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I toyed with the idea of pursuing a career as a lawyer just because I like to argue.

Most lawyers aren't trial lawyers. Most lawyers, even trial lawyers, don't get their problems solved in a courtroom. We like to go to court. It seems heroic to go to court. We think we're the new, great advocates, better than anything we've seen on TV, and we come home exhilarated by having gone to court.

Nobody wants to be a lawyer - it's hard work. But it was kind of my academic route.

It's fine to get paid and get a big verdict, but to go out and represent people, sometimes in unglamorous ways, is really what lawyering is all about.

People have said I can come off a little trial-lawyerish. I tell people I never actually became a lawyer, but I play one at City Hall.

I'm an old trial lawyer.

And I've always felt comfortable certainly in a courtroom because you're just performing. And there was a time in my life when I thought when I grew up I'd be a trial lawyer myself.

You can't be a practicing attorney without being very disciplined and detail-oriented and having good time management.

I view myself primarily as a trial lawyer who happens to be writing, as opposed to a writer who happens to be a trial lawyer, so the audience is like a jury to me.

We're lawyers. We present the arguments, and the court sorts out the merits.