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From Lawyer to Author: A Conversation with Mark Shaiken
02/26/2026
From Lawyer to Author: A Conversation with Mark Shaiken
Mark Shaiken wanted to be a writer or a sports photographer when he grew up. When he was in college, he told his father, and the response was less than promising. Not knowing how he would make a living over the long term, Shaiken took jobs as a highway line painter, a septic tank fixer, and a fork lift driver. He also took the law school entrance exam, and through a series of fortunate events, he became a corporate bankruptcy attorney. For decades he grew a successful practice, but he wasn’t ready to give up his other career dreams. Eventually deciding “it was now or never”, Shaiken took the plunge and left the law for writing. In this episode, Shaiken talks candidly about how he approached his career through the “back end”, and how he left a structured, traditional office, and no longer tethered, created a new life as an award-winning writer.
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