Robert Bailey is a Life Fellow, who transitioned his decades long career as a civil defense trial lawyer into becoming a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. During his legal career, he served as the President of the Young Lawyers section of the Alabama State Bar from 2009 to 2010 and as the Huntsville Bar Association from 2021 to 2022. Bailey recently served as the keynote speaker for the Fellows Business Breakfast at the 2026 ABA Annual Conference. His next book which serves as a sequel to The Mediator, titled The Judge, comes out in 2027.
Q: What does being an ABF Fellow mean to you?
I’m honored to be a Life Fellow. Supporting issues that meet at the intersection of law and society is at the heart of being a Fellow, and I’m proud to support such a cause. I’d add that writing legal thrillers has given me a bit of platform to dive into some of those issues in the form of fiction.
Q: Where do you consider your hometown and what is your favorite thing about it?
Huntsville, Alabama a/k/a “the Rocket City.” Born and (mostly) raised. Even though Huntsville is the largest (by population) city in Alabama now, it still feels like the family-first community that I grew up in. Redstone Arsenal and Research Park make Huntsville a bastion of progress and technological development, but you can also drive ten minutes out of town and you’re in rural, “King Cotton,” Alabama. It is a really neat mixture, which is tailor made for fiction. Huntsville has been the setting of both of my recent Max Ringo novels.
Q: Why did you decide to pursue a career in law?
Growing up, I loved reading To Kill a Mockingbird and the early John Grisham and Scott Turow novels where a lawyer in peril was the hero. Reading those novels inspired me to be both an attorney and a writer.
Q: What made you transition to writing and how much of an impact did your legal career help in writing?
I always wanted to write fiction, and being a lawyer had a huge impact on my writing career, because you meet so many wonderful characters in the practice of law and are faced with challenging circumstances and situations. The legal field is great fodder for the imagination to run wild. Ha!
Q: If you hadn’t pursued a career in law, what would you have done?
I think I would have still been a writer, but I might have leaned into being a teacher or a professor. In college, I also thought of trying acting, which I might have pursued if law hadn’t come calling.
Q: What do you do in your free time?
I love to read, both fiction and non-fiction, and enjoy playing golf, watching Alabama football, spending time with my family and traveling.
Q: Anything else you’d like to share with us?
I loved speaking at this year’s ABF breakfast at the annual conference in Chicago! My wife and I had a wonderful time meeting everyone, and I enjoyed hearing about the ABF’s new projects. Also, my next book, The Judge, releases in March 2027. It is the sequel to The Mediator.