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The Firm
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The Firm (1991) (edit title/settings)

by John Grisham (Author) (edit contributors)

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At the top of his class at Harvard Law, he had his choice of the best in America. He made a deadly mistake. When Mitch McDeere signed on with Bendini, Lambert & Locke of Memphis, he thought he and his beautiful wife, Abby, were on their way. The firm leased him a BMW, paid off his school... read more

Summary edit see section history

Mitchell Y. McDeere is a law student who graduated third in his class at Harvard Law School. Mitch is married to his college sweetheart, Abby. 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... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Mitchell Y. McDeere is a law student who graduated third in his class at Harvard Law School. Mitch is married to his college sweetheart, Abby. 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 3 series, a low interest mortgage on a house, as well as paying off his student loans. 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 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 approximately ten million dollars from various bank accounts belonging to 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 two lawyers, and George, a bank robber from Australia, while the FBI gets the evidence they need to bust the firm through a variety of documents Mitch and Abby copy from the firm. At the end, Mitch, Abby and Ray are quietly enjoying their newfound wealth in the Caribbean region.

Characters edit see section history

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “The theory is that a strong marriage means a happy lawyer, and a happy lawyer is a productive lawyer, so the bottom line is profits.”
    kay quin
  • “You're the first McDeere in two generations to amount to a damned thing.”
    Ray mcdeere
  • “There's an unwritten rule at the firm—what we do away from Memphis stays away from Memphis.”
    Avery Tolleson
  • “He pampered the building, indulged it, coddled it, each year adding another layer of luxury to his landmark.”
  • “This firm recruited, and remained lily white.”
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • The firm had never hired an unmarried lawyer, and it frowned heavily on divorce,
    Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers
  • When you were in law school you had some noble idea of what a lawyer should be. A champion of individual rights; a defender of the Constitution; a guardian of the oppressed; an advocate for your client’s principles. Then after you practice for six months you realize we’re nothing but hired guns.
    Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers
  • THE PELICAN BRIEF THE CLIENT THE CHAMBER THE RAINMAKER THE RUNAWAY JURY THE PARTNER
    Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
  • It’s a cutthroat business where the weak are eaten and the strong get rich.
    Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
  • Milligan was head of tax, and Tolar, at forty-one, was one of the younger partners.
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • the law firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke is owned by the Morolto crime family in Chicago.
    Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
  • Any lawyer worth his salt knew the first offer had to be rejected. Always. He had seen Avery’s mouth drop open in shock and his head shake wildly in absolute disgust and disbelief with first offers, regardless of how reasonable. There would be counteroffers, and counter-counteroffers, and further negotiations, but always, the first offer was rejected.
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
  • Books by John Grisham A TIME TO KILL
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
  • The managing partner, Royce McKnight, studied a dossier labeled “Mitchell Y. McDeere
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
  • “Not that I recall.”
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
Show all 15 quotes from this book

First Sentence edit see section history

The senior partner studied the resume for the hundredth time and again found nothing he disliked about Mitchell Y. McDeere, at least not on paper.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Chapters 1 - 41

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 80 of 194 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2010). (authoritative list)

Preceded by Atlas Shrugged, and followed by Great Expectations.

This is book 95 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2011). (authoritative list)

Preceded by Five Point Someone, and followed by Romeo and Juliet.

This is book 7 of 10 in Publishers Weekly Bestselling Novels In 1991. (authoritative list)

Preceded by The Doomsday Conspiracy, and followed by Night Over Water.

This is book 88 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)

Preceded by Emma, and followed by The Battle of the Labyrinth.

This is book 62 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2010). (authoritative list)

Preceded by The Memory Keeper's Daughter, and followed by Brave New World.

This is book 42 of 100 in Top 100 Mysteries of All Time (Mystery Writers of America, 1995). (authoritative list)

Preceded by Murder on the Orient Express, and followed by The Ipcress File.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. John Grisham (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Enric Tremps (Translator) - (Spanish)
  2. Christel Wiemken (Translator) - (German)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Random House
Country: United States
Publication Date: February 1, 1991
ISBN: 0385416342
Page Count: 432

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3557.R5355 F57 1991
  • Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

Mature themes.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

Movie Connections edit see section history

  • The Firm (IMDb): (1993) Starring Tom Cruise, Gene Hackmann, Ed Harris; Directed by Sydney Pollack

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • The Client
  • The Rainmaker
  • The Pelican Brief
  • A Time to Kill
  • Pleading Guilty

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