Asians, Biglaw, Books, Career Alternatives, Minority Issues, Partner Issues, Time Warner, Women's Issues

From Lawyer To Novelist: An Interview With Helen Wan, Author Of The Partner Track

How can you write a novel while holding down a demanding day job as a lawyer? How can women and minority lawyers position themselves for success in Biglaw? Author Helen Wan shares her insights.

By  
on

Last year, St. Martin’s Press published The Partner Track, the debut novel of lawyer Helen Wan. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, I praised the book for being engaging, suspenseful, and — unlike so many legal novels — realistic. The paperback edition of The Partner Track became available last week.

I enjoy fiction about lawyers, as both a reader and writer — my own first novel comes out in a few weeks — and I’m deeply interested in how other writers work. So I interviewed Helen Wan about her book, her approach to writing, and how she managed to write a novel while holding down a demanding job as an in-house lawyer for Time Warner. I also asked for her advice on how women and minority lawyers can succeed in Biglaw.

Here’s a (lightly edited and condensed) write-up of our conversation.

ATL: As I mentioned in my review, I appreciated The Partner Track‘s realistic attention to pedigree and to background, whether educational or ethnic or class. Can you tell us about your own background, in terms of where you grew up, where you went to school, and where you have worked?

I was born in California and grew up on the East Coast, in the D.C. suburbs — Fairfax County, Virginia. I went to Thomas Jefferson High School, a magnet school focused on math and science — not my subjects at all. I then went to Amherst, where I majored in English.

As the child of first-generation, Chinese-American immigrants, I had this message inculcated in me: you’ve got to do something practical, you can’t just move to New York City and become a novelist. I thought to myself — I love working with words, so maybe law?

Sponsored

I went straight through to UVA Law School, where I got in-state tuition. My first job out of law school was at Paul Weiss, in the transactional group. I stayed there for one and a half years before lateraling to a media and entertainment firm, Frankfurt Kurnit. There I did transactional media law — deals for companies in publishing, entertainment, new media, and technology. Then I went in-house to Time Inc., at the time a division of Time Warner, where I worked for almost seven years before leaving in March 2014 to write full-time.

ATL: There are some similarities between you and your lead character, Ingrid Yung. How much of the book is based upon your own experiences?

The book is decidedly fiction — not autobiography, not memoir, not a roman à clef. But I do have some things in common with Ingrid: she’s a Chinese-American woman whose first job out of law school is in the corporate department of a large law firm. Unlike Ingrid, I left before two years; I did not stay for the partnership decision. So I had to do research for my book by talking to people who had remained in Biglaw, getting their perceptions, anecdotes, and stories. Every time I went to a CLE event or networking event at a firm, I would try to absorb the feeling and the environment, so I could get the details correct.

ATL: What led you to decide to write this book?

I came up with the idea when I was at still a law firm associate but never had the chance to set pen to paper in earnest until after I left, partly due to the hours. And there was also a convoluted history to the book in that my original idea was to do a book of essays about the experience of being a minority attorney, based on things that happened to me or things that I heard or observed from friends or colleagues.

Sponsored

It soon became apparent to me that this wouldn’t fly as a nonfiction book that anybody would publish; agents said there was no market for a collection of essays from an unknown associate toiling away at a law firm. But one agent gave me another idea: why don’t you try turning this material into a novel? He was right. Sometime after that initial advice, I signed up for an introduction to fiction writing class at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop [AAWW]. The pages I wrote for that class became the basis for the novel.

ATL: And how did you find the experience of writing fiction?

As soon as I started writing the book as fiction, I felt great freedom. I had creative license — I could take liberties and make the story more exciting than real life. It did take me a long time, though, to get used to the groove of writing fiction. I hadn’t written fiction before — I had written a few short stories here and there, but I was in no way a fiction writer prior to joining the workshop.

ATL: How would you describe The Partner Track’s path to publication?

Ha! How much time have you got? The book went through so many incarnations and evolved quite a bit. The members of that original workshop would not recognize it. I went through two agents, three rewrites, and extensive polishing of the manuscript, over the span of twelve years, before selling the book to St. Martin’s in December 2011.

It wasn’t an easy book to sell because it doesn’t fit easily into any category. It’s not a legal thriller or legal procedural. It’s a commentary on race, class, and gender politics in a corporate environment. I had not seen that particular kind of story being told. One piece of advice I got was to write the book that you wish you could read, which made so much sense to me. I wanted to read an authentic story about a woman of color trying to make it in the contemporary workplace. But I couldn’t find one. So I decided to try writing one myself.

