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Jill’s Trials

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written by Peter H. Meyers

In her final year of law school, Jill Hansen’s greatest joy is representing criminal defendants in court through her school’s criminal justice clinic. But when she’s appointed to represent Carl, a handsome, charming man who’s been charged with assault, she and her supervising professor face dangerous challenges and choices that could threaten their careers.

    Jill’s Trials, a courtroom drama, follows Jill’s path from law school, to the public defender’s office, to a prestigious law firm. She fights for her clients, victims of drug abuse and domestic violence, in a criminal justice system that is stacked against them. Her searing cross-examinations bring her success in the courtroom—but will her dedication to her clients and professional ambition come at the cost of poisoning her personal life?

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Meet the Author

Peter Meyers has practiced as an attorney for more than forty years, winning an important decision in the US Supreme Court involving standing and representing many clients who were found not guilty, or had their convictions overturned on appeal, of murder, armed robbery, drug dealing, and other crimes. He’s also a professor emeritus at the George Washington University Law School and former director of the school’s criminal appeal clinic, where he supervised law students representing convicted defendants in appellate proceedings. He has been widely quoted in national and international media, including the Washington Post, USA Today, FOX TV, the Times (UK), and TBS (South Korea). His interests include jazz, golf, and Chinese calligraphy. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife Sara Schotland and Biscuit, their cocker spaniel.

Press Kit

Details

Formats: Paperback, E-book

Pages: 210

ISBN (PB): 978-1-962416-63-4

ISBN (e-book): 978-1-962416-64-1

Release Date: 2/18/2025

Endorsements

“The title of Peter Meyers’s engrossing novel has a double meaning. First, it references the courtroom life of the fictional protagonist, lawyer Jill Hansen, as she strategizes her way through trials emblematic of her long urban career representing criminal defendants. But it also refers to her personal trials—the private ordeals that are the cost exacted by a life spent zealously committed to clients society generally disfavors. In both aspects, Meyers tells a story creatively drawn from his own vast experience as a criminal defense lawyer and teacher. A bravura performance!”

—Judge Michael W. Farrell, retired DC Court of Appeals judge

 

“Following the arc of a lawyer’s personal and professional life from her formative law school experiences through her mid-career law firm labors, Jill’s Trials is an insightful cross-generational tale of trials, both criminal and psychological. On a path that moves from a law school clinic toward a law firm partnership, dedicated criminal defense lawyer Jill Hansen forges hard-won wisdom about relationships of many kinds—among them attorney-client relationships, parent-child relationships, and student-teacher relationships, as well as the relationships between husbands and wives. Set to a jazz soundtrack, this multilayered story illuminates important issues of trust and betrayal, service and sacrifice, blame and forgiveness. In homes and offices, streets and jails, courtrooms and classrooms, Meyers brings people and worlds together to help us appreciate that life’s complexities can be a source of both painful difficulty and profound beauty.”

—Phyllis Goldfarb, coeditor in chief of Clinical Law Review

 

“This outstanding novel is an ode to the joys of clinical legal education and how it can help mold law students into excellent lawyers. Jill Hansen is a student attorney in the criminal justice clinic at the fictional Hamilton University Law School, and Mark Freeman is her professor. Jill takes on the challenges thrown her way by a flawed urban criminal justice system, privilege, assumptions, and ultimately, her own inexperience. Under Professor Freeman’s steady guidance, she begins her journey to becoming a lawyer by applying the traditional lawyering tools that consumers of lawyer movies and TV shows are familiar with; however, thanks to her experiences as a student attorney, she learns that becoming a great lawyer requires that she know herself first.”

—Alberto Benitez, law professor

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