LSC Talk Justice Podcast - Episode 81 - John Grisham on Storytelling and Justice

Originally released on April 23, 2024. Hosted by Ronald Flagg. Bestselling author and lawyer John Grisham joins LSC Board Member Robert Grey for a conversation on how his journey from small-town lawyer to big-time author influenced his philanthropic priorities and made him an advocate for access to justice. Grey, who serves as president of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, interviewed Grisham at a D.C. forum for LSC’s 50th anniversary on April 9. Ronald S. Flagg was appointed President of the Legal Services Corporation effective February 20, 2020, and previously served as Vice President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel since 2013. He previously practiced commercial and administrative litigation at Sidley Austin LLP for 31 years, 27 years as a partner. He chaired the firm’s Committee on Pro Bono and Public Interest Law for more than a decade. Flagg served as president of the District of Columbia Bar in 2010-2011 and currently serves as Chair of the Bar’s Pro Bono Task Force. He presently also chairs the board of the National Veterans Legal Services Program. He has also served as Chair of the District of Columbia Bar Pro Bono Committee, Chair of the Board of the AARP Legal Counsel for the Elderly, as a member of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates, on LSC’s Pro Bono Task Force, and as a member of the Board of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, the Board of the District of Columbia Access to Justice Foundation, and the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission. Robert Grey was nominated to serve on the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation by President Barack Obama on August 6, 2009, and his nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 19, 2010. Grey was elected as the President of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) in 2012. He has presided over the rapid growth of LCLD and has engaged more than 350 of the nation’s top legal professionals—chief legal officers of corporations and the managing partners of America’s leading law firms. Prior to his current position, Grey was a Partner at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, where he served as Vice Chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee and represented businesses in administrative, regulatory, and legislative matters. From 1998 to 2002 he served as chair of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) House of Delegates. He was elected President of the ABA in 2004 and was the second African American to hold the position. During his term as President of the ABA, Grey worked to improve the nation’s justice system by launching the America Jury Project, which led to the adoption of the ABA Principles for Juries and Jury Trials. Grey received his B.S. in 1973 from Virginia Commonwealth University and his law degree in 1976 from Washington and Lee University, where he served on the Board of Trustees from 2006 to 2014. John Grisham is an expert storyteller, whose unforgettable characters fight for justice in a world that isn’t always fair. John Grisham is the author of forty-seven consecutive #1 bestsellers, which have been translated into nearly fifty languages. His recent books include The Judge’s List, Sooley, and his third Jake Brigance novel, A Time for Mercy, which is being developed by HBO as a limited series. Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction. When he’s not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system.