Lawyer-Judge-Novelist John D. Voelker

Remember those days in grade school when you thought you were going to do some real work, but then the teacher wheeled a movie projector into the classroom and you realized you were going to get to watch a movie? It happened to me once in law school, during ethics class as a 3L. Only it was a VCR attached to a TV that was wheeled into the room: the professor wanted us to watch Anatomy of a Murder, starring Jimmy Stewart, George C. Scott, and Lee Remick.

Do you know the movie? In 1960, it received six Academy Award nominations. I’m not sure why we were watching it in ethics class, except the professor seemed hung over. I don’t remember much about the movie. But I do remember the book. It was written by John D. Voelker and published under the pseudonym “Robert Traver.”

During his career, Voelker wrote eleven books as Robert Traver. Anatomy of a Murder, an early courtroom drama, is the best remembered and is still selling well today.

In Michigan, Voelker’s career as a lawyer and novelist is quite well known. For 14 years, Voelker worked as the prosecutor of Marquette County, Michigan, publishing his first book during that time. After he was voted out of office, Voelker was appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court, where he wrote over 100 opinions before retiring only a few years later to write full time.

Voelker used a pseudonym because as a prosecutor, he did not want anyone to think he was “spinning yarns on company time.” He died in 1991. For more about Voelker, see this short biography, which was the source for most of this post.

Comments

[TPB, Esq.]

Greatest legal movie ever made (unless you prefer Mockingbird).

I like Voelker's reasoning behind the pseudonym.

[Tiger]

The ethical cruxt of the movie was that if there was a defense based upon the facts, be sure to tell you client about the defense, then let them think about such for awhile, before asking them what occurred. Let me provide the law school example: "If you kill someone because you caught him reaching his hand into your cookie jar, the law says you had a right to do so. Now, please tell me exactly how you were found in the kitchen, standing over the body, holding the murder weapon, and the cookie jar did not happened to be broken."

[Tiger]

Oh, and best legal movie ever made has to be "My Cousin Vinny." ;)

[Evan]

Tiger: I really didn't remember the ethical issue that the movie was supposed to illustrate in class, but after I read your comment it sort of came flooding back to me--what you said, I think that was it. But I also think the issue was illustrated mostly in only one scene in the movie, if I'm remembering correctly . . .