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| Categories | Thrillers & Suspense |
| Author | John Grisham |
| Publisher | Vintage; 2014th edition (August 18, 2015) |
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 480 pages |
| Item Weight | 9.6 ounces |
| Dimensions |
4.1 x 1.2 x 7.5 inches |
I. Book introduction
Gray Mountain is a legal thriller novel by John Grisham, published in hardcover on October 23, 2014. The book is set in Appalachia after the Great Recession and follows third-year associate Samantha Kofer after the Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, when she becomes a legal clinic intern in Virginia’s coal mining country.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • John Grisham has a new hero … and she’s full of surprises.
The year is 2008 and Samantha Kofer’s career at a huge Wall Street law firm is on the fast track—until the recession hits and she is downsized, furloughed, and escorted out of the building. Samantha, though, is offered an opportunity to work at a legal aid clinic for one year without pay, all for a slim chance of getting rehired.
In a matter of days Samantha moves from Manhattan to Brady, Virginia, population 2,200, in the heart of Appalachia, a part of the world she has only read about. Samantha’s new job takes her into the murky and dangerous world of coal mining, where laws are often broken, communities are divided, and the land itself is under attack. But some of the locals aren’t so thrilled to have a big-city lawyer in town, and within weeks Samantha is engulfed in litigation that turns deadly. Because like most small towns, Brady harbors big secrets that some will kill to conceal.
Plot
Samantha Kofer is a lawyer at a major New York City law firm, which is hit hard at the onset of the Great Recession. Rather than lay her off, the firm suggests that Sam conduct a charity service while she is put on furlough for a year. Sam takes up on the offer since she has no other choice and relocates to Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains. She finds a job with a woman named Mattie, who runs a legal aid firm in the town of Brady. Mattie and another woman, Annette, take up cases in the town. At first, Sam does not fit in, but eventually warms up to Mattie and the townspeople.
Sam eventually meets Mattie’s nephew, Donovan Gray. Donovan fills in that he and his firm have been battling against the strip-coal mining businesses in the town. Several employees of the coal mines work themselves until they are sick and the businesses have cut corners on safety measures, resulting in a few deaths. The coal mining has also contaminated the town’s water supply.
Sam meets Donovan’s brother Jeff, who acquired some important documents from the coal businesses, showing that the companies’ owners deliberately allowed the sludge from the mines to runoff into the rivers. Donovan intends to sue the companies, but he is killed in a mysterious plane crash. Jeff is convinced that the coal mine owners sabotaged Donovan’s plane in order to keep the evidence from leaking out.
Editorial Reviews
“An important new novel . . . Grisham’s work—always superior entertainment—is evolving into something more serious, more powerful, more worthy of his exceptional talent.” —Patrick Anderson, The Washington Post
“John Grisham makes a powerful closing argument against Big Coal, but the message never obscures a satisfying, old fashioned, good guy-bad guy legal thriller.” —Christian Science Monitor
“Grisham has written one of his best legal dramas in quite some time with this dive into small-town politics. There’s a mystery, but that’s a minor portion of the story. The main thrust that will engage readers is Samantha Kofer and the cast of characters that help her discover her passion.” —Associated Press
About John Grisham
John Grisham (born February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas) is an American novelist, lawyer and former member of the 7th district of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his popular legal thrillers. According to the American Academy of Achievement, Grisham has written 28 consecutive number-one fiction bestsellers, and his books have sold 300 million copies worldwide. Along with Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling, Grisham is one of only three authors to have sold two million copies on a first printing.
Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University and earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. He practised criminal law for about a decade and served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1983 to 1990.
Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, was published in June 1989, four years after he began writing it. Grisham’s first bestseller, The Firm, sold more than seven million copies. The book was adapted into a 1993 feature film of the same name, starring Tom Cruise, and a 2012 TV series which continues the story ten years after the events of the film and novel. Seven of his other novels have also been adapted into films: The Chamber, The Client, A Painted House, The Pelican Brief, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, and Skipping Christmas.
Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.
When he’s not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system.
John Girsham lives on a farm in central Virginia.
II. Reviewer: Gray Mountain
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1. SANDY reviews for Gray Mountain
This is one of Gresham’s best. I grew up in the area this book is about and saw what he is talking about first hand. It is very accurate and though he does talk about some of the stereotypes of uneducated people in the area, he does not belabor the issue and he does show there are also educated people and that the general personality of the area is one of love and caring about each other. He also shows how absentee owners are raping the land to get and sell coal for the biggest profits for them but at the expense of the health of the people and environment of the region. So sad that many of the people need the coal jobs to live but to do that they are being forced to destroy their own health and their environment–neither of which will ever recover. Great book
2. WENDY reviews for Gray Mountain
Gray Mountain
John Grisham has done it again! This was an amazing novel. I can easily say that I think this is the best novel he has written in a very long time and it may be the best novel he has ever written. I would love to see him write a sequel to Gray Mountain. John Grisham is another one of the first authors that I started reading as a teenager and as the years have gone by and I have gotten older his novels have just gotten better and better. Don’t pass up on reading this you will definitely be missing out on a great read.
