Steve Martini was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area. An honors graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz, he holds a law degree from the University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law. During his legal career, he worked as a legislative representative for the State Bar of California, served as special counsel to the California Victims of Violent Crimes Program, and was an administrative law judge and supervising hearing officer. In 1984 Martini turned his talents to fiction, and became a New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels, including eight featuring his popular lawyer alter ego, Paul Madriani.