On a recent Touro Law Review podcast, I was pleased to host a discussion with Victor Suthammanont, an attorney who published his first novel, Hollow Spaces, earlier this year.
It is said that some lawyers are frustrated artists. Let it be said about Suthammanont that he was a performing artist who decided to attend law school and become a lawyer, practiced law in both the private sector and with the federal government, and still was practicing law when he wrote Hollow Spaces. We discussed his career, his novel, and the search for truth in both law and literature. I invite you to listen to our full discussion, available here. With the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI), here is a summary of the key points of our conversation.
From Drama Student to Lawyer and Author
Our conversation began with Suthammanont describing his studies in drama at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He explained how “acting training really helped me focus on voice speech” and the technique of reading the “truth of the moment”—skills that he has employed as an attorney when taking a deposition or conducting an investigation.
Intrigued by Suthammanont’s comments about the search for truth in a specific exchange between, say, an attorney and a witness, I asked him whether he believed one could evaluate a witness’s credibility based upon the exchange. In response, Suthammanont shared an anecdote from his time as a junior associate where he successfully determined that a witness was lying based solely on a physical reaction—a giggle by the witness when he was asked certain questions—demonstrating a practical application of his theatrical training in a legal setting.
Hollow Spaces
Turning to Suthammanont’s novel, Hollow Spaces, we explored the narrative structure and themes of the book. The novel employs a dual timeline, moving back and forth from the father’s story set in the late 1980s and early 1990s to the children’s story in the present. Suthammanont said that while the characters’ racial identity is integral to who they are, he sought to write a “fundamentally American story” that could happen to any family while also addressing the “model minority myth” and sense of invisibility often experienced by Asian Americans.
Perhaps most pertinent to a legal audience was our discussion regarding the intersection of the novel’s plot—which begins with an acquittal—and the philosophy of the American trial system. Suthammanont distinguished the function of a trial from what he called a search for the “totality of a truth.” He argued that a trial is limited to adjudicating a specific claim, whereas fiction or journalism may strive for a “fuller truth.” While discussing the purpose of a trial, we considered the idea of the jury as a “guardian of liberty” and the inherent yet necessary imperfections of the adversarial system.
Continuing with a Life in the Law
Even with his success as an author, Suthammanont remains committed to practicing law. He cited the motto of his Jesuit high school, “men for others,” and said that he viewed the practice of law as a privilege that provides the necessary skills to help others and serve the public interest.
Rodger D. Citron is the Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship and Professor of Law at Touro University, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center.
Victor Suthammanont is a writer who practices law in New York City. After graduating from New York Law School, Suthammanont clerked for the Hon. Maryanne Trump Barry on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, worked at a Wall Street law firm, and served for ten years on the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the Division of Enforcement. During Suthammanont’s time at the SEC, his positions included Senior Trial Counsel and Enforcement Counsel for Chair Gary Gensler. Suthammanont left the SEC in January 2025 and is now a partner at Kostelanetz LLP.
