Ex-Prostitute Leaves Law to Write Movie Script

Personal Lives

Ex-Prostitute Leaves Law to Write Movie Script

Posted Sep 25, 2007, 08:42 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Lawyer Cupcake Brown, once a prostitute and a drug user, is leaving Bingham McCutchen to write the movie script for her best-selling memoir A Piece of Cake.

A four-day crack binge nearly killed Brown, who turned her life around and graduated from law school in 2001, the Recorder reports in a story republished by New York Lawyer. She wrote the book over four years while working as an associate at the law firm.

"I enjoyed the practice of law, but I want to help people," Brown told the legal publication. "I've just been inundated with speaking requests, but it's hard to do when you've got billable hours and lots of responsibilities."

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Posted by Mike - 1 year, 2 weeks, 8 hours, 19 minutes ago

There are so many funny things about this story that I don’t know where to begin. It’s almost as though the story belongs on scrappleface. When exactly does a lawyer become an “ex” prostitute?
Posted by Jennifer - 1 year, 2 weeks, 8 hours, 4 minutes ago

I think the best part of the story is that it starts out, “Lawyer Cupcake Brown...” Come on, that can’t be her real name, but if it is, her parents can be blamed for her past profession.

“Cupcake Brown for the Plaintiff, your honor. “
Posted by Blue - 1 year, 2 weeks, 7 hours, 41 minutes ago

The name is great. Who could every forget it?? Your clients, judges, peers, will never forget you (for better or worse). You can never get away with anything, because you can’t say, “Oh no, that was the other Cupcake Brown”. Nevertheless, the book is a good read, I highly recommend it! (It is the name she goes by, since she was called that by her mother, who passed away when Cupcake was very young.)
Posted by Steve - 1 year, 2 weeks, 7 hours, 31 minutes ago

I thought I was reading a headline in the Onion. This absurdity is threatening. Not only to the legal profession and the oldest profession, but to comedy writers who normally have had to make up stuff like this.
Posted by Jeb - 1 year, 2 weeks, 7 hours, 13 minutes ago

From Amazon and Publisher’s Weekly:

Cupcake Brown (that’s her real name) was 11 in 1976 when her mother died. Custody of Brown and her brother was given to a stranger—their birth father—who only wanted their social security checks. He then left them with an abusive foster mother who encouraged her nephew to rape Brown repeatedly. Brown got better and better at running away. A prostitute taught her to drink, smoke marijuana and charge for sex. Her next foster father traded her LSD and cocaine for oral sex. Eventually she went to live with a great-aunt in South Central L.A., where she joined a gang. Almost 16, having barely survived a shooting, she decided to quit gangbanging. Drugs were her new best friends. A boyfriend taught her to freebase, but then there was crack, which was easier. Before long she was a “trash-can junkie,” taking anything and everything. It wasn’t until she woke up behind a Dumpster one morning, half-dressed and more than half-dead, that she admitted she needed help. Brown conveys this all in gritty detail, and her struggle to come clean and develop her potential—she’s now an attorney with a leading California firm and a motivational speaker—ends her story on a high note.

http://www.amazon.com/Piece-Cake-Memoir-Cupcake-Brown/dp/1400052297/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/105-9250910-8864454?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190991613&sr=1-3
Posted by Debbi - 1 year, 2 weeks, 6 hours, 4 minutes ago

All lawyer jokes aside, I just wanted to say that Cupcake Brown’s book is great. Her life story is nothing short of amazing. I think it’ll make a great movie. I’m also happy to hear there’s another lawyer out there who, like myself, has traded in brief writing for story writing. Best of luck, Cupcake!
Posted by Shibi - 1 year, 2 weeks, 1 hour, 39 minutes ago

Having worked with Cupcake. Yes, it’s her real name. Yes, all of those facts from Jeb and her book are true (as she tells it). But, wow, this woman has an attitude and an ax to grind. She was ‘challenging’ to work with, to say the least. Bingham now has been experiencing serious problems with work flow for the associates—I’m sure that this has also contributed to Cupcake’s departure. Bingham seems to have a lot less work: associates are being offered shortened weeks and “unpaid” vacations; partners are leaving and taking their big clients with them. There is no space in this environment for a challenging, ethnic female.
Posted by Tissy - 1 year, 2 weeks, 1 hour, 26 minutes ago

I read her book and it was very touching and inspirational. Reading her book motivated me to become a foster parent. I wish her nothing but the best!
Posted by Evette - 1 year, 1 week, 6 days, 22 hours, 39 minutes ago

I, too read Cupcake’s story and was moved. Shibi’s comments seem to doubt her credibility, but one of her law professors and mentors was quoted in the article that I read. It sounds as if Shibi has an ax to grind. Regardless of the reason for Ms. Brown’s departure, at least she has another career that will pay her handsomely. Shibi, your last comment is disturbing. Why not just say there is no space for a challenging female? Why did ethnicity have to come into play? Just a rhetorical question---this ethnic female already knows the answer.

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