John Jay Osborn, Jr.

Infobox Writer
name = John Jay Osborn, Jr.

|thumb|right|John Jay Osborn Jr.
imagesize = 122x180px
birthdate = Birth date and age|1945|8|5
occupation = novelist, attorney, law professor
notableworks = "The Paper Chase", "The Associates"

John Jay Osborn, Jr. is the author of the bestselling novel, "The Paper Chase", a fictional account of one Harvard Law School student's battles with the imperious Professor Charles Kingsfield. The book was made into a movie starring John Houseman and Timothy Bottoms. Houseman won an Oscar for his performance as contracts professor Kingsfield. "The Paper Chase" also became a popular television series. Osborn's other books include "The Associates", "The Man Who Owned New York", and "The Only Thing I've Done Wrong". His third novel, "The Associates", was adapted into a short-lived television series starring Martin Short and Wilfred Hyde-White.Haberman, Clyde and Krebs, Albin: "Notes on People", "The New York Times", September 14, 1979, pg B4]

He is one of the writers (along with Thomas A. Cohen) of the screenplay for the film version of the 1983 novel "The River Why" by David James Duncan. The movie, starring William Hurt and Kathleen Quinlan, is scheduled to be released in 2009. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1241329/ "The River Why (2009)"] ]

Background

His parents were John Jay and Anne Kidder Osborn and he is a descendant of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States [Feron, James: "Westchester Journal", "The New York Times", October 18, 1981, pg WC3]

He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1967 and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1970. [Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008.] He also did graduate work at Yale Law School. He taught law at the University of Miami and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. He clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and was an attorney with the firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler. As of 2008, he is a distinguished scholar in residence at The University of San Francisco School of Law, where he teaches contract law, among other subjects. [ [http://www.usfca.edu/law/faculty/visitors/JohnJayOsbornJr.html University of San Francisco (USF) - John Jay Osborn Jr ] ]

References