3. MATT reviews for Gray Mountain
Grisham returns to spin the tale of another young attorney who’s taken out of their element. Samantha Kofer is living the high life in New York, at the largest firm in the world. When the 2008 financial crisis hits, the firm takes drastic measures and tightens its belt, leaving Samantha on a loose furlough for a year. After reaching out to the Mountain Legal Aid Clinic in Brady, Virginia, Samantha agrees to work an internship for no pay and great experience. There, she encounters the life of small-town America, deep in the heart of coal country. With the silver spoon firmly embedded in her mouth, Samantha has a difficult time adjusting to the lifestyle and looking at the law from the ‘little guy’ perspective. She is able to work at the clinic and gets her hands dirty from the get-go, seeking to help those who cannot help themselves. In a part of the country where Black Lung is more prevalent than any other illness, Samantha must navigate through the coal industry to save one of her clients, whose last hope comes from Mountain Legal Aid. When her attention is pulled towards a family with deep roots in the community, she must decide where her ethics end and lust begins. Grisham paints yet another wonderful story, complete with legal and social commentary, peppered with just enough down to earth dialogue to keep the reader hooked. One book you can’t pass up!
As the book progressed, I was sure Grisham would solidify a case against the coal company, pitting the ‘common American’ against big business, as he has done in the past. He chooses, however, to tackle the entire small-town mentality and struggling lawyers trying to do right for those they represent. The story is much more powerful than I thought it would be and offers strong connections to a number of characters. Grisham has a masterful way of pulling the reader in and caring about all those who play a role in the story. No doubts about why and how this one made its way to the top of all the fiction bestseller lists.
Kudos, Mr. Grisham for another powerful story and educational moments throughout.
4. JEAN reviews for Gray Mountain
This is an “issue” novel. It is not the first one Grisham has written. The 2013 book “Sycamore Row” looked at racism in his native Mississippi, and his 1994 book “Pelican Brief” attack the environmental problems of the Gulf. I think that some issues are better attacked/told in novel form and his true story “The Innocent Man” might have worked better in a novel format.
Our protagonist Samantha Kofer, daughter of two high powered attorneys graduated from Georgetown University and Columbia law. She was a third year associate at a huge New York law firm when the recession began. When Lehman Brothers failed she is laid off. The firm stated they will continue her benefits and seniority if she would work for free in a not for profit organization for a year. She got an intern job at Mountain Legal Aid in tiny Brady, Va. in the heart of Appalachia.
The author does justice to the physical beauty of Appalachia and to the decency of most of its people. Grisham’s portrait of the poverty and injustice is abrupt as compared to Samantha’s privileged upbringing. The real subject of the book is the suffering inflicted on the people by coal mining companies and politicians who pander to the mining companies. Of course, none of this is new Eleanor Roosevelt attempted to help the people of Appalachia back in the 1930s. She even took on the coal mining companies and got some mining safety laws passed.
Grisham covers the problems of black lung disease, domestic violence, meth production and addiction, illegal collection companies, as well as the death of children from falling boulders dislodged by mining companies. The first thing Samantha is told was do not drink the water. The rape of the land by strip mining as well as toxic waste that has poisoned the water makes the story appear to jump right out of the newspapers headlines.
Grisham makes his characters very real and the plight of the miners and the realities of their lives are heart breaking. The story delves into small town politics and of course, a murder to solve. The mystery is a minor portion of the story; the main thrust is coal mining. I hope this novel by Grisham will shame society to act against the destruction of the mountains and rivers by strip mining or enforce or enact stricter regulations. I read this as an audio book downloaded from Audible. Catherine Taber narrated the story.
5. ELIZABETH BLANKENSHIP reviews for Gray Mountain
The book kept me interested & had many twists & turns. I truly enjoyed it. I live in Southwest VA & found some of the book to not be realistic. The bigger coal companies offer lucrative pay & benefits including 401K. Not everyone is poverty stricken either. Other than that being a bit misleading, it was a good book. The author moved around some of the towns & counties, but it was very realistic. I felt like he described exactly where Brady would be. I just wish he would have mentioned a tad more about the positive aspects of the Appalachian lives we lead.
