How lawyer-author Orlando Ortega-Medina turned his exile from L.A. into a legal thriller

Unlike most writers I know, I did not earn an MFA in creative writing after college. Instead, with a degree in English literature in hand, I went to law school and became an attorney. Perhaps I carried with me the heartache of my late father, who had dreams of becoming a published author in the late 1950s and early ‘60s as he worked the night shift at a factory. Publishers were even less hospitable to Chicano writers than they are now, so after being rejected repeatedly, my father burned all his writing — a novel and poetry — and focused his energies on raising a family and getting educated. I assumed I’d follow the same path.

But the call of the writing life was too strong. I started to write fiction and poetry that reflected my life as the grandson of Mexican immigrants. The publishing world was much more open to my writing than it was to my father’s, and 25 years later I have published 10 books and two anthologies while practicing law.

So it is not surprising that I have a particular interest in writers who are also lawyers. (There are quite a few of us.) Among them is Orlando Ortega-Medina, whose new novel, “The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants,” is deeply rooted in both the world of law and his own experiences as a gay, Latino, Jewish man facing a broken immigration system and the homophobia of the 1990s.

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Ortega-Medina was born in Los Angeles to Sephardic immigrants from Cuba. He studied English literature at UCLA, earned a law degree from Southwestern University, began as a criminal defense attorney and then moved to San Francisco, where he transitioned to representing clients in appeals, post-conviction relief and deportation defense.

But in 1999, Ortega-Medina and his life partner moved to Canada in search of greater freedom, and in 2005 they were among the first same-sex couples in the Western Hemisphere to marry. Nine years later, when the United Kingdom allowed same-sex couples to solemnize their marriages in religious ceremonies, Ortega-Medina and his husband married in a Jewish ceremony at West London Synagogue. They settled in London, where they live today.

(Bywater Books)

With Ortega-Medina’s biography in mind, readers will recognize the conflicts that play out in “The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants.” Marc Mendes, a burned-out lawyer struggling with addictions and the disappointment of his prominent rabbi father, plans his escape from San Francisco to a slower-paced life in Napa Valley. But before he can fulfill his dream, the government summons his Salvadoran partner to immigration court under the threat of deportation. Marc’s life gets even more complicated when a handsome but troubled client enters the picture. The result is a potent legal thriller that doesn’t shy from major personal and societal issues.

Ortega-Medina spoke to The Times about his dual life in law and literature, the genesis of his latest novel and what he hopes readers will get from it. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Can you talk about your journey from attorney to author?

I majored in English at UCLA. With graduation looming, I found myself torn between applying to an MFA program and going to law school, which was another interest of mine. Either way, I intended to pursue a career in creative writing at some point. So I sought counsel from the late Carolyn See, one of my writing professors. Without hesitation, she advised: “Get your law degree first; write later.” So that’s what I did. Once I finished law school, I picked up from where I’d left off and carried on writing in my spare time. It took another 20 years before my first book, [the story collection] “Jerusalem Ablaze,” was finally published in 2017.

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And what of the journey of your latest novel?

“The Fitful Sleep” began life 20 years ago as an intended memoir penned in exile. As I drafted the source material over the course of a long, dark Canadian winter, deeply bitter at having been effectively ejected from my country of birth, it became clear to me that a memoir forged in anger made for an unpleasant read. I lacked sufficient objectivity to produce anything better than 200,000 words’ worth of sour grapes. Reluctantly, I shoved the manuscript into a drawer. Fifteen years later, I came across the material, dusted it off and began reimagining [it] as a novel, a format I felt better suited the subject.

Your novel is equal parts love story, legal thriller and social commentary. These three are perfectly balanced. How did you manage it?

I wrote the first draft from start to finish without reading it back. No advance plotting; no character studies; no genre considerations. I just wrote from the top of my head, usually for a couple of hours each morning before going to work. Needless to say, it wasn’t very good at that stage. Although I had the broad outline, various elements didn’t mesh well, and a few of the characters needed to be completely redrawn. So with the help of a trusted editor, I blew it apart and gave it another go, and then another, and another — until finally, everything clicked into place. Or so it seemed, until [my editor] Michael Nava got his hands on it, which led to a final revision. The fact it all holds together is credit in large part to everyone who collaborated on the project.

Do you have any plans to write that memoir you originally conceived?

No concrete plans at this point. But if I ever do write a memoir, it will chronicle not just the events leading up to our departure but also our life as expats, with all its attendant challenges. As an immigration lawyer helping people gain legal status in the United States, it has been fascinating to see it all from the other side — as an immigrant myself.

What do you hope readers get from your novel?

Given that marriage equality is potentially under threat in the United States from the more conservative elements in the country, I would like for readers to reflect, via the novel, on the hardship and unfairness experienced by multinational same-sex couples struggling to have their relationships recognized in law.

Olivas is an attorney, playwright and author of 10 books, including “How to Date a Flying Mexican.”

Ortega-Medina will appear at Book Soup, in conversation with Olivas, on April 27 at 7 p.m.