'The Advocate's Daughter': An Interview With Anthony Franze

Meet Anthony Franze, a Supreme Court litigator and author of legal thrillers set at SCOTUS; his latest novel, The Advocate's Daughter, came out just last month.

Advocate's Daughter Jacket Cover FINALIf you enjoy legal thrillers or books about the U.S. Supreme Court, two groups of books without a huge amount of overlap, then I have a recommendation for you: The Advocate’s Daughter, by lawyer and author Anthony Franze. As noted by our book critic Harry Graff in his review, it’s a powerful and moving drama about a family coping with an unspeakable loss. But as I can attest, having recently finished The Advocate’s Daughter (in just a handful of sittings), it’s also a riveting legal thriller that will keep you turning pages until the breathtaking end.

I recently chatted with Franze about his latest book, his future writing projects, and his “day job” as a Supreme Court and appellate litigator.

DL: Congratulations on The Advocate’s Daughter, which is a great read. Can you share with our readers what the book is about?

AF: The story follows Sean Serrat, a D.C. lawyer who’s on the short list to be the next nominee to the Supreme Court. He’s also a man with a secret—a serious crime from his youth. After his daughter, Abby, a Georgetown law student, is murdered, Sean fears that his possible nomination—or even his secret—may hold the truth behind his daughter’s killing.

DL: Like Sean Serrat, you’re a Supreme Court and appellate lawyer. Tell us a bit about your path through the legal profession and how you got to become a Supreme Court lawyer—a dream job for many attorneys and law students.

AF: Sean’s smarter and better looking than I am—one of the benefits of being the writer. My path to appellate law was pretty straightforward. I enjoyed the writing side of the practice, and my law firm gave me a shot. It’s one of the great things about Arnold & Porter. Not to sound like a recruiting brochure, but I’m incredibly lucky to have joined a firm that provides opportunities to work on Supreme Court and other sophisticated cases, has one of the best pro bono programs in the country, and supports its lawyers’ outside creative passions. Wow, that really does sound like a recruiting brochure, but it’s true.

DL: The Advocate’s Daughter and also your earlier book, The Last Justice, take place in that world of elite Supreme Court practice. The somewhat cloistered world of One First Street seems like an improbable setting for legal thrillers, which tend to focus on trial courts. What gave you the idea for taking SCOTUS as your setting?

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AF: I liked that the Supreme Court world was an unusual setting for a thriller, something that hopefully sets my books apart from the crowd. Also, it’s fun to imagine behind-the-scenes machinations of powerful, secretive figures. Even when the high court is in the news, the public knows very little about the justices and the institution, which I hope gives the story a mysterious backdrop. And, of course, there’s the “write what you know” part. All of that said, at its heart, The Advocate’s Daughter is a story about a family. It could have been set anywhere.

Anthony Franze (author photo by Kristina Sherk)

Anthony Franze (author photo by Kristina Sherk)

DL: Your day job as a lawyer at Arnold & Porter is quite demanding. How did you find the time to write two novels in four years?

AF: Two novels in four years is actually behind the curve. A book a year is pretty standard for the thriller genre, and I’m working with St. Martin’s Press to stay on that schedule going forward. As for finding the time, I think we all find time to do things we love, whether it’s training for a marathon, watching sports, gardening, creating an irreverent blog about the judiciary under a pseudonym, whatever. For me, it happens to be sitting in a dark room after everyone’s in bed, tapping on a computer creating characters and making up crimes.

DL: And can you tell us a bit about your next writing project? Will it perhaps pick up on any of the characters from The Advocate’s Daughter? Will it also be set in or around the Supreme Court?

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AF: My most immediate writing project is working on the briefs for a Supreme Court merits case that the Court will hear next Term.

On the fiction front, I’m working through my editor’s notes on my next novel. It’s tentatively titled The Outsider, and slated for a spring 2017 release. The main character is a Supreme Court law clerk, albeit an unlikely one, and I describe it as a cross between the movie Seven and Grisham’s The Firm. Some of the secondary characters from my prior books make appearances, but it’s a standalone novel. Beyond that, I’m finalizing the proposal for my fourth novel, which is not set in the Supreme Court world. I think I’ve subjected One First Street to enough murder and mayhem . . .

DL: If your next book stars a SCOTUS clerk, I and many others are sure to read it. Congrats again on The Advocate’s Daughter, and we look forward to your future works!

P.S. If you’re a fan of SCOTUS lit, check out this recent panel, aired on C-SPAN, featuring several authors of books about the Supreme Court (including Anthony Franze and yours truly).

(Disclosure: I received a review copy of The Advocate’s Daughter.)

The Advocate’s Daughter [Amazon (affiliate link)]

Earlier: Standard Of Review: ‘The Advocate’s Daughter’ Is A Very Timely Supreme Court Novel


David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.