Law Biog

Janice Law is the founder of American Women Writers National Museum, a 501 (c) (3) public charity which had its grand opening February 13, 2012 in a shared space storefront in Washington, D.C. See Grand Opening video on Home Page of www.americanwomenwritersnationalmuseum.org.

AWWNM now meets in rented space at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. where Law is a member.

AWWNM's mission is to showcase America's top-tier women writers historical and contemporary. Categories are playwrights, poets, journalists, historians, screenwriters and authors. See AWWNM Events and Calendar page.

After taking a three year break from writing---in order to “birth” AWWNM-- Law published her sixth book, narrative nonfiction biography AMERICAN EVITA: LURLEEN WALLACE. Until AE:LW there was very little material on America’s third woman governor, and Alabama’s first, who governed in America’s most tumultuous and violent years of 1967-68.

AMERICAN EVITA is just so gripping..Beautifully written...Sensational revelations” wrote one reviewer.

Janice Law's fiction short story "The Secrets of a Client Are Inviolate" was awarded an Honorable Mention the 2011 "Write Stuff" state-wide competition sponsored by the Texas Bar.

Law’s nine books include:

Children's historical fiction:
Capitol Cat & Watch Dog Unite Lady Freedoms (2008)
Capitol Cat & Watch Dog Outwit the U. S. Supreme Court (2016)
Capitol Cat & Watch Dog Hunt Thomas Jefferson’s Hair in the Library of Congress (2018)
Capitol Cat & Watch Dog Succulent Sleuths Protect U.S. Botanic Garden (2020)

Wicked Good Secrets
(2009)

as well as three nonfiction books:

Strangers in Blood: Distanced Lives (2007)
Yield: A Judge's Fir$t-Year Diary (2006)
Sex Appealed: was the U.S. Supreme Court Fooled? (2005)

Yield was a finalist in the nonfiction category of Texas' prestigious Violet Crown Award (now the Texas Book Award) of the Texas Writers' League for work published in 2006. The finalist recognition was presented to Janice Law in a ceremony in the state capitol building in Austin in 2007, as part of the annual Texas Book Festival.

Yield also received an Honorable Mention in the 2007 national writing competition sponsored by Public Safety Writers, a literary group of former police officers, firefighters, and EMS.

The Texas Bar selected Capitol Cat & Watch Dog for the Bar's statewide Law-Related Education program for Texas Teachers. Law addressed a statewide teachers conference in Austin.

Two of her books have been featured on C-Span2 BOOK TV and at major national book festivals where Law was a stage-featured author and spoke on literary panels.

In 2002, Law and her husband won two Telly Awards statuettes in national competition. Tellys are approximately equivalent to an Oscar, but are awarded in the field of creative television advertisements. Law and her husband, who had no prior experience as lyricists or composers, won for Best Political Advertisement, music and lyrics; and for Best Jingle, music and lyrics--all original work.

The National Press Club successively selected four of her books for their annual Book Fair & Author Night gala--one of Washington, D.C.'s major literary events.

When Law graduated in 1963 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with a B.A. in English and journalism, she was the second person in all generations on both sides of her family to receive an undergraduate college degree.

For the next fourteen years, she worked as a reporter for various newspapers across the United States while her first husband, Robert, served as a United States Air Force officer.

Some of her journalistic work is included in Professional Newswriting by Dr. Hiley Ward (Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1985), The Mass Media, 2nd edition, by Dr. William L. Rivers (Harper & Row, 1975), and The Effete Conspiracy and Other crimes by the Press by Ben H. Bagdikian (Harper & Row, 1972).

In national competition, Law won the Schachern Memorial Award in 1970 for her journalistic work as Religion Editor of the Houston Chronicle. The award, given by her reporter peers in the Religion Newswriters Association (RNA), was presented to her by legendary journalist Dan Thrapp of the Los Angeles Times. In 1971, Law was first runner-up in national competition for RNA's Supple Award for outstanding journalism writing.

In 1976, at age 36, she entered Nova Law School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, working the night police desk as a reporter at the Fort Lauderdale News to support herself during her first year of law school, until she could get student loans.

When she received her J.D. degree in 1979, she was the first person in her family to earn a professional degree.

Law worked as a state prosecutor in Bartow and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, until 1985 when she moved back to Houston, Texas. She served as staff attorney for the federal judges in the Southern District of Texas from 1985-1988.

From 1988 she worked in the litigation section of the City of Houston legal department as an Assistant City Attorney. In 1990, she moved to McAllen, Texas, on the Texas-Mexico border, to serve as an Assistant United States Attorney. From 1991-1998 she worked in Houston as a criminal defense attorney for the indigent, until appointed by the mayor as an Associate Municipal Judge for the City of Houston.

In 1998, she was elected to a four-year term as judge in Harris County (Houston) Texas County Criminal Court No. 5. She now serves as a visiting judge for Texas judges who are vacationing, ill, or absent. In 2010, she established the Washington D.C. based American Women Writers National Museum, which is a partner of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress.


LAW AS FEATURED AUTHOR
- Jeff Marcus, 1st Asst. Stte Atty, Janice Law, former ASA, and Dorothy Klein, director, Broward County Florida Library Foundation at a Jan 12, 2016 BLF event.

[Home] [Law Biog] [Books] [Appearances] [To order] [Photos] [Media] [Contact]