Linda Fairsteiin


Linda Fairstein (born 1947) is one of America's foremost legal experts on crimes of violence against women and children. She was head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney's office from 1976 until 2002 and prosecuted several highly publicized cases.

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:

• the "Preppy Murder case" against Robert Chambers (1986)
• the "Central Park Jogger rape case" (1989)
• the riot in Central Park after the Puerto Rican Day parade (2000)
  

Ms. Fairstein left the District Attorney's office in 2002, and has continued to consult, write, lecture and serve as a sex crimes expert for a wide variety of print and television media outlets, including CNN, MSNBC, and Larry King, among others.

Ms. Fairstein is also the internationally best-selling author of a series of crime novels featuring Manhattan prosecutor Alexandra Cooper. The novels draw both on Ms. Fairstein's legal expertise, as well as her knowledge of and affection for the rich history of the city of New York.

She has also written a non-Fiction book, Sexual Violence: Our War Against Rape (1993).
She is married to Justin N. Feldman, retired counsel to the New York office of law firm Cooley Godward Kronish LLP.