April 2004

Novelist, professor, and social commentator, Thane Rosenbaum, recently published his first nonfiction book, The Myth of Moral Justice: Why Our Legal System Fails to do What's Right. At 8:00 pm on Friday, April 23, he will be at Books & Books in Coral Gables for a book reading to discuss his book.

In The Myth of Moral Justice, Rosenbaum scrutinizes the legal system from the perspective of the arts, exposing a chasm between law and justice. He argues that while the legal system is normally successful in achieving the correct legal result, too often it fails to deliver the morally just result that the public desires and it is the artist who is particularly aware of this shortcoming. Having lived the life of both the lawyer and the artist himself, Rosenbaum masterfully blends the two disparate perspectives together in his book. His critique of justice is full of illustrations from the likes of Dickens and Dostoevsky. "This book was based on ideas that evolved over my last ten years as a law professor and a fiction writer. During this time, I've thought a lot about justice and how the artist sees justice. I couldn't have written this book without my background as a novelist."

Rosenbaum has written three novels, his most recent, The Golems of Gotham, was selected as one of the Top 100 Books for the Year in 2002 by the San Francisco Chronicle. His articles, essays, and book reviews appear regularly in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

Originally from New York, Rosenbaum grew up on Miami Beach. He graduated Valedictorian from the University of Florida where he concentrated his studies on government, philosophy, and English literature. Between undergraduate and law school, he earned a master's in Public Affairs & Administration from Columbia University and he clerked with the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP in New York.

He received the prestigious Harvey T. Reid Scholarship to attend the University of Miami School of Law. During law school, Rosenbaum was the Editor-in-Chief of the University of Miami Law Review and he had summer associate positions with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York, Holland & Knight and Greenberg Traurig in Miami, and a firm in Los Angeles. His favorite professor at UM was the late Professor Richard Hausler. "He was the most interesting and enchanting man. He had a captivating way of commanding his classes. Now that I'm a professor, I sometimes find myself trying to emulate his unique style. He was at another level."

Following graduation from UM Law in 1986, he clerked for Judge Eugene Spellman of the U.S. District Court in Miami. Upon completing his judicial clerkship, Rosenbaum accepted a position with Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. After five years in the litigation department at the colossal Wall Street law firm, he decided to take his career in another direction. Since 1992, he has been a professor at Fordham University's School of Law where he teaches Human Rights, The Holocaust & the Law, and Law & Literature. From 1992 to 1999, he also taught creative writing at The New School. "My advice to UM students is to not take a tunnel vision approach when contemplating career options. As my career path demonstrates, there are countless walks of life where a JD can deploy his or her legal skills other than through the traditional practice of law."

Rosenbaum is working on another novel and next year he will be a visiting professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.