Robert Rotenberg (born April 21, 1953) is a Canadian criminal lawyer and writer, based in Toronto. His extensive experience as a criminal defence lawyer informs his critically acclaimed first novel, Old City Hall. He currently practices as part of the association of Rotenberg Shidlowski Jesin. (www.rsjlaw.ca)
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Rotenberg studied English literature at the University of Toronto, and then earned his law degree at Osgoode Hall Law School. He went to the London School of Economics for a masters degree in International Law, and traveled Europe on various scholarships. The influences of the literary realm and the legal profession have emerged throughout his career.
While in Europe in the early 1980s, he was the managing editor of English-language magazine Passion, The Magazine of Paris. When he returned to Canada, he and a partner founded and published T.O. The Magazine of Toronto, which ran for six years and folded in 1988.
After brief stints as a film executive and a CBC Radio producer, Rotenberg returned to law. He and associates Alvin Shidlowski and Jacob Jesin have had a criminal law practice in Toronto since the early 1990s defending, as Rotenberg describes it, "everything from murder to shoplifting." Cases attracting particular attention have included the defence in 2007 of an Ontario College of Art and Design student who planted a fake bomb and posted a YouTube video about it as part of an art project, which in turn prompted an evacuation during a gala fundraiser at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Rotenberg's first novel, Old City Hall, is set in Toronto, and as the name suggests, features pivotal scenes in the city's historic Old City Hall. The book was published in February–March, 2009 in North America and the United Kingdom, and audio and translated international versions are forthcoming throughout 2009. The book garnered positive advance reviews in publications such as The Times Literary Supplement, in which British journalist Giles Smith commented:
There is nothing in Old City Hall to suggest that it's Robert Rotenberg's debut. The middle-aged Canadian criminal lawyer has got it all - pace, good characters, tension, and an intriguing plot. Set in Toronto, it opens with a radio personality opening the door to his newspaper delivery man with the words "I killed her". The body of his lover is naked in the bathtub, stabbed to death. Why is it not an open-and-shut case of murder? Prosecution, defence and police take it in turns to believe they've got the answer, only to be derailed by a yet another new twist. The resolution is clever and surprising.[1]
Old City Hall was shortlisted for The Crime Writers Association John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award at the 2009 Crime Thriller Awards.[2] Rotenberg is currently completing his second novel.
Rotenberg is an avid presenter of his work and enjoys meeting readers and writers at live reading events. He has participated in Word on the Street, Authors at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto and the Ottawa International Writers Festival, among other literary events.