6. CLEM reviews for Gray Mountain
If you’ve already read several of John Grisham’s previous books, you’ve essentially already this one as well – before you even pick it up. Grisham’s books seem to have very common themes that run through most of them, in addition to always focusing around the law and lawyers. Let’s see what this book includes:
- The “Professional Lawyers are Always Miserable” story. People who want to make it big in the legal profession find themselves, upon graduating from law school, working in faceless, lifeless firms that only care about how many hours that the young peons can bill. Our young up and comers are forced to work 100+ hour weeks, sleep in their office, have no time for a social life, and seem to rely on Pepto-Bismol as a main dietary supplement. I guess there are still people in the world that would rather make boatloads of money, even if means sacrificing everything – including happiness and selling their soul.
- The “Small Town” story. Usually we find ourselves in some small, remote, rural area of a town that has definitely seen better days and appears to be a couple of months from extinction. Everyone knows who the barber is, the waitress (at the only restaurant) is, and the name of the funeral director, but there’s no McDonalds nor shopping mall in sight. People, sadly, are born and raised in this town and seem to know of no other life outside the town boundaries. Life is a far cry from anything that Norman Rockwell ever painted.
- The “Big Corporations are Always Evil” story. There is some pour soul, or souls, who are victims of the high and mighty greedy companies that are much more interested in making a profit that they are the wellbeing of people or the planet. Usually, this evil entity is represented by something like a billion dollar heartless insurance firm, or a company producing mass quantities of cancer causing chemicals that seep into the environment causing the slow death of the surrounding communities. Usually, we’re then introduced to a young eager lawyer who goes against all odds to bring justice for the under privileged victims.
So in this book, Samantha Kofer is a young attorney working in midtown Manhattan enjoying the “perks” of working for a high profile firm. She makes gobs of money, yet doesn’t have any life whatsoever that involves anything remotely tied to enjoyment. Well, the story takes place in 2008, and the financial meltdown is slowly starting to take effect. Every lawyer she knows, not just at her firm, is being laid off left and right. There seems to be absolutely no hope for these young urban professionals – they go from riches to rags overnight. Eventually, Samantha gets a pink slip as well.
Well, fortunately (kind of) at her firm, she is offered a furlough opportunity of working in a charitable organization for one year without pay. If things get better at her firm, she may get to come back to her job. Will she do it? She better hurry up and decide, as these opportunities are rare, and she’s actually one of the lucky ones to get such an offer.
So Samantha heads to a small town in the middle of nowhere in West Virginia to work giving free legal assistance at a legal clinic. She now, essentially, sees how the other half lives. There’s all sorts of small town problems, and Samantha is quickly thrown into the thick of things. Fortunately, she has a good team, so she’s never completely overwhelmed.
The biggest monster she faces is the coal industry. The big bad coal company is doing something called “strip mining”, and Samantha (as well as the reader) learns all about the process. Essentially, the West Virginia mountains are being raped, and people are literally dying after prolonged exposure from working in these mines their whole lives. Sadly, it doesn’t seem there’s anything that can be done. The coal company isn’t doing anything illegal, and after all, people need coal for electricity. Plus, when you live in a small town in West Virginia, there really aren’t many other opportunities as far as employment goes.
The problem that many have with this novel, is this really isn’t a linear story. Although sometimes we’re given small hints, there’s never a big “showdown” between the good guys and the bad guys. There’s no major trial, no biased judge, no tilted jury selection, no major headlines, nothing that we get used to from reading John Grisham. This book, rather, is simply about Samantha, not about a particular lawsuit. This didn’t bother me at all because a) as I mentioned, I’ve already seen this story before with Grisham – and- b) Grisham is a great story teller. So even though you could argue that nothing concrete happens in terms of a plot, I still enjoyed reading about Samantha, and her struggles with her new existence.
Because of this, I’m not sure they could ever make a movie about this book, but it would make an excellent pilot for a television series. This book didn’t blow me away by Grisham standards, but most everything by Grisham is better than most anything else by anyone else, so I still enjoyed it. Even if I felt like I had read all of this before.
7. RONALD H.CLARK reviews for Gray Mountain
John Grisham and Scott Turow pioneered the “legal thriller” format; Grisham has continued to develop his skills as a novelist, not just a legal novelist, in some 27 novels. When he started, particularly with “The Firm,” his books tended to have a good deal of razzle dazzle excitement, and I could not turn the pages fast enough. But reflecting his maturity as a novelist, and perhaps also his move (at least part time) to Virginia, his more recent books have undertaken to inform (I hesitate to say “educate”) the reader about important issues while not diminishing the impact of the story line. For example, his books have dealt with the death penalty; judicial campaign abuse; mass torts lawyers, as well as various criminal justice issues. This approach has placed a significant extra burden on Grisham: namely to hold the reader’s interest while these other issues pop up. He has met this challenge very well in my opinion, having read virtually all of his legal novels.
