Presumed Guilty – Alexandra Shapiro – S5E27

This week on the Legally Speaking Podcast, our host Robert Hanna welcomes the amazing Alexandra Shapiro to the show!

Alexandra was one of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg‘s first law clerks at the Supreme Court, and also served as a law clerk to Judge Stephen F. Williams of the D.C. Circuit.

Alexandra is a former federal prosecutor with 30 years of experience and has argued in the U.S Supreme Court. She has served as President of the New York Council of Defense Lawyers, in addition to handling many high-profile cases. In 2009, Alexandra co-founded the prominent New York litigation boutique, Shapiro Ararto Boc LLP.

Alexandra has recently written and published her own novel about white-collar prosecution, Presumed Guilty. Bringing insider trading to life, Forbes featured her new book in their recent article here!

In this episode, we discuss the following:

• Being a federal prosecutor and publishing a novel
• Her motivations behind the novel, Presumed Guilty
• Reforms in how federal prosecutors conduct their work
• The advantages and disadvantages of the structure of the criminal justice system
• The Brady violation and how prosecutors owe a duty to defendants
• Skills to be a great lawyer and fiction author