My Life as a Spy

Navigating the physical and emotional wreckage of post-Katrina New Orleans, an increasingly disillusioned young lawyer gets the call from an old client in need of advice. Initially trying to collect on a simple reward, he leads him through a maze of domestic abuse, insurance fraud, and high-stakes class action litigation, which ultimately threatens one of the nation’s most prominent and powerful law firms. Searching for meaning in the clues of daily life, Herman explores, along the way, how our surveillance state places everyone under the looking glass, and coopts us into becoming its spies.Steve Herman was born and raised in New Orleans,Louisiana, where he attended Isidore Newman School. Hereceived a Bachelor of Arts degree from DartmouthCollege, where he was awarded Citations of Excellence inthe study of Milton and Shakespeare, and won the EleanorFrost Playwriting Competition with his one-act play, ThePhoenix Sleeps Tonight. Herman was then named Orderof the Coif at Tulane Law School, where he graduated,Magna Cum Laude, in 1994. After graduating fromTulane, Herman clerked for Justice Harry T. Lemmon ofthe Louisiana Supreme Court, and developed a broad civilpractice with the Herman Herman & Katz law firm. The recipient of numerous professional appointments and accolades, he teaches complex litigation at both Tulane and Loyola Law Schools, and served, among other things, as Lead Counsel in the BP Oil Spill/Deepwater Horizon Litigation.In addition to America and the Law, Herman is the author of three novels, The Gordian Knot, The Sign ofFour, and A Day in the Life of Timothy Stone, as well as the recently published My Life As a Spy. He maintains a "What’s New in the Courts" law blog at www.gravierhouse.com.