“What law school did for me was to give
me this
incredible work ethic,”
Tony Soprano, Nucky Thompson and St. John’s School of Law share a
common bond. The two colorful characters anchoring the hit HBO
series “The Sopranos” and “Boardwalk Empire,” respectively, came to
life at the hand of Law School alumnus Terence Winter
’88.
The Law School community gathered recently to honor Winter at a
panel program titled "Through a Glass Not So Darkly ─ Terence
Winter's Take on Law and Society." Presented by the Law
School Writing Center and St. John's Law
Review, the academic appreciation explored Winter’s path from
law student to acclaimed writer, producer and winner of four Emmy
awards and three Writer’s Guild Awards. In addition to Winter, the
program panel included Dr.
Derek Owens, Vice Provost, Professor of English and Executive
Director of the Institute for Writing Studies at St. John's
University; Elyse
Pepper, Professor of Legal Writing; and Michael
Perino, the Law School’s Dean George W. Matheson Professor of
Law.
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While he was a big fan of TV and movies as a child growing up in
1960s Brooklyn, being a writer was a foreign concept to Winter well
into his twenties. “What law school did for me was to give me this
incredible work ethic,” he said, “and also taught more structured
writing and how to tell a story.” That skill set, coupled with the
general rigor of studying law, made “the experience of law school
hugely helpful.”
Recalling her time as Winter’s legal writing professor, panel
moderator Margaret
Valentine Turano, Associate Academic Dean and Professor of Law,
noted her prescience in assigning him a double jeopardy case
involving two defendants ― one who brutally beat up a police
officer and another who killed a person with a car. “Even in those
student writings,” she observed, “he made me understand that he
believed writing was meant to give pleasure to the reader.”
Dr. Owens praised Winter for doing his research and presenting his
characters with authenticity. “His writing exemplifies what can
happen when a writer not only does his or her homework, but also
takes risks, comes up with an idea and owns it.” In Tony Soprano,
added Professor Pepper, “[Winter] has made us love a murderer, an
enforcer, an extorter and adulterer on his best day.”
Presenting the Dean’s Award to Winter, Dean Michael A.
Simons noted that this was a celebration of Terence Winter, the
writer, and the physical manifestation of the Law School’s
commitment to writing. “It all comes full circle back to law
school,” Winter said in closing. “The work ethic you learn here,
the love of history, the love of storytelling. If you had asked me
in Real Property Class at what point is this going to all make
sense in your life, here it is and it all makes sense.”