b"The AuthorTRACKA lawyer veers into fiction and fiercenessBY TIA SWANSONH elen Wan was a bit late for coffee atalso felt like a fish out of water there. Unlike hertalented people and you just throw them into se-the Able Baker, but she had a goodrious jobs in the corporate environment, she ex-reason: The trailer for the Netflixplains. She felt many were as unprepared as she, series based on her novel had justand doomed to failure. She wanted to help.dropped. It is neither every day norWan got good feedback on what she had writ-everyone who gets a television seriesheroine, Ingrid Yung, Wan began writing about it.ten. She also got some advice. Turn it into a novel. made of a first book, and Wan wasI was in this world that felt totally foreign to me,Shedattract visiblyexcited:Shearrivedphoneinhand,videoshe recalls. I felt it was good mental therapy for memorereaders. downloaded and ready to share. It was a winningto have this outlet. Foralotof combination, a successful woman of substance be- Her journal took note of the alliances that formedyearsIdidnt having as a good friend might on a particularly finein the firms cafeteria, where the table at which youlistentothat day in her life. sat spoke both to your person and your ambitions.advice,she It seems entirely in keeping with the woman weShe wrote about experiences that revealed privilege,says ruefully.come to know in The Partner Track, Wans novel: aand the lack of it, and of how devastating a misstepButover young,open-hearted,sometimesguilelesslawyerrevealingoneshumblebeginningscouldbe.Shetime, the idea and first-generation Chinese American who is tal- considered why she had been the one chosen to meettookroot. ented, ambitious, and constantly made aware of herwith a group of visiting Japanese lawyers. Wan attended otherness as she negotiates her career at a white-shoeEventuallyWanthoughtaboutpublishinghera fiction writ-law firm in Manhattan. Its a woman readers cheerjournal as a sort of self-help book for young profes- ing workshop for. The 10-episode series was made available all atsionals who were not white and male and descendedandbegan once in late August. from money. She had been made aware of how littlemakingtime Like her protagonist, Wan is a lawyer whose firsther elite education had done to prepare her for theforwritingHelen Wan's novel, The Partner Track, was recently made into a Netflix series. job was at one of the big law firms in New York. Sheworld in which she found herself. You take all theevenasshePhoto by Julia Maloof Verderosa.18/ matters magazine / fall 2022"