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An evening and book reading with writer, Dennis Vaughn

April 1st, 2010 6-8pm

About the the author: I first made a serious commitment to the world of creative writing upon my early retirement from the practice of law ten years ago. I was a senior partner in what started as a small Los Angeles law firm and grew into the international firm of Paul Hastings with 1300 lawyers and offices throughout the world. I served as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the firm for three years.

In my 40 years in the law, my predominant function was writing. I had legal articles published and served as Managing Editor of the Stanford Law Review. Legal writing and creative writing are two distinctly different endeavors and I am now committed to my work in the creative area because of the exciting freedom of imagination that is inherent in the world of fiction. I have taken numerous creative writing work shops through the Aspen Writers’ Foundation given by prominent writers, including Robert Boswell, Ron Carlson, Richard Bausch, Robert Bausch, Peter Fromm, Hugo Hamilton, Ursula Hegge and Pamela Painter.

I have completed one novel, The Price of Revenge, which will be published in early 2010, and am working on a second novel. I have also written personal essays that embellish experiences and relationships I have had over the years which I regard as amusing and interesting.

I live in Aspen most of the year where, in addition to writing, I ski and hike. The balance of the year I live in Los Angeles. My wife and I travel extensively and I devote time to several charitable organizations in which I have long been interested. I am President of the Aspen Writers’ Foundation, a Life Director of the Aspen Music Festival & School and a Life Trustee of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in New York.

The Book: The Price of Revenge

The Price of Revenge focuses on human struggles in the dark corners of law and psychiatry set in today’s world of hedge funds and video web sites.

David Fox, a ambitious young lawyer with a large Denver law firm, is threatened with denial of partnership in the firm and disclosure of a video tape of him engaging in a sexual act unless he participates in a cover up of wrongdoing by a respected partner of his firm. Unwilling to submit to the threat and to compromise his professional standards, David leaves to join a competing firm. There, he becomes involved in a hard hitting, sometimes below the belt, fight between these two distinguished firms for the ascendant position in Denver’s legal community. Both firms engage in activities unheard of in the past staid professional relationships between establishment firms.

David’s wife, Ellen, whose grandfather is a founder of the firm David was forced to leave, is caught in the middle between her husband and her grandfather. Ellen is so torn by the underhanded and unprofessional fighting between the two firms and so concerned about exposure of the video tape that she turns to psychotherapy for help. Instead of finding answers, she falls into a sexual relationship which vastly adds to the pressures that are tearing her apart and destroying her marriage. Ultimately, she suffers a psychotic break.

David institutes a legal action against Ellen’s psychiatrist, an effort which in turn drives David and Ellen even further from one another. After the mysterious death of the psychiatrist and a criminal investigation, Ellen departs the country, leaving David to face yet another ethical dilemma in dealing with his wife’s flight from the law.

The elemental struggles in David’s life flow from his love for Ellen, his need for retribution and the importance to him of his ethical and professional standards. The Price of Revenge is centered on those struggles, their resolution and the impact of David’s decisions on himself, his wife and their marriage.