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Interactive Panel Discussion with New York Times Bestselling Author Alafair Burke

BOSTON, September 12, 2017: The New England Law Review, a scholarly law school publication run by students at New England Law | Boston, is excited to announce its fall symposium, “The Novelization of the Criminal Justice System and Its Effect on Pop Culture,” on Thursday, September 21, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in the school’s Cherry Room, located on the second floor of 154 Stuart Street.

Crime fiction has been a driving force in popular culture in the past decade, with high-profile titles such as Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series sparking world-wide interest and generating enormous revenue in book sales (and eventual box office returns). In 2015, Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train sold almost two million copies in the first three months of its release, breaking sales records across the globe. This literary phenomenon, combined with the steady popularity of crime television series, has begun to permeate into society, leaving some legal professionals wondering if crime-related entertainment is having a direct impact on the real-world criminal justice system.   

Headlining the symposium at New England Law is Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author and law professor, who will discuss her recent suspense novel, The Ex. Burke will offer an in-depth look at how pop culture has been influenced by the art of writing novels that heavily involve the criminal justice system and its functions. Fellow panelists Hon. Michael Ponsor, novelist and senior judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and Peter Manus, novelist and professor of law at New England Law, will join her for an interactive discussion.

For more information, please visit the New England Law Review website.