Robert Rotenberg, LLM
Robert Rotenberg was born and raised in Toronto and studied at the University of Toronto, Osgoode Hall and the London School of Economics. While in Europe in the early 1980s, he was the managing editor of English-language magazine Passion, The Magazine of Paris. When he returned to Canada, he and a partner founded and published T.O. The Magazine of Toronto, which ran for six years until 1988. He also worked for a year as a radio producer at CBC Radio. After all this, he opened a criminal law practice — crime was the only part of law that ever interested him. The first day he started working as a lawyer, he also started writing his first novel that took 10 years. It’s still in a drawer. I worked on “Old City Hall” next. It took a decade, and in 2009 he had his first breakthrough. The book was published in nine languages and became a Canadian bestseller. He has written seven additional novels. His latest is titled One Minute More.Rotenberg has had always worked full time as a criminal lawyer. Since the early 1990s he and associates Alvin Shidlowski and Jacob Jesin have had a criminal law practice in Toronto Rotenberg, Shidlowski, Jesin, defending, as Rotenberg describes it, "everything from murder to shoplifting." He also works as a screenwriter. He has co-written two Murdoch Mysteries and a TV series proposal that has been sold. He is working on a number of TV and film projects and, of course, his next novel. Rotenberg has always loved teaching. For many years now he has taught at the Humber Writer’s Correspondence Course, (which he took myself years ago). As well he has a number of private students that he mentors. Evolution of a Crime Fiction Writer
Robert Rotenberg was born and raised in Toronto and studied at the University of Toronto, Osgoode Hall and the London School of Economics.
While in Europe in the early 1980s, he was the managing editor of English-language magazine Passion, The Magazine of Paris. When he returned to Canada, he and a partner founded and published T.O. The Magazine of Toronto, which ran for six years until 1988. He also worked for a year as a radio producer at CBC Radio.
After all this, he opened a criminal law practice — crime was the only part of law that ever interested him. The first day he started working as a lawyer, he also started writing his first novel that took 10 years. It’s still in a drawer. I worked on “Old City Hall” next. It took a decade, and in 2009 he had his first breakthrough. The book was published in nine languages and became a Canadian bestseller. He has written seven additional novels. His latest is titled One Minute More.
He also works as a screenwriter. He has co-written two Murdoch Mysteries and a TV series proposal that has been sold. He is working on a number of TV and film projects and, of course, his next novel.
Rotenberg has always loved teaching. For many years now he has taught at the Humber Writer’s Correspondence Course, (which he took myself years ago). As well he has a number of private students that he mentors.
Evolution of a Crime Fiction Writer
This event is part of the Winter 2026 Speaker series.
Founding Members
Governance & Compliance - Bylaws
Speaker Events
7 Great Reasons to Join
.JPG)
