Linda Fairstein

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Linda Fairstein (born 1947) was head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney's office from 1976 until 2002 and prosecuted several highly publicized cases. She is also a best-selling author of a series of crime novels.

Ms. Fairstein is an honors graduate of Vassar College (1969) and the University of Virginia School of Law (1972). She joined the Manhattan District Attorney's office in the same year and became an Assistant District Attorney. At the time, sex crime work was handled by Leslie Crocker Snyder who founded the sex crime unit in 1974 and who had achieved several legal changes that facilitated the prosecution of rape cases. Fairstein became head of the unit in 1976.

Among the high profile cases prosecuted under her leadership:

After leaving the District Attorney's office in 2002, she has focused on writing, lecturing, and serving as a sex crimes expert on various TV channels.

Her crime novels are written in the first person and feature female prosecutor Alex Cooper, modeled on herself, as protagonist. The titles are:

  • Final Jeopardy (1996)
  • Likely To Die (1997)
  • Cold Hit (1999)
  • The Deadhouse (2001)
  • The Bone Vault (2003)
  • The Kills (2004)
  • Entombed (2005)
  • Death Dance (2006)
  • Bad Blood (2007)
  • She has also written a non-fiction book, Sexual Violence: Our War Against Rape (1993).

She is the wife of Justin N. Feldman, retired counsel to the New York office of law firm Cooley Godward Kronish LLP.

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