John Jay Osborn Jr. (August 5, 1945 – October 19, 2022) was an American author, lawyer, law professor, and author of The Paper Chase, a bestselling novel published in 1971, and other works.
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Early life and education
Osborn was born in Boston, on August 5, 1945. His father, John Jay Sr., was a doctor at Stanford University School of Medicine; his mother was Anne (née Kidder). He was a descendant of both John Jay, a Founding Father and the first Chief Justice of the United States, and of railroad baron Cornelius Vanderbilt.
When Osborn was nine, he relocated with his family from Boston to the San Francisco Bay Area. He attended Harvard University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in American history in 1967, and then obtained his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1970. He also did graduate work at Yale Law School.