This novel is just chock full of interesting issues that contribute to the development of the story line. Grisham is no fan of mega firms (nor am I having practiced in a couple), anyd why they are often unpleasant places for especially young lawyers to practice is a point repeatedly raised here. The story is set in New York City, Washington, D.C., and a small southern Appalachian Virginia town, and Grisham is accurate in describing NYC and DC (although I am still puzzled by his term “central D.C.”). The central character Samantha, a large firm associate who moves to a small legal aid firm, learns about many new things she had not previously experienced, as does the reader. They include: the horror of black lung disease and how seeking compensation can drag on for years; how local governments hire private contractors to “strong arm” minor violators to pay up their fines or go to jail; how caps on punitive damages (as in in Virginia) limit recoveries even for wrongful deaths; and how garnishments can be imposed based on old out of date judgments. These are all important factors in Appalachia.
But the most interesting theme is the power of the coal industry in these areas. Particularly effective is Grisham’s discussion of “mountaintop removal” where mountains are literally destroyed to get at the coal, with the resulting detritus pushed into surrounding valleys and streams. We learn about sludge and how slurry impoundments can fail and discharge 300 million gallons of sludge onto surrounding communities. We also discover that giant coal trucks generate an enormous amount of deadly auto accidents. But the key problem remains black lung. The law fails to protect the local residents for several reasons: juries that fear to penalize the industry for fear of retribution or the loss of precious jobs; the expense of litigation; and state laws which favor the coal companies. It is all quite an education as one reads the novel.
The novel manifests some of Grisham’s weaknesses as well. His villains tend to be somewhat “cardboardish”; his vendetta with the FBI and U.S. Attorneys continues (perhaps a legacy from his criminal defense days in Mississippi); and sometimes major ethical issues are skipped by (such as Samantha trying to get her high level DOJ mom to call off the bureau). But these are small blemishes. I am happy to report that Grisham can still deliver some exciting page-turning razzle dazzle (beginning at page 352). This book is just typical Grisham which means it is another interesting and informative well-constructed yarn by a master of this genre.
8. MAGGIE61 reviews for Gray Mountain
I can’t remember the last time I read one of John Grisham’s books. I didn’t mean to neglect them, it just happened. I have always loved John Grisham’s legal thrillers, this was no exception, I really liked it.
When Samantha loses her wall street job as a lawyer, she takes an unpaid internship in the small town of Brady, Virginia. She had no idea what she was getting into, picturing a small town with small problems but she finds herself in coal country and as she becomes part of the town, she learns of the dirty dealings, the lawsuits, the deaths, many being horrendous. She didn’t realize the danger she was walking into, even the cases that seemed pretty simple at the start, really weren’t. From someone who had never seen the inside of a courtroom, she starts to love litigation.
This book has a bit of romance, lots of action, and although there was a lot of talk of coal and details about the coal industry, I was never bored, actually fascinated.
The book was left in a position that there could be a continuation, so much we don’t have conclusions to and are left to wonder what becomes of the people, the lawsuits and Samantha herself.
9. FRED FORBES reviews for Gray Mountain
Grisham is one of those great story tellers (like Lee Childs, Stephen King) whose fans interrupt what they are doing, back off on other books and dive right in. And, as usual, fans will not be disappointed in this offering. Interesting female protagonist, laid off from a prestigious New York City law firm and ends up as an unpaid intern in a free legal clinic in West Virginia. Since she is pretty solid in her city ways, having grown up in DC and sorely missing NY, she does have a few adjustment issues.
When I lived in the DC suburbs as a teenager, I would head for West Virginia on weekends for caving, rock climbing, and fishing for golden trout in the clear streams. Gorgeous country that will always claim a place in my heart and it about broke my heart to hear the descriptions of the strip mining that levels mountains, dumps debris into the valleys and pollutes those streams. Naturally, the book is raising considerable outrage at these practices. Still, I felt the painting of the coal companies as evil incarnate was a bit overdone and heavy handed but I suppose the excessive posturing is necessary to get the world’s attention.
An interesting story, not tied up quite as neatly as his other efforts, but a worthy read.
