Tim Green is a lawyer, bestselling author, and former NFL player. His forthcoming legal thriller is called Above the Law, which meant ATL had to sit down with him for an interview.

We remembered Green from his playing days with the Atlanta Falcons. Since we don’t know many linebacker lawyers, we had to know why Green decided to go to law school in the first place:

I was an English major in college and I love to read. I love to write….

I didn’t want to leave the NFL as an ex-NFL player with an English degree. I thought, what if I got a law degree? I was also also attracted to the notion of competition in the court, as a trial lawyer. I thought I’d match my wits and strategy and presentation against others. I always thought that would be exciting and fun.

Green graduated from Syracuse University College of Law in 1994. But he didn’t stop playing in the NFL until 1993. Put the two together and you come to the shocking conclusion that Green was earning his law degree while playing professional football:

I enjoyed it. I liked being at school. I liked the dichotomy of spending half of my year immersed in a rough physical world, and spending the other half of my year with people who were thoughtful, intelligent, and well read.

After the jump, we learn that Above the Law is a story about a lawyer Green believes is inside most attorneys.

Above the Law is Green’s second book featuring Casey Jordan, the heroine of Green’s 2001 title The Letter of the Law. We meet Casey just after she’s given up the Biglaw life to work for a small legal clinic in Texas.

I’ve read many stories about lawyers who give up big-time law for a small time practice. But I’ve never actually met such a person in real life. Neither has Green, but he thinks that there is a little piece of Casey Jordan in most lawyers:

I think that Casey Jordan is the part of every big-time lawyer’s personality that usually never gets its way. I think that every lawyer that is financially successful or has garnered a lot of attention has a part of them that fantasizes about what it would be like to be doing good things for people with their legal knowledge. Not trying to profit from it.

I think almost everybody who has been to law school has a part of that in them, otherwise you probably wouldn’t go to law school.

Not that Green has anything against profit. His law degree isn’t just for show; he’s an actual practicing attorney in upstate New York:

I have a practice now that does quite well….

It’s a general practice. Most of what I do is rainmaking and putting deals together. Most of my clients are in the energy and utility sector, though now my firm also has an IP practice group.

Green says his firm is weathering the recession just fine, but (sadly) the firm is not hiring.

A lot of the plot of Above the Law involves immigration and border issues in Texas and Mexico. They’re not the kinds of legal issues one normally finds in upstate New York, so Green had to do a lot of research. We asked him what he learned during his research that would surprise people who don’t live in Texas:

I think people have this sense that illegal immigrants are just having the time of their lives over here. And they’re really not. I think they live in a state of fear. When you understand the rules and the laws and the whimsical decisions that can be made…. It’s frightening…. I’m not trying to say that there are not good reasons for the law s that are on the books, I’m just trying to say that it is a broad brush.

The difficulties that a lot of characters face in Above the Law are compounded by their general lack of money and resources:

I really believe that the system has an imbalance based on economics. I think that if you can afford to have the best lawyers, experts and investigators. The system works almost all the time. But those are three pretty big ifs. And what determines those ifs is your socioeconomic status…. If you’ve got money, the system works. If you don’t you, you know what I’m saying? You need to be fortunate.

The beauty of fiction is that you can change the rules to make it more of a fair fight:

I’ve got this A-list lawyer and this A-list investigator, and I put them on to the legal team for somebody who otherwise would not have that.

And that’s where I think the legal system goes awry….

So I do enjoy with these stories, having a lawyer of Casey’s caliber representing people who otherwise would never have this kind of lawyer.

Not that Casey has things easy. Her goals and her ideas about justice change over the course of the story:

I think that all of us as lawyers come to understand what is inherent in legal disputes of every kind … that there rarely is a perfect resolution. If you can just get things to lean your way or lean to the side of justice just a bit, then you have to celebrate that as a a success and move on.

But Green certainly thinks that all of the internal and external struggle is worth it:

Most people look at having a law degree as something that is admirable, lawyer jokes aside….

I recommend law school to a lot of people, even if they don’t have a specific goal in mind. The most important influence that law school had on me is that it teaches you to think about every situation, interaction and human being from multiple angles…. That is the genies of tolerance and compassion and good decision making.

Tim Green has written twelve previous thrillers and the nonfiction New York Times bestseller The Dark Side of the Game. He played eight years in the NFL and is a member of the New York State Bar. Tim also writes a series of middle grade novels for young readers set in the world of sports. He lives with his wife and five children in upstate New York. For more information about the author, visit www.timgreenbooks.com.