Saira

I was (a) a tv new producer before (b) going to Georgetown Law (first year)/New York University Law (transferred my 2L) after which I (c) clerked for a federal court of appeals judge.Now, I am a writer and my first book -- Chambermaid - a comic novel about (b) and (c) will be published by Grove Press in June 2007. I live in New York but am prone to spending an inordinate -- and somewhat creepy - amount of time with my parents in Richmond, Virginia.Oh yes -- I also toyed with being a libertarian once.... didn't take.As an aside -- the new photo is courtesy of the illustrious Hillery Stone.Here's a little info about Chambermaid. Or check out my website at www.sairarao.com. ___________________________________________________________ The devil holds a gavel... in this wickedly entertaining debut novel about a young attorney's eventful year clerking for a federal judge. Sheila Raj is a recent graduate of a top-ten law school with dreams of working for the ACLU. When she lands a coveted yearlong federal clerkship with the legal goddess Judge Helga Friedman, she cannot help but think that her life is destined for jurisprudential greatness. But law school did not prepare Sheila for the power-hungry sociopath who greets her on her first day; nor for Her Honor's secretaries - Roy, who moonlights as a medieval bar called Felemid McDowell, and Janet, who pets the Pound Puppies draped over her computer when she's not thumping her Bible. Only when she is assigned to a high-profile death-penalty case does Sheila realize she has to survive the year as Friedman's chambermaid, because it's not just has sanity, but actual lives that hang in the balance. With Chambermaid, debut novelist Saira Rao breaks the code of silence surrounding the clerkship - that most lofty and untouchable rite of passage for so many young lawyers - and boldly takes us into the mysterious world of the third branch of the U.S. government, where the leaders are not elected and can never be fired. With its biting wit and laught-out-loud humor, this novel will change everything you think you know how great lawyers, and great judges, are made.