10. DICK REYNOLDS reviews for Gray Mountain
It’s 2008 and Attorney Samantha Kofer is downsized from a large prestigious Wall Street law firm. She takes an unpaid internship in Brady, a small Virginia town in the center of coal mining country. Almost immediately she is thrust into the world of black lung disease, desecration of mountains and forests by gigantic coal mining companies, and fierce litigation where the rules are severely bent.
Samantha’s law experience is meager; she’s been analyzing contracts, shuffling papers, and has not been exposed to litigation. She’s actually afraid of litigation and doesn’t want anything to do with it. But the human element comes starkly into focus as she learns to care about the people she works with and the clients who come looking for help in Brady’s free legal office. There is some humor in the book when an elderly citizen decides to cut her five grown children out of her will and give her land to a trust. There’s nothing that can whip up a family frenzy like a dispute among greedy heirs about who gets what.
Samantha comes from hardy legal stock. Both of her parents are lawyers but divorced. Her mother, Karen, is a big shot in the U. S. Justice Department and her father, Marshall, is actually a disbarred attorney who served prison time and is now manager of his own legal “consulting” company.
About a third of the way into the book I thought I had the plot figured out. I got part of it right but Grisham has his own way of weaving plot threads and throwing in surprises along the way.
In one sense this book reminds me of Sycamore Row where the protagonist was Jake Brigance, an attorney who returns from A Time to Kill, Grisham’s first novel. I think he’s created another splendid legal thriller franchise with Samantha Kofer and I hope to read more of her legal adventures in a future Grisham novel. She’s a winner.
III. Gray Mountain Quotes
The best book quotes from Gray Mountain by John Grisham
“They say a woman marries a man with the belief she can change him, and she can’t. A man marries a woman with the belief that she won’t change, and she does.”
“She was drained from the shock and fear of looking at the emotional wreckage of real humans, desperate people with little hope and looking to her for help.”
“The relief came from the sudden realization that she had just been freed from a job she despised.”
“Appalachia was Appalachia, regardless of boundaries someone had set an eternity ago. A land of breathtaking beauty, of steep hills and rolling mountains”
“Relief, fear, and humiliation. Her parents paid for a pricey prep school education in D.C. She graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown with a degree in political science. She breezed through law school and finished with honors. A dozen megafirms offered her jobs after a federal court clerkship. The first twenty-nine years of her life had seen overwhelming success and little failure. To be discharged in such a manner was crushing. To be escorted out of the building was degrading. This was not just a minor bump in a long, rewarding career.”
“litigation funders are private companies that raise money from their investors to buy into big lawsuits.”
“Black lung is a legal term for a preventable, occupational lung disease. It is more formally known as coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), and is caused by prolonged exposure to coal dust. Once coal dust is inhaled into the body it cannot be removed or discharged. It progressively builds up in the lungs and can lead to inflammation, fibrosis, even necrosis. There are two forms of the disease: “simple CWP” and “complicated CWP” (or progressive massive fibrosis).”
“Did you know that some of the counties in the coalfields have the highest rates of cancer in the country?”
“every company of a certain size must have committed egregious sins to succeed in the cutthroat world of Western capitalism.”
“he’s now in hiding, in another state. I give him cash to live on.” “Is that legal?” “That’s not a fair question in coal country. Nothing is black-and-white in my world. The enemy breaks every rule in the book, so the fight is never fair. If you play by the rules, you lose, even when you’re on the right side.”
“You just don’t understand men, Samantha. Looking is automatic and it’s harmless. We all look. Come on.”
“He said something that vaguely resembled “Driver’s license please.” She grabbed her bag and eventually found her license. Her hands were shaking as she gave him the card. He took it and pulled it almost to his nose, as if visually impaired. She finally looked at him; other impairments were obvious. His uniform was a mismatched ensemble of frayed and stained khaki pants, a faded brown shirt covered with all manner of insignia, unpolished black combat boots, and a Smokey the Bear trooper’s hat at least two sizes too big and resting on his oversized ears. Unruly black hair crept from under the hat. “New York?” he said. His diction was far from crisp but his belligerent tone was clear.”
“An old pickup truck approached from ahead, slowed, and seemed ready to stop. The driver leaned out and yelled, “Come on, Romey, not again.” The cop turned around and yelled back, “Get outta here!” The truck stopped on the center line, and the driver yelled, “You gotta stop that, man.” The cop unsnapped his holster, whipped out his black pistol, and said, “You heard me, get outta here.” The truck lurched forward, spun its rear tires, and sped away. When it was twenty yards down the road, the cop aimed his pistol at the sky and fired a loud, thundering shot that cracked through the valley and echoed off the ridges. Samantha screamed and began crying. The cop watched the truck disappear, then said, “It’s okay, it’s okay. He’s always butting in. Now, where were we?” He stuck the pistol back into the holster”
“no one in Brady had seemed even remotely aware that the world was teetering on the brink of a catastrophic depression. Perhaps the mountains kept the place isolated and secure. Or perhaps life there had been depressed for so long another crash wouldn’t matter.”
