Author Spotlight

Ronald Shipman

As is described albeit briefly on the back jacket of Murder, Another Complete Defense, I was always interested in "how writers became authors." That time covered my study of literature from public school through college at Princeton, where I majored in history. After college and law school, I qualified as a civil trial lawyer. Under Pennsylvania Rules, once qualified as a civil trial lawyer, that qualification could be advertised and resulted in referrals from not just prospective clients, but lawyers who preferred not to litigate in the civil courts.

After in excess of fifty years as a qualified civil trial lawyer, I chose to retire. Not surprisingly, I turned my memory to cases I remembered. The facts underlying Murder, Another Complete Defense was a case described to me by a colleague. The kernel of important truth in that civil case is present, I believe, not surprisingly, in this book. A truth that many times is never fully revealed (or even investigated). There indeed was a potential crime at the bottom of the novel. I simply wanted to describe how easily, and therefore commonly, well researched and prepared civil cases can touch on underlying and frequently important fact situations that are or border on crimes.

About the Author: Ronald W. Shipman is retired after more than 50 years as a trial attorney. He went to law school for one purpose - He wanted to try cases. After law school, he accepted court appointments representing the indigent and being paid by the County or the Commonwealth. He tried his first capital case within two years of passing the bar exam and concluded very early that a career as a trial lawyer was, for him, going to be in the civil courts. He continued as a public defender, and worked hard to get civil work. Ron had sufficient work and experience to take the written exam and in 1981 was certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy as a Civil Trial Lawyer. Besides wanting to be a trial lawyer, Ron had wanted to be a writer since junior high school. In English and Literature classes, he was always keenly interested in the author’s biography, how the writer became an author. That interest continued through college at Princeton, where he majored in History. His professional life consisted of preparing and trying cases. In analyzing fact situations, there was one in particular that had been described to him shortly after he had committed himself to the civil courts. That fact situation is at heart of this novel.