A Whole New Meaning to Law Review

Meet Cute: The Tank Top and Shorts Interview

Before Robert Dugoni was a New York Times bestselling author, he was a lawyer in Seattle, Washington. One of his duties as a young lawyer at the firm was to interview prospective recruits. His most unusual interview was with a young lawyer named Cristina.

“That was one of those epiphany moments in my life,” Dugoni says. “She showed up in a tank top and shorts with a bathing suit underneath saying, ‘I’m really sorry. I was working out and someone said the interviews had been moved up. My interview was now and not two hours from now, so I didn’t have time to get changed and I didn’t want to miss the interview.’”

Bestselling Crime Novelist Robert Dugoni

“The whole time she was sitting there talking to me I was sitting there with my tongue hanging out, going ‘oh my God who is this woman?’ It was just one of those moments.” It’s a pretty good guess he found her attractive, yet they were both dating others at the time.

She joined a rival firm but the two ran into each other several times a year in Seattle legal circles. Dugoni wanted to ask her out, but of all things, he’d forgotten her name. At the same time, she told a female partner in her firm she was thinking about leaving the Seattle area and was frustrated she hadn’t found a nice guy to date.

Her partner told her there were plenty of guys around and to keep looking. Cristina responded the only local guy she was interested in was Bob Dugoni, the lawyer she’d met on her interview. So, her law partner, who didn’t want her friend to leave Seattle, set the two up without either one knowing it. Dugoni was to work with the law partner from the other firm on a deposition, so at the last minute, she sent Christina to the meeting instead.

There were immediate sparks in the room, and they quickly started dating. Not too long afterward, they married.

Years later Dugoni gave up the law to write bestselling novels. Cristina continued to practice law.

I’m Rick Pullen, former investigative reporter, magazine editor, and author of the best selling thriller Naked Ambition, its sequel Naked Truth, and a stand-alone thriller The Apprentice. I’m also a magazine columnist and feature writer. Currently, I’m working on my next crime novel and a non-fiction book about many of the authors who appear in Idol Talk.

Literary Agent Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management represents my work.

Thanks for reading Idol Talk! Subscribe for free or support my work with a paid subscription. — Rick Pullen