I was born in Birmingham, Alabama and lived there (with the exception of one all too brief year at boarding school in Memphis) until moving to Atlanta to attend college at Emory University.  After graduating from Emory, I moved north, to Washington, D.C., to attend law school at the Washington College of Law, American University.  The year following law school, I attended Georgetown Law where I received an LLM. 

I never left D.C., much to my surprise, and, in between having children and writing books,  I have practiced public interest law and corporate law, I have prosecuted anti-trust and criminal cases, and I have represented several white collar criminal defendants facing politically motivated charges in federal court.  Most recently, I have taught a variety of courses at the Washington College of Law, including legal writing, externship seminar, civil practice clinic, and disability rights clinic. Currently, I am representing asylum and immigration clients on behalf of CMHS, the Center for Multicultural Human Services, and am a Practitioner-in-Residence in the General Practice Clinic at WCL.