“I think we have sold more than 100,000 copies of that book over more than 20 years.”īut the 100 best-sellers listed on the Web Store page of the ABA’s website also contain a sprinkling of titles that depart from the usual ABA publishing formula. “The all-time classic here at the ABA is Jay Foonberg’s How to Start & Build a Law Practice,” says Bryan Kay, director of ABA Publishing. The vast majority offer guidance on substantive topics-such as A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting and Toxic Mold Litigation-and advice on developing a law practice or achieving career satisfaction. The ABA’s product catalog contains an active list of 1,000 book titles. Leapholes is just one example of how the ABA is trying to reach out to wider markets within the legal profession and, increasingly, among nonlawyers as well.

(In legal publishing, a book that sells more than 2,000 copies is considered successful.) Now in its second printing, the book is a best-seller for the association, with more than 5,000 copies sold. Since its publication, Leapholes has become popular with teachers, who use it in English and history classes. “The ABA has a rifle shot to people interested in the book.” “A lot of what HarperCollins does is, you’re shooting out into the dark,” Grippando says. Published in 2004, Hirsch’s book was the ABA’s first venture into works of fiction. Grippando, whose legal thrillers for grown-ups are published by HarperCollins, approached the ABA after seeing how it promoted The Shadow of Justice, a murder mystery written by prominent Miami defense attorney Milton Hirsch. She said, ‘I want to go to 1955 and see Rosa Parks.’ We giggled about that. My daughter asked why can’t we go there? I thought she meant Alabama.

She asked me, ‘Was Rosa Parks a real person?’ I told her yes, and about Montgomery, Ala., in 1955. “When I first started writing Leapholes, my oldest daughter was in first grade,” Grippando says.

Along the way, readers meet key figures in seminal cases and events, such as the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955-56 that helped launch the modern civil rights movement. Leapholes-a play on a term of legal vernacular-features a lawyer who jumps through the pages of casebooks to go back in time. The ABA was branching out from the traditional nuts-and-bolts focus of its book-publishing efforts, and Grippando offered a high-profile opportunity to continue that stretch. There was, however, logic to the partnership. His crime and legal thrillers-many of which feature the exploits of fictional criminal defense attorney Jack Swyteck-have become staples of the best-seller lists.īut it was just as big a departure for the publisher Grippando chose for Leapholes-his 2006 release for young readers-ABA Publishing. When James Grippando decided to write a children’s book, it was a drastic departure for the lawyer-turned-novelist.

Leapholes by James Grippando