

Q: What inspired you to write ?Law of Attraction??

Leotta: I think most prosecutors have a story or two in them.  In our jobs, we see the best and the worst of human nature.  We investigate precisely what happens when people are at the most stressful moments of their lives. For most of us, it?s not a job we can leave at the office. I wrote ?Law of Attraction,? in part, to help me process the incredible stories I saw every day as a prosecutor.

Q: How did you balance working as an AUSA and writing?

Leotta: I actually found the two were mutually beneficial.  Obviously, the job provided rich material for the book. But I was happy to find that writing made me better at my job. I?ve always tried to treat everyone who walks into my office with respect and courtesy. But there?s something about sitting down and writing a character from that position ? imagining what it?s like to be sitting on the other side of my desk, for example ? that made me understand where my witnesses were coming from on a much deeper level.

Q: Did DOJ have to review ?Law of Attraction??

Leotta: Yes, the book had to go through a few layers of review: first at the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) and then through several sections of Justice Department headquarters. I appreciate that so many people with busy schedules were willing to take the time to read my novel and give me comments.

Q: Did DOJ make you change anything?

Leotta: It was nerve-wracking to wait during the review, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they tried very hard to make helpful suggestions where it was necessary from a DOJ-ethics point of view, without demanding changes that would have hurt the story. Some of the suggestions were really quite useful; for example, my supervisor at the USAO had some suggestions that made the forensics in the book more realistic.

Q: ?Law of Attraction? has some steamy sex scenes.  How did you feel about high-ranking DOJ officials reading them?

Leotta: When I had to give the book to the most senior lawyers in my office, I think I blushed for four days straight. I?ve never quite been able to look them in the eye the same way again.

Q: What advice would you give other prosecutors who might want to take a shot at writing?

Leotta: Lawyers are natural storytellers. You have the talent. The two things you need are the time and the motivation to do it. When I decided I was really going to write ?Law of Attraction,? I got up at 5:00 every morning and wrote for two hours before heading to work. I cancelled my Netflix subscription, and gave up 2 years of The Office. When my kids were born, I wrote after bedtime and during naps. You have to be the tortoise of the parable: slow but steady.

Q: How is it that, as an AUSA, you prosecute local sex crimes?

Leotta: Because D.C. is a ?federal city,? the U.S. Attorney?s Office handles both the usual cases under the federal statutes and the street crime that would be prosecuted by a DA?s office in any other state.  We have the largest USAO in the country, with about 350 AUSAs.

Q: We hear that working for DOJ runs in your family.

Leotta: My father, Alan Harnisch, was an AUSA in Detroit; he also served as a trial attorney with DOJ?s Antitrust Division in New York. I grew up hearing my dad?s work stories, and I thought he was pretty much a super-hero, fighting crime and putting bad guys in jail. I always wanted to be a prosecutor. I ended up marrying one, too.  My husband, Mike Leotta, was the Appellate Chief at the U.S. Attorney?s Office in Maryland, and is now on detail to the White House. Some of the details from their work stories became part of ?Law of Attraction? too.

The views expressed in this interview are Allison Leotta?s alone, and do not represent the views of the Department of Justice or the U.S. Attorney?s Office for the District of Columbia.

Full post as published by Main Justice on October 11, 2010 (boomark / email).