“I’ll bet you want to know how a person like Stocky can be thrown into a debtors’ prison, something this country outlawed about two hundred years ago. Right?” Samantha slowly nodded. Mattie continued, “More than likely, you’re also certain that throwing someone in jail because he cannot pay a fine or a fee violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. And, you are no doubt familiar with the 1983 Supreme Court decision, the name escapes me right now, in which the Court ruled that before a person can be thrown in jail for not paying a fine it must be proven that he or she was willfully not paying. In other words, he could pay but he refused. All this and more, right?”
“At that moment, though, there were no options. These boys were enjoying their George Dickel straight, no ice. It burned her lips and scalded her tongue and set fire to her esophagus, but when Donovan asked, “How is it?” she managed a smile and said, “Fine.”
“Her father had learned only one thing in prison. Not humility, nor patience, nor understanding…Marshall Kofer had learned to listen, at least to his daughter”.”
“Samantha talked so much she was exhausted, but she allowed her fears to be heard by both parents, and the relief was enormous. No clear decisions had been made. Nothing had really been resolved. Their advice was largely predictable, but the act of talking about it all was therapeutic.”
“She loved Manhattan and could not imagine living anywhere else, but her world was upside down now, and, well, there was nothing certain in her future.”
“They had this large, cluttered room—come to think of it, they called it the war room.”
“In that case, the truck driver took the stand, swore to tell the truth, then lied for three hours. He said Gretchen crossed the center line and caused the wreck, made it sound as though she was trying to kill herself. The coal companies are clever and they never send down one truck at a time. They travel in pairs, so there’s always a witness ready to testify.”
“as well as depressing, but each day I feel like I’m making a small difference. We walked a kid out of prison last week. His parents were waiting by the gate, and everyone was in tears, including me. FYI—one”
“Trucks hauling coal that weighs a hundred tons, racing across old, twenty-ton bridges still used by school buses, and absolutely ignoring every rule of the road. If there’s an accident, it’s usually bad. In West Virginia, they’re killing one innocent driver per week. The trucker swears he was doing nothing wrong, his buddy backs him up, there are no other witnesses, so the jury falls in line with Big Coal.”
“Samantha nodded smugly as if it were just another day in court. She pretended to be captivated by a document, frowning and underlining some terribly important words, while wanting to yell, “I can’t believe it either. This is my first trial!”
“The contrast was startling: the beauty of the ridges against the poverty of the people who lived between them. There were some pretty homes with neat lawns and white picket fences, but the neighbors were usually not as prosperous.”
“Her destination was the hospital in Beckley, West Virginia, a town of twenty thousand.”
Excerpted from Gray Mountain by John Grisham
Chapter 1 – Gray Mountain
The horror was in the waiting–the unknown, the insomnia, the ulcers. Co-workers ignored each other and hid behind locked doors. Secretaries and paralegals passed along the rumors and refused eye contact. Everyone was on edge, wondering, “Who might be next?” The partners, the big boys, appeared shell-shocked and wanted no contact with their underlings. They might soon be ordered to slaughter them.
The gossip was brutal. Ten associates in Litigation terminated; partially true–only seven. The entire Estate division closed, partners and all; true. Eight partners in Antitrust jumping to another firm; false, for now.
The atmosphere was so toxic that Samantha left the building whenever possible and worked with her laptop in coffee shops around lower Manhattan. She sat on a park bench one pleasant day–day ten after the fall of Lehman Brothers–and gazed at the tall building down the street. It was called 110 Broad, and the top half was leased by Scully & Pershing, the biggest law firm the world had ever seen. Her firm, for now, though the future was anything but certain. Two thousand lawyers in twenty countries, half of them in New York City alone, a thousand right up there packed together on floors 30 through 65. How many wanted to jump? She couldn’t guess, but she wasn’t the only one. The world’s largest firm was shrinking in chaos, as were its competitors. Big Law, as it was known, was just as panicked as the hedge funds, investment banks, real banks, insurance conglomerates, Washington, and on down the food chain to the merchants on Main Street.
Day ten passed without bloodshed, as did the next. On day twelve there was a flash of optimism as Ben, one of Samantha’s colleagues, shared a rumor that credit markets in London were loosening a bit. Borrowers might find some cash after all. But late that afternoon the rumor had run out of gas; nothing to it. And so they waited.
