The Firm (novel)
- For the film of the same title based on this book, see The Firm (1993 film). For the television series also based on this book, see The Firm (2012 TV series).
| The Firm | |
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| Author(s) | John Grisham |
| Country | U.S. |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Legal thriller |
| Publisher | Random House (1st edition) |
| Publication date | 1 February 1991 (1st edition) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 432 (Hardcover 1st edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0385416342 (Hardcover 1st edition) |
| OCLC Number | 22108726 |
| Dewey Decimal | 813/.54 20 |
| LC Classification | PS3557.R5355 F57 1991 |
The Firm is a 1991 legal thriller and the second novel by John Grisham. It was his first widely recognized book, and in 1993, was made into a film starring Tom Cruise. Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill, was successful but did not bring the author the attention of the general public.
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[edit] Plot summary
Mitchell Y. McDeere is a law student who graduated fifth in his class at Harvard Law School. Mitch is married to his high school sweetheart, Abby. They also attended college together. His brother Ray is serving a prison term, and his other brother, Rusty, died in Vietnam.
Mitch has offers from law firms in New York and Chicago but eventually decides to join Bendini, Lambert and Locke, a small tax law firm based in Memphis. The firm seduces him by offering him a large salary, a lease on a new BMW automobile and a low interest mortgage on a house. Soon after he joins, his new colleagues help him study and pass his bar exam. At the firm, the first priority is for the associate to pass the bar exam.
Two of Mitch's colleagues die in a scuba diving accident in the Cayman Islands the week he starts at the firm. Mitch finds the deaths unsettling, but settles down, works hard towards his dream of becoming a successful employee of the firm. During a memorial service at the firm for the two deceased attorneys, Mitch notices plaques commemorating three other attorneys who died while working at the firm. Suspicious, he hires a private investigator, Eddie Lomax, an ex-cell mate of his brother Ray, to investigate the deaths of the attorneys.
Lomax discovers that all five of the deceased attorneys died under questionable circumstances: two in the diving accident, and the other three in a car accident, a hunting accident and a suicide, respectively. Lomax cautions Mitch to be careful. Soon after delivering his report to Mitch, Lomax is murdered.
Just as he passes his bar exam, Wayne Tarrance, an FBI agent, confronts Mitch. Mitch gradually learns from the FBI that the firm is actually part of the white collar operations of the Morolto crime family of Chicago. For years, the Moroltos have lured new lawyers from poor backgrounds into the firm with promises of wealth and security. By the time a lawyer is aware of the firm's actual operations, he cannot leave. No lawyer has escaped the firm alive, as the recent deaths of his two colleagues show. Mitch learns that his house, office and car are bugged. He and Abby are also routinely followed, making his meetings with the FBI dangerous. Pressure from both the firm and the FBI, who warns him he will regret not cooperating later on if he chooses to ignore them, force Mitch to make a decision quickly.
Desperate to find a way out and stay alive in the process, Mitch makes a deal with the FBI, in which he gets two million dollars and the release of his brother, if he collects enough evidence to indict the firm. Mitch tells Tarrance that he can obtain enough evidence to indict half the firm, but the information obtained through those indictments will prove the existence of an illegal conspiracy—giving the government the ammunition it needs to obtain search warrants for the firm building and files that will provide the evidence to completely destroy the firm and the Morolto family. In order to do so, however, Mitch must disclose information about his clients, and thus end his career as a lawyer (though in truth, the attorney-client privilege in most U.S. states, including Tennessee,[1] does not apply to situations where a lawyer knows that a crime is taking place). Working with Lomax's secretary and lover, Tammy, Mitch begins to copy confidential documents and makes plans to deliver them to the FBI as planned.
Meanwhile, the firm becomes suspicious of Mitch, and with the assistance of "Alfred", a mole in the FBI, they discover Mitch's plan. Once Mitch learns of this, he runs from both the FBI and Mafia with his brother who escaped from jail, and his wife. He steals ten million dollars from a Grand Cayman bank account of the firm.
Mitch manages to escape to the Caribbean with the help of Barry Abanks, a scuba diving business owner whose son died in the incident where the firm killed the two lawyers, while the FBI gets the evidence they need to bust the firm through the 10,000 documents Mitch and Abby copied from the firm, indicting them for everything from laundering money to mail fraud. At the end, Mitch, Abby and Ray go into hiding and are quietly enjoying their newfound wealth in the Caribbean region.
