Offered: help with fictional legal matters
Offered: help with fictional legal matters. I will read up to 50 manuscript-formatted pages (double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman or Courier, 1" margins) of a fictional work or of a description of a fictional plot/world/scenario and give you comments, or I will do up to four hours of legal research in service of your fiction writing-needs. I can nitpick, I can suggest ways to make what you need happen, I can find answers, I can help at any level in-between.
I'm a lawyer: I graduated from Yale Law School in 2002, and since then, I have been practicing civil litigation (principally constitutional law, administrative law, and torts) in New York's state and federal courts, at both the trial and appellate levels. I also have at least a passing familiarity with criminal, estate, family, and intellectual property law. And, of course, I can research. Further, I have thought about law in relation to writing (specifically SFF) for a panel at 2009's WorldCon-here are some notes on what I and the rest of the panel said-and again for an upcoming panel at this year's Boskone.
What this might be useful for: you have a character who's a lawyer and you want to gut-check their actions or attitudes. You've created a secondary world and want to brainstorm a legal system that serves your plot. Your story is set in our world and you want the legal stuff to be plausibly hand-waved. Etc. If you're not sure what you need is something I can do, just ask!
What I will not do: I will not do legal research for a "story" that is really a problem you are facing, for more reasons than this post can contain. Sorry.
Delivery: three weeks after receipt of your information.
Minimum bid: $15.
Buy It Now: $100.
Contact: knepveu at steelypips dot org.