After graduating from Cornell Law School in 1989, Barry Eisler spent three years with the U.S. government. For a decade thereafter he practiced various aspects of international law, including a year with the Japanese law firm of Hamada & Matsumoto in Tokyo and two years as in-house counsel at the Osaka headquarters of Matsushita Electric & Industrial Co., Ltd. Mr. Eisler earned his black belt in judo from the Kodokan International Judo Center in Tokyo. Today he lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area and continues to travel to Japan frequently. Rights to Rain Fall, his first novel, have been sold in 15 countries, and film rights have been purchased by Jet Li. Hard Rain is his second novel and he has signed with Putnam for two more Rain books.