Alan J. Hruska, a corporate litigator who had a second, wide-ranging career as a founder of the independent publishing house Soho Press, also a novelist, director and producer of plays and films, died on March 29 at his home in Manhattan. He was 88.

Even before he retired from his day job at Cravath Swaine & Moore in New York City (in 2001, after four decades there), he had published his first novel. Soon after, he founded Soho Press, welcoming unsolicited manuscripts from little-known writers.

At Cravath, he oversaw a wide range of civil litigation, and was named senior counsel in 2002. He also served as secretary of the New York City Bar Association.