Two partners ran Commercial Real Estate at Scully & Pershing. One was nearing retirement age and had already been shoved out. The other was Andy Grubman, a forty-year-old pencil pusher who’d never seen a courtroom. As a partner, he had a nice office with a distant view of the Hudson, water he hadn’t noticed in years. On a shelf behind his desk, and squarely in the center of his Ego Wall, there was a collection of miniature skyscrapers. “My buildings” he liked to call them. Upon completion of one of his buildings, he commissioned a sculptor to replicate it on a smaller scale, and he generously gave an even smaller trophy to each member of “my team.” In her three years at S&P, Samantha’s collection had six buildings, and that was as large as it would get.
“Have a seat,” he ordered as he closed the door. Samantha sat in a chair next to Ben, who was next to Izabelle. The three associates studied their feet, waiting. Samantha felt the urge to grab Ben’s hand, like a terrified prisoner facing a firing squad. Andy fell into his chair, and, avoiding eye contact but desperate to get things over with, he recapped the mess they were in.
“As you know, Lehman Brothers folded fourteen days ago.”
No kidding, Andy! The financial crisis and credit meltdown had the world on the brink of a catastrophe and everyone knew it. But then, Andy rarely had an original thought.
“We have five projects in the works, all funded by Lehman. I’ve talked at length with the owners, and all five are pulling the plug. We had three more in the distance, two with Lehman, one with Lloyd’s, and, well, all credit is frozen. The bankers are in their bunkers, afraid to loan a dime.”
Yes, Andy, we know this too. It’s front-page. Just get it over with before we jump.
“The exec committee met yesterday and made some cuts. Thirty first-year associates are being let go; some terminated outright, others laid off. All new hires are deferred indefinitely. Probate is gone. And, well, there is no easy way to say this, but our entire division is on the block. Cut. Eliminated. Who knows when owners will start building again, if ever. The firm is unwilling to keep you on the payroll while the world waits for loose credit. Hell, we could be headed for a major depression. This is probably just the first round of cuts. Sorry, guys. I’m really sorry.”
Ben spoke first. “So we’re being terminated outright?”
“No. I fought for you guys, okay? At first they planned to do the pink slip thing. I don’t have to remind you that CRE is the smallest division in the firm and probably the hardest hit right now. I talked them into something we’re calling a furlough. You’ll leave now, come back later, maybe.”
“Maybe?” Samantha asked. Izabelle wiped a tear but kept her composure.
“Yes, a big fat maybe. Nothing is definite right now, Samantha, okay? We’re all chasing our tails. In six months we could all be at the soup kitchen. You’ve seen the old photos from 1929.”
Come on, Andy, a soup kitchen? As a partner, your take-home last year was $2.8 million, average at S&P, which, by the way, came in fourth in net-per-partner. And fourth was not good enough, at least it wasn’t until Lehman croaked and Bear Stearns imploded and the sub-prime mortgage bubble burst. Suddenly, fourth place was looking pretty good, for some anyway.
“What’s a furlough?” Ben asked.
“Here’s the deal. The firm keeps you under contract for the next twelve months, but you don’t get a paycheck.”
“Sweet,” Izabelle mumbled.
Ignoring her, Andy plowed ahead: “You keep your health benefits, but only if you intern with a qualified nonprofit. HR is putting together a list of suitable outfits. You go away, do your little do-gooder bit, save the world, hope like hell the economy bounces back, then in a year or so you’re back with the firm and you don’t lose any seniority. You won’t be in CRE but the firm will find a place for you.”
“Are our jobs guaranteed when the furlough is over?” Samantha asked.
“No, nothing is guaranteed. Frankly, no one is smart enough to predict where we’ll be next year. We’re in the middle of an election, Europe is going to hell, the Chinese are freaking out, banks are folding, markets are crashing, nobody’s building or buying. The world’s coming to an end.”
They sat for a moment in the gloomy silence of Andy’s office, all four crushed with the reality of the end of the world. Finally, Ben asked, “You, too, Andy?”
“No, they’re transferring me to Tax. Can you believe it? I hate Tax, but it was either Tax or driving a cab. I got a master’s in taxation, though, so they figured they could spare me.”
“Congratulations,” Ben said.
“I’m sorry, guys.”
“No, I mean it. I’m happy for you.”
“I could be gone in a month. Who knows?”
“When do we leave?” Izabelle asked.
“Right now. The procedure is to sign a furlough agreement, pack up your stuff, clean off your desk, and hit the street. HR will e-mail you a list of nonprofits and all the paperwork. Sorry, guys.”
“Please stop saying that,” Samantha said. “There’s nothing you can say that helps matters here.”