ATL: Many of our readers with full-time jobs as lawyers would love to write a novel. When did you find the time to do your writing while practicing law?

It only took me twelve years to write, polish, and find a publisher for The Partner Track. I wrote in large bursts of activity. I once read that [Yale law professor and novelist] Stephen Carter writes on a schedule. I was so impressed by that, but I couldn’t work that way. I wrote when an idea hit me. I wrote at very random times. It was challenging because of my day job as a lawyer. At the end of the day, after coming home, I would have to decompress from the stress of my job, get into the creative-writing mindset, and get rid of the legal-drafting mindset — the two are unfortunately at odds. It took me a while to get used to turning the switch between the two mindsets.

I would hoard my vacation, go away from the city, take my laptop, and write frantically for a whole two-week period. I would then return with a bunch of raw pages, which I would revise and polish when not busy with my day job. I wouldn’t start editing until I got home. So I would advise aspiring writers: just spill everything out in raw form and don’t worry about it being boring or flat, since you can always go back later and make it sparkle.

ATL: What other advice would you give to would-be authors who are currently working as lawyers?

Treat your writing like a doctor’s appointment: put it on your calendar and then put in the time. You wouldn’t just cancel a doctor’s appointment because you’re tired or because a friend wants to get drinks.

Consider joining a writers’ group or workshop. I took other writing classes after AAWW, at the New School and the 92nd Street Y, and found them helpful. There are lots of great ones around town. Some of the workshop participants would then form writing groups that would persist after the class ended. It’s great to have a support network.

If you live in New York, the Rose Main Reading Room at the New York Public Library is an inspiring place to write. I wrote the last page of my novel there. I sprang down the steps and told the security guard what I’d just done. He grinned and said he’d look out for it.

ATL: And what advice would you offer to young lawyers, especially young Asian-American lawyers like Ingrid Yung, who are trying to have successful careers in the law?

Like it or not, we bring to our careers all of these inherited and cultural understandings on the proper ways of being. I wish that I had been more aware when I started my legal career of how much these understandings affect the way we act in the workplace.

For example, I didn’t realize early on how important it was to have visibility within an organization, to have a personal brand and to communicate it quickly and well. Too many APAs [Asian-Pacific Americans] just sit in their offices, bill lots of hours, and hope that people recognize how hard they work. That’s not enough. Even now, 15 years later, I still see young Asian-American lawyers — and non-lawyers — who fail to understand this. It contributes to the “pipeline problem” that explains why we don’t have more APAs in senior management and the C-suite.

Yes, we are making progress in terms of the number of Asian-American lawyers who make partner. But once you make partner, you’re not done. Once you break through that barrier, there are more battles to fight. There are partners, and there are partners — the ones who make the decisions about running the firm. I would have appreciated a book like The Partner Track being around when I was an associate. You can read the book and infer how to manage your own career more strategically.

ATL: In March, you left Time Warner to become a full-time writer. How are you liking the writing life, and what project are you currently working on? Perhaps a sequel to The Partner Track?

Yes, I’m now at work on my second novel. It’s not a direct sequel to The Partner Track, but it certainly is a deeper dive into familiar themes: our complicated relationship with ambition and competition, how race, sex, class, societal expectations, and family and cultural upbringing affect our pursuit of happiness, and how we define success. I’m also invited to speak at a lot of law firms, schools, corporations, and leadership conferences about The Partner Track and about how women and people of color experience the dynamics of the corporate ladder. I feel like I’m getting a shot at my dream job, and believe me, I don’t take a single thing for granted.

ATL: You’re a lawyer, you’re a mother, and you’re a novelist. Would you say that you “have it all”?

I certainly would not say that. I know some women will argue that it is possible, but I don’t really know anyone who would say that about themselves. Most women I know tell me they’re already leaning so far in that they’re about to topple over. One thing I’ve learned is that if you find yourself thinking someone’s life is perfect, it probably means you don’t know that person that well. I have learned to just take it one day at a time, appreciate everything I have, and keep things in perspective.

ATL: Congratulations again on The Partner Track, now out in paperback, and thanks for taking the time to chat!

Thank you so much for inviting me to spend some time with ATL! By the way, I really enjoy hearing from readers, so please come find me on Twitter (@helenwan1) or Facebook.

(Disclosure: St. Martin’s Press sent me a review copy of The Partner Track.)

The Partner Track [Amazon (affiliate link)]
The Partner Track by Helen Wan, Now Available In Paperback [St. Martin’s Press via AABANY]
Book Review: ‘The Partner Track’ by Helen Wan [Wall Street Journal]

Topics

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,