The Color of Law

The Color of Law by Mark Gimenez is a legal thriller about the life of hotshot attorney A. Scott Fenney, who is appointed by a federal judge to defend a black prostitute Shawanda Jones, who has been accused of murdering the golden boy son of an acclaimed U.S. Senator. Told through Scott's eyes, the book deals with issues of injustice, ethics, and the struggle that Scott has to remain true to his own ideals, upholding the law in a way that feels righteous – even if it means upsetting people he has been friends with for decades. A legal thriller, the book details the events of the case and its fallout, both in terms of justice served and in the lives of the novel's main characters.

A. Scott Fenney is living his dream life – a former jock and high school socialite, he has settled in Dallas after receiving a law degree from a prestigious university and is making buckets of money as a private defense lawyer, primarily for relatively skeevy rich white male clients. Both a rich man and a hotshot lawyer, Scott is climbing the social ladder, has an attractive wife who stays at home with their spoiled daughter, and has the house and the car that he always imagined he would as a boy. Scott considers himself the best lawyer in the business, calling his work “creative lawyering” because he is known for doing whatever it takes, including twisting the law and breaking rules, to make sure his clients beat their sentences. His most famous and lucrative client is Tim Dibrell, a popular local rich man whom Scott is regularly clearing of sexual harassment charges.

Unfortunately for Scott, his life as a champion for the rich white man is short-lived. As is sometimes the case when there is a lack of public defenders available, a federal judge calls on Scott to serve as the defender for Shawanda Jones, who has been arrested for the murder Clark McCall, the wealthy son of a prominent senator. Scott is deeply troubled by the case, and by his role in it – Shawanda, black and a prostitute, is everything that Scott is fighting against in the cases he typically argues against for his wealthy white clients. On top of that, Shawanda, who knows that the justice system is working against her as both a sex worker and a poor black woman, does not want to take a plea deal. Claiming the murder was done in self-defense, she wants to clear the charges against her rather than take a shorter sentence and admit that she was in the wrong.



Though at first Scott tries desperately to extricate himself from the case in order to preserve his reputation, a small voice inside him encourages him to defend the underdog for once in his illustrious career. That voice, as it turns out, sounds a bit like his mother's – a kind woman who encouraged him to go through law school with the intention of doing good, rather than focusing on doing well for himself.

As the book progresses, the flaws in the justice system become clear, and Scott becomes increasingly aware of the damage his influential life has done to people without money, power, or prestige. The book becomes a story about the abuse of power by both lawyers and judges, the discrimination in the justice system against people of color and sex workers, and the influence that money and a good name have in a criminal conviction. Along the way, Giminez makes it clear that main character, Scott Fenney, despite being skeptical and pushing against his call to do good, has the possibility to become a better person, not only realizing the damage he has done, but making an attempt to give back. Though he is arrogant, self-centered, and terrified of what it means to fight for justice rather than power, Scott is redeemed as he struggles to do right by Shawanda, in a justice system that is trying at every turn to convict her of a crime she only committed in order to save her own life. There are glimmering moments of hope along the way, particularly when Scott and Shawanda's daughters, both in elementary school, come together to bond despite their many differences.

Mark Gimenez is a lawyer and the author of a number of thrillers. He is from and currently lives in Texas, where he runs his own solo law practice. He has written more than ten legal thrillers, including two other books in the A. Scott Fenney series: Accused (2010) and The Absence of Guilt (2016). His other repeating characters include John Bookman and Max Dugan.