Robert Reuland

Robert Charles Reuland (born 1963) is an American attorney and author. He commenced his legal career in 1990 in the litigation department of the Wall Street law firm of Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts. In 1996 he joined the Office of the District Attorney for King's County, Brooklyn, New York, where he served as Senior Assistant District Attorney in the Homicide Bureau.

Since 2000 he has had a parallel career as a novelist. He is the author of three novels: Hollowpoint (Random House 2001), which was nominated for a Dashiell Hammett Award in 2002, Semiautomatic (Random House 2004), and Represent, which appeared as an ebook in 2011. All three books are set in the Brooklyn D.A.’s office, where Reuland was an assistant district attorney assigned to the Homicide Bureau. Reuland’s hard-edged but elegant writing is known for its gritty realism and has drawn praise from Dennis Lehane, Alan Furst, George Pelecanos, and James Patterson. A reviewer for the Washington Post referred to Semiautomatic as “the best-written legal thriller I’ve ever read, hands down.”

In 2011, Reuland published "The Convict Maiden," an historical novel set in the penal colony of New South Wales in 1827.

Reuland gained additional national notoriety in 2001 when fired from his position in the Brooklyn D.A.’s office shortly after the publication of his first book. In an interview with New York Magazine, Reuland observed that Brooklyn had “more bodies per square inch than anyplace else,” which angered Brooklyn District Attorney, Charles J. Hynes. Hynes demoted then fired Reuland, who brought a federal lawsuit claiming infringement of his First Amendment rights. Reuland prevailed after trial in 2004.

Upon leaving the D.A.'s Office in 2001, Reuland established himself in private practice specializing in state and federal criminal defense. As a member of the Homicide Panel of the Mayor's Assigned Counsel Program, he represents indigent or poor persons accused of homicide or other serious felonies. Reuland is the first criminal defense attorney ever to successfully assert alibi defense to a felony charge based upon his client's use of Facebook at the time of the crime.

Born in Dallas, Texas and raised in Dubuque, Iowa, Reuland has lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn for nearly twenty years. He is married to Christine Abbate, a public relations executive, and they have two children, Emma and Junior.

External links

• Author Website
• Law Firm Website
• Martindale listing
• New York Times Review of "Hollowpoint"
• "A Crime-Writing Prosecutor Finds Success and Loses Job" New York Times
• New York Times Public Lives
• "End of Book Battle for District Attorney" New York Times
• "Writing Off a Career" Village Voice
• "Facebook Status Update Provides Alibi" CNN