Donovan, Karen 1960–

PERSONAL: Born 1960. Education: Columbia University, master's degree (economics and business journalism), 2004.

ADDRESSES: Home—Brooklyn, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Pantheon Books, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Writer, journalist, and attorney. National Law Journal, former editor and reporter.

WRITINGS:

V. Goliath: The Trials of David Boies (nonfiction), Pantheon Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor of articles to Wired, Business Week, and New York Times.

SIDELIGHTS: Karen Donovan is a lawyer and journalist whose first book, V. Goliath: The Trials of David Boies, blends both these interests in an "insightful biography," as a contributor for Publishers Weekly wrote. Boies, who is perhaps best known for his defense of Al Gore and the Democrats in the court battle over the contested 2000 election, has been dealing with high-profile cases for more than two decades. He first came before the public eye in the decade-long IBM antitrust lawsuit and was lead attorney for the U.S. Justice Department in its antitrust suit against Microsoft. Boies defended the Columbia Broadcasting System in another highly publicized lawsuit brought by General William Westmoreland, commander of the Military Assistance Command in Vietnam from 1964 to 1968. Boies was also involved in the Napster copyright case that pitted an upstart Internet firm against the music industry. Donovan had access to Boies for two years in order to gather the material for her biography, and, according to the reviewer for Publishers Weekly, she "underscores Boies's brilliant mind," but is balanced in her assessment, "tracking Boies's losses as well as victories." Similarly, a critic for Kirkus Reviews called V. Goliath an "intriguing portrait of one of the nation's leading trial lawyers," as well as "provocative and well told." Theodore Pollack, writing in Library Journal, concluded that "the author has produced an engaging biography."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2004, review of V. Goliath: The Trials of David Boies, p. 1178.

Library Journal, February 15, 2005, Theodore Pollack, review of V. Goliath, p. 146.

Publishers Weekly, January 31, 2005, review of V. Goliath, p. 60.