“True, but it could be worse. The majority of those in your boat are not being offered a furlough. They’re being fired on the spot.”
“I’m sorry, Andy,” Samantha said. “There are a lot of emotions right now.”
“It’s okay. I understand. You have the right to be angry and upset. Look at you–all three have Ivy League law degrees and you’re being escorted out of the building like thieves. Laid off like factory workers. It’s awful, just awful. Some of the partners offered to cut their salaries in half to prevent this.”
“I’ll bet that was a small group,” Ben said.
“It was, yes. Very small, I’m afraid. But the decision has been made.”
A woman in a black suit and a black necktie stood at the quad where Samantha shared a “space” with three others, including Izabelle. Ben was just down the hall. The woman tried to smile as she said, “I’m Carmen. Can I help you?” She was holding an empty cardboard box, blank on all sides so no one would know it was the official Scully & Pershing repository for the office junk of those furloughed or fired or whatever.
“No, thanks,” Samantha said, and she managed to do so politely. She could have snapped and been rude, but Carmen was only doing her job. Samantha began opening drawers and removing all things personal. In one drawer she had some S&P files and asked, “What about these?”
“They stay here,” Carmen said, watching every move, as if Samantha might attempt to pilfer some valuable asset. The truth was that everything of value was stored in the computers–a desktop she used in her space and a laptop she took almost everywhere. A Scully & Pershing laptop. It, too, would remain behind. She could access everything from her personal laptop, but she knew the codes had already been changed.
As if sleepwalking, she cleaned out the drawers and gently tucked away the six miniature skyscrapers from her collection, though she thought about tossing them into the trash can. Izabelle arrived and was given her own personal cardboard box. All others–associates, secretaries, paralegals–had suddenly found business elsewhere. Protocol had been quickly adopted–when someone cleans out a desk, let them do it in peace. No witnesses, no gawking, no hollow farewells.
Izabelle’s eyes were puffy and red; she had obviously been in the restroom crying. She whispered, “Call me. Let’s have a drink tonight.”
“Sure,” Samantha said. She finished stuffing it all into the box, her briefcase, and her bulky designer bag, and without looking over her shoulder she marched behind Carmen down the hallway and to the elevators on the forty-eighth floor. As they waited, she refused to look around and absorb it one last time. The door opened and thankfully the elevator was empty. “I’ll carry that,” Carmen said, pointing to the box, which was already increasing in bulk and weight. “No,” Samantha said as she stepped inside. Carmen pushed the button for the lobby. Why, exactly, was she being escorted out of the building? The longer she pondered the question the angrier she became. She wanted to cry and she wanted to lash out, but what she really wanted was to call her mother. The elevator stopped on the forty-third floor and a well-dressed young man stepped in. He was holding an identical cardboard box, with a large bag strapped over his shoulder and a leather briefcase under an arm. He had the same stunned look of fear and confusion. Samantha had seen him in the elevator but never met him. What a firm. So mammoth the associates wore name badges at the dreadful Christmas party. Another security guard in a black suit stepped in behind him, and when everyone was in place Carmen again pressed the button for the lobby. Samantha studied the floor, determined not to speak even if spoken to. On the thirty-ninth floor, the elevator stopped again, and Mr. Kirk Knight got on board while studying his cell phone. Once the door closed, he glanced around, saw the two cardboard boxes, and seemed to gasp as his spine stiffened. Knight was senior partner in Mergers & Acquisitions and a member of the executive committee. Suddenly face-to-face with two of his victims, he swallowed hard and stared at the door. Then he suddenly punched the button for floor number 28.
Samantha was too numb to insult him. The other associate had his eyes closed. When the elevator stopped, Knight hustled off. After the door closed, Samantha remembered the firm leased floors 30 through 65. Why would Knight make a sudden exit onto 28? Who cared?
Carmen walked her through the lobby and out the door onto Broad Street. She offered a meek “I’m sorry,” but Samantha did not respond. Laden like a pack mule, she drifted with the foot traffic, going nowhere in particular. Then she remembered the newspaper photos of the Lehman and Bear Stearns employees leaving their office buildings with boxes filled with their stuff, as if the buildings were on fire and they were fleeing for their lives. In one photo, a large color one on the front of the Times’s section B, a Lehman trader was caught with tears on her cheeks as she stood helplessly on the sidewalk.
But those photos were old news now and Samantha did not see any cameras. She set the box down at the corner of Broad and Wall and waited for a cab.
….
Note: Above are quotes and excerpts from the book “Gray Mountain by John Grisham”. If you find it interesting and useful, don’t forget to buy paper books to support the Author and Publisher!
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