New Book, 'Big Deal on LaSalle Street,' Draws on a Teenager’s Fight for Freedom Amid Corruption in Chicago’s Courts

“Big Deal on LaSalle Street” draws on the author’s experience defending a 15-year-old accused of attempted auto theft. He was charged as an adult & faced prison time. Few knew that a secret federal undercover investigation (Operation Greylord) had been underway.

Drawing on true events, Chicago attorney tells story of a teenager falsely accused of attempted auto theft & the lawyer who risked her career to fight for him

CHICAGO, IL, UNITED STATES, September 29, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- “Big Deal on LaSalle Street,” a new novel by Chicago attorney Dottie Kaplan Benjamin, is inspired by the author’s experience defending a 15-year-old accused of attempted auto theft. He was charged as an adult and faced serious prison time. Once-whispered rumors of judicial corruption in Chicago’s courts were growing louder. But few knew that a secret federal undercover investigation into the courts, known as Operation Greylord, had been underway for more than three years.

In the novel, it is at the height of that investigation that a political and judicial conspiracy to railroad the teenager is set in motion. The story’s stirring events come together as the federal investigation targeting the courts and the crooked political and judicial intrigue targeting the juvenile converge. At this hazardous juncture, tenacious lawyer Lorna Anne Benson bravely fights for the accused teen, using her customary legal toolbox and out-of-the-box resourcefulness to try to win his freedom.

“My client was 15 years old and had done nothing wrong, yet the system that should have protected him was being used against him,” Benjamin said. “You don’t forget a case like that. I wanted to tell his story and show what an attorney owes a client when the institutions around them fail.”

At the heart of “Big Deal on LaSalle Street” is a story about determination and the courage to keep going when every signal says to stop. The novel explores the ethical obligations lawyers carry, the risks of advocacy and the ways corruption can become accepted as business as usual.

The book also looks beyond one courtroom. By revisiting the era in which Operation Greylord exposed corruption in Cook County’s courts, Benjamin raises questions that remain urgent today: Who holds powerful institutions accountable? What does it cost to speak up? And what happens to ordinary people when the system meant to protect them is compromised?

“Big Deal on LaSalle Street” is available now in paperback on Amazon for $17.99 and as a Kindle edition for $7.99. A first-chapter excerpt is available for free on Amazon. The book can also be purchased through other online retailers using ISBN 979-8-1885989-6-9.

About the Author

Dorothea “Dottie” Kaplan Benjamin is an attorney licensed and in good standing (inactive status) with the state of Illinois and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Early in her career, she worked as an assistant Cook County public defender. She earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois Chicago Law, formerly John Marshall Law School. She also holds a master’s degree in radio, television and film from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in history from Roosevelt University. Benjamin was raised on Chicago’s South Side and has lived in the Chicago area her entire life.

About the Book

Title: Big Deal on LaSalle Street: Where Corruption Never Sleeps
Author: Dottie Kaplan Benjamin
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2026
Publisher: Sosa Publishing Ltd.
Price: $17.99 paperback; $7.99 Kindle
Pages: 270
ISBN: 979-8-1885989-6-9

Lauren Russ
Connect Communications
+1 773-972-7060
lauren@connectcomsinc.com
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