In-house lawyer pens first novel

Christine Son, a senior attorney at Plano-based J.C. Penney Corp. and former associate with Fulbright & Jaworski in Dallas, has penned a novel published in paperback by Penguin Group USA. The book will be available in books stores Aug. 5. On its Web site, Penguin touts the book as an "extraordinary debut about second-generation Asian-American women trying to live up to societyʼs high standards, as well as their own." Son says the book is not a roman à clef but that it does include a character who is a lawyer at a big firm in Dallas who aspires to become a singer -- a "Texas blues, indie kind of singer," says Son. She made the switch from Fulbright to J.C. Penney litigator in 2006. The move made it easier for her to finish the book, which she had already started, she says, since the time pressures tied to the in-house job were not as steep as they had been at the firm. But for the first year or so after she started at J.C. Penney and even after she sold the book to Penguin, Son didn't tell her co-workers about the pending publication. At that time, Son says, she wanted to prove her skills as a lawyer to her co-workers before disclosing her authorial ambitions. Now that she is scheduled to attend a book-signing in Dallas, Son says, her J.C. Penney colleagues are cheering her on -- not just in the courtroom but as a fiction writer as well.
-- Miriam Rozen