Big Deal on LaSalle Street

Based on a true story of corruption in the Chicago courts.

Chicago, 1983. Fifteen-year-old Salvadore Logan is arrested and falsely accused of attempted auto theft. What initially appears to be a routine criminal case soon raises disturbing questions. Why has a teenager with no prior record been charged as an adult? Who is behind the accusation-and why?

His attorney, Lorna Benson, a former Cook County Assistant Public Defender newly in private practice, is determined to find out.

As Lorna digs deeper, she discovers that her young client has become entangled in something far more dangerous than an ordinary criminal prosecution. Political influence, judicial corruption, hidden motives, and powerful insiders threaten not only Sal's freedom but Lorna herself. When she is warned to back away from the case, she refuses.

Meanwhile, unknown to nearly everyone around them, the FBI is conducting Operation Greylord, its historic undercover investigation into corruption within the Cook County court system. As that investigation quietly unfolds, Lorna's defense of an innocent teenager crosses unexpectedly into the shadowy world Greylord is beginning to expose.

Inspired by the author's own experience representing a fifteen-year-old defendant, The Big Deal on LaSalle Street blends historical fiction with legal drama to tell a remarkable story of an ordinary criminal case that becomes anything but ordinary-a story of corruption, courage, and a lawyer's determination to protect her client when the justice system itself can no longer be trusted.