Fil-Am lawyer David Lat’s debut novel gets rave reviews
In December, Filipino-American lawyer and legal journalist David Lat published his debut novel,Supreme Ambitions.
The novel tells the story of Audrey Coyne, a bright young Filipino-American lawyer who is serving as a law clerk to a powerful judge — a coveted and highly prestigious position that Lat once held himself after graduating from Yale Law School.
The book offers a behind-the-scenes look at the operation of the federal judiciary.
According to The New York Times, “for an elite niche...Supreme Ambitions has become the most buzzed-about novel of the year.”
The book has been favorably reviewed in The Washington Post, The National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, and the New York Law Journal, among other publications.
Three of the blurbs on the back cover come from prominent, sitting federal judges.
The book was published in early December as the inaugural title of the American Bar Association’s new Ankerwycke imprint, which will publish law-related books aimed at a broader audience.
Shortly after its publication, Supreme Ambitions became the #1 new release under legal thrillers at Amazon.
Lat is well known within the legal profession as the founder and managing editor of Above the Law, an award-winning legal website that reaches more than 1 million unique visitors a month.
Prior to starting Above the Law in the summer of 2006, Lat founded Underneath Their Robes, a blog about federal judges.
His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, New York magazine, Washingtonian magazine, and the New York Observer.
Lat has received several awards for his work on Above the Law, including recognition as one of the American Lawyer’s Top 50 Big Law Innovators of the Last 50 Years; one of the ABA Journal’s Legal Rebels, a group of pioneers within the legal profession; and one of the Fastcase 50, “the fifty most interesting, provocative and courageous leaders in the world of law, scholarship and legal technology.”
Before entering the media world, Lat worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, N.J.; a litigation associate at the elite law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, in New York; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Lat graduated from Regis High School in New York; Harvard College, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa; and Yale Law School, where he served as book reviews editor of The Yale Law Journal.
On Jan. 12, Lat’s parents, Drs. Emmanuel and Zenda Lat of Saddle River, N.J., are hosting a book party for him at the Philippine Center at 556 Fifth Avenue, NYC (Fifth Avenue at 45th Street) from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The event is open to the public, light refreshments will be served, and copies of Supreme Ambitions will be available for sale and signing by the author. —Filipino Reporter
The novel tells the story of Audrey Coyne, a bright young Filipino-American lawyer who is serving as a law clerk to a powerful judge — a coveted and highly prestigious position that Lat once held himself after graduating from Yale Law School.
According to The New York Times, “for an elite niche...Supreme Ambitions has become the most buzzed-about novel of the year.”
The book has been favorably reviewed in The Washington Post, The National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, and the New York Law Journal, among other publications.
Three of the blurbs on the back cover come from prominent, sitting federal judges.
The book was published in early December as the inaugural title of the American Bar Association’s new Ankerwycke imprint, which will publish law-related books aimed at a broader audience.
Shortly after its publication, Supreme Ambitions became the #1 new release under legal thrillers at Amazon.
Lat is well known within the legal profession as the founder and managing editor of Above the Law, an award-winning legal website that reaches more than 1 million unique visitors a month.
Prior to starting Above the Law in the summer of 2006, Lat founded Underneath Their Robes, a blog about federal judges.
His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, New York magazine, Washingtonian magazine, and the New York Observer.
Lat has received several awards for his work on Above the Law, including recognition as one of the American Lawyer’s Top 50 Big Law Innovators of the Last 50 Years; one of the ABA Journal’s Legal Rebels, a group of pioneers within the legal profession; and one of the Fastcase 50, “the fifty most interesting, provocative and courageous leaders in the world of law, scholarship and legal technology.”
Before entering the media world, Lat worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, N.J.; a litigation associate at the elite law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, in New York; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Lat graduated from Regis High School in New York; Harvard College, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa; and Yale Law School, where he served as book reviews editor of The Yale Law Journal.
On Jan. 12, Lat’s parents, Drs. Emmanuel and Zenda Lat of Saddle River, N.J., are hosting a book party for him at the Philippine Center at 556 Fifth Avenue, NYC (Fifth Avenue at 45th Street) from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The event is open to the public, light refreshments will be served, and copies of Supreme Ambitions will be available for sale and signing by the author. —Filipino Reporter
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