Practice Makes Perfect

Practice Makes Perfect

Editor Gina Bernal puts lawyer-turned-author Julie James on the stand with a bit of friendly questioning about her critically acclaimed 2009 release, Practice Makes Perfect

Payton Kendall has strong opinions about being a female lawyer in a male-dominated profession. When you created her character, did you draw from your own experiences as an attorney?

Hmm. . . so this is the part where the lawyer in me would like to emphasize that the book is a work of fiction. Names, characters and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance... well, you know the drill. That being said, yes, as a former associate at a large firm I drew on my own experiences and ambitions. And Payton, the heroine, practices the type of law I practiced employment discrimination defense. I’d like to think my own experience helps make both the two main characters and the law firm setting seem more real.

Full disclosure: my own significant other is a lawyer so I’m biased. How did you approach a stereotypically stuffy profession to give it bit of sex appeal?

This question makes me laugh, and reminds me of an email I recently received from a reader who said, “Who would’ve thought lawyers could be so sexy?” Okay, yes there are a lot of stuffy lawyers out there. (Trust meÑI’ve met a lot of them.) But there are actually a few normal ones out there, too. I loved being a trial lawyer. I think we’ve seen a lot of popular fiction that highlights the so-called “darker side” of the law, so my approach in writing Practice Makes Perfect was simply to make the book fun. So I wrote a light-hearted, battle-of-the-sexes story about two lawyers who have to fight it out for one partnership spot at their firm.

Payton and J.D. Jameson are rivals for a career-changing opportunity. How were you able to maintain such great romantic tension between them without diminishing either’s strength as a competitor?

I think there are two things that keep the romantic tension high. First, despite the fact that the book opens with the two of them bickering and “at war” with each other (something that has been going on for eight years, we learn), we get the sense that they enjoy fighting with one another. The second element is their dialogue. I’m a big fan of older black-and-white romantic comedies those films often had such great back-and-forth banter between the heroine and hero. To me, that kind of repartee signifies that the heroine and hero “get” each other, that they see each other as equals. And let’s be honest: banter is foreplay. So the more heated the banter, the hotter I think the couple is going to be in bed.

J.D. is haughty and seems, to Payton, to have an overwhelming sense of entitlement. However, she’s often guilty of drawing hasty conclusions about him. Shades of Darcy and Elizabeth, perhaps? Were you influenced by Austen’s classic when writing Practice Makes Perfect?

Absolutely. I open the book with a quote from Pride and Prejudice: “Is not general incivility the very essence of love?” Payton, like Elizabeth, draws a lot of negative conclusions about J.D. without truly knowing him. And I do think there’s a certain Darcy element with J.D. as well: he wants to ignore his attraction to Payton (because she’s his rival for the partnership position), but despite all his best efforts, he can’t seem to do it.