[edit] List of Characters
Mitchell Y. McDeere: An ambitious law student who graduates with honors from Harvard. He is seduced by the money and perks the firm offers until he is notified by the FBI that the firm is part of the Morolto crime family. He is almost caught by the firm, but escapes with $8 million (both the money the FBI paid him and the money he stole from the Moroltos, gives $1 million to Tammy and $1 million to Abby's parents so $10 million total) and survives. He retires to the islands of the Caribbean with Abby and Ray.
Abby McDeere: Wife of Mitch McDeere and a third-grade teacher in a prominent school in Memphis. She is stressed by the long hours Mitch spends at the firm, then by the truth about the firm, and eventually helps him escape.
Wayne Tarrance: An organized crime specialist from New York and veteran FBI agent. He is not very cautious. He tries to help Mitch, but fails to protect him. Mitch and Tarrance are now bitter at each other.
Ray McDeere: The brother of Mitch McDeere. He's a convicted felon who killed a man in a bar fight. Dishonorably discharged from the army. He's a great linguist who learned several languages. He escapes prison with the help of the FBI and Mitch, and later aids Mitch in his escape.
Eddie Lomax: An ex-con and prison friend of Ray McDeere; a private investigator who works for Mitch in investigating the five dead lawyers. He is later murdered by one of the Morolto gunmen.
Tammy Hemphill: Secretary and lover of Eddie. She becomes frightened when Eddie is killed. She greatly aids Mitch in stealing the files and making his escape. She is rewarded with $1 million by Mitch near the end.
Oliver Lambert: Originally an unsuspecting early joiner of the firm, later unwillingly drawn into the conspiracy. He's now a veteran and head of the firm.
Nathan Locke: He grew up on the streets of Chicago and has served the Moroltos since the age of ten. He is a major figure in the Morolto crime family, described as "evil, eccentric, has startling black, laser eyes".
Bill DeVasher: A former police detective, now a thug and security head of the firm. He is in charge of monitoring the firm's lawyers and carrying out the Moroltos' dirty work. He blackmails Mitch with pictures of him, yet is ignored.
Tony "Two-Ton" Verkler: A thug with an impressive record of convictions. A loyal thug to the Morolto family. He helps in the search for Mitch McDeere.
Aaron "The Nordic" Rimmer: A thug for the Morolto family. He has strong Nordic features and is nearly successful in catching Mitch several times. He is later strangled by Ray McDeere.
Lou Lazarov: An underboss of the Morolto crime family. A close associate of Joey Morolto (the head of the Morolto crime family). Former actor.
Joey Morolto (The Priest): The boss of the Morolto crime family. The younger brother of Mickey Morolto, who has limited business with the crime family. Joey Morolto is the son of the Old Man Morolto (the first boss of the Morolto family).
Robert Lamm: Murdered by law firm with death staged as a hunting accident in Arkansas. Missing for two weeks and they found him a bullet in the head.
Alice Knauss: Murdered by law firm by a head-on collision with a stolen truck. Accident scene was staged to appear to be the result of a drunk driver.
John Mickel: Murdered by law firm with death staged as a suicide, including a typewritten note.
Marty Kozinski and Joe Hodge: Murdered by law firm on Grand Cayman with death staged to be a scuba diving accident or possibly the result of a drug deal gone bad. There was an explosion in the boat and they drowned.
[edit] Critical reception
Marilyn Stasio of the New York Times wrote that "Mr. Grisham, a criminal defense attorney, writes with such relish about the firm's devious legal practices that his novel might be taken as a how-to manual for ambitious tax-law students."[2]
[edit] References
- ^ "Rule 8. Rules of Professional Conduct". Rules of the Tennessee Supreme Court. Tennessee Supreme Court. http://www.tsc.state.tn.us/OPINIONS/TSC/RULES/TNRulesOfCourt/06supct1_9.htm#8. Retrieved 2008-11-02.
See Rule 1.6, "Confidentiality". - ^ Stasio, Marilyn (March 24, 1991). "Book review desk - Crime". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE4DB113EF937A15750C0A967958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all.
[edit] External links
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