A.L. Shields is a pseudonym of Stephen L. Carter.
https://booksbyblacks.com/book-author/stephen-l-carter/
Stephen L. Carter is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale, where he has taught for almost thirty years. He is also the author of seven acclaimed works of nonfiction, and three bestselling novels.
Born in Washington, D.C., on October 26, 1954, Carter was the second of five children of Lisle and Emily Carter. Carter was educated in the public schools of Washington, New York City, and Ithaca, New York.
He received his bachelor’s degree in history from Stanford in 1976, graduating with Honors and Distinction. In 1979, he received his law degree from Yale, where he was a Notes Editor of the Yale Law Journal. Following law school, he served as a law clerk for Judge Spottswood W. Robinson, III, of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and then to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Professor Carter is a member of numerous learned societies. He has received eight honorary degrees. He and his wife Enola G. Aird have two children, now [2016] in their twenties.