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| Categories | Thrillers & Suspense |
| Author | John Grisham |
| Publisher | Anchor; Reprint edition (October 25, 2011) |
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 416 pages |
| Item Weight | 11.2 ounces |
| Dimensions |
5.2 x 0.85 x 7.98 inches |
I. Book introduction
The Litigators is a 2011 legal thriller novel by John Grisham, his 25th fiction novel overall. The Litigators is about a two-partner Chicago law firm attempting to strike it rich in a class action lawsuit over a cholesterol reduction drug by a major pharmaceutical drug company. The protagonist is a Harvard Law School grad big law firm burnout who stumbles upon the boutique and joins it only to find himself litigating against his old law firm in this case. The book is regarded as more humorous than most of Grisham’s prior novels.
The theme of a young lawyer being fed up with a giant law firm and bolting away to a less lucrative but more satisfying career is shared with The Associate. The theme of a lawsuit against a giant corporation appeared in The Runaway Jury, but in the present book, the corporation is vindicated and proven to have been unjustly maligned (at least on the specific drug which is the subject of the lawsuit) and the mass tort lawyers are seen as greedy and unscrupulous, ultimately bolting and leaving the protagonist’s tiny Chicago firm in the lurch.
Critical reviews were mixed for the book, with several opinions noting a lack of suspense. Nonetheless, the book has achieved both hardcover and ebook #1 best seller status on various lists, including both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. However, since some services do not separate fiction and non-fiction books, it did not debut as a #1 bestseller on certain lists, such as the USA Today. Some reviewers noted that this story would lend itself to an adapted screenplay.
And it is.
The Litigators is a tremendously entertaining romp, filled with the kind of courtroom strategies, theatrics, and suspense that have made John Grisham America’s favorite storyteller.
Plot
Oscar Finley and Wally Figg are ambulance chasers at a small law firm in the South Side of Chicago. Their constant bickering is often mediated by Rochelle, their highly competent African-American secretary. Meanwhile, David Zinc, a Harvard Law School graduate, is completely fed up with the grinding and dehumanizing – though well-paid – life of an associate in the high-powered law firm of Rogan Rothberg. David suddenly breaks away, goes on a drinking binge and by chance finds himself at the Finley & Figg office, where he willingly relegates himself to working for the two disreputable street lawyers.
Wally gets involved in a new scheme, finding claimants for a federal class action lawsuit against Krayoxx, a cholesterol-lowering drug developed by the fictional pharmaceutical company Varrick Labs. Users across the country, both dead and alive, appear to have developed toxic reactions to the drug. Though the firm is out of its depth, Wally gains the assurance of a South Florida lawyer, Jerry Alisandros, that Alisandros will handle the case and reach an out-of-court settlement, and everybody will get rich. However, complications that no one anticipated arise, including Varrick’s hiring of Nadine Karros, Rogan Rothberg’s ace litigator who never loses a case, and the growing evidence that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with Krayoxx. The drug works as advertised, has no ill effects, and is unjustly maligned. Varrick pushes to have the case tried in the jurisdiction of Chicago federal judge Harry Seawright, with whom Rogan Rothberg has ties. The case is expedited on Seawright’s docket, with Finley & Figg’s claim singled out of the tort claimants. Alisandros pulls out as co-counsel, leaving Finley & Figg to litigate the case themselves. The resulting trial brings the firm’s usual cast of shady witnesses to the stand in a desperate attempt to get through the trial and avoid being sued for legal malpractice and saddled with frivolous lawsuit sanctions.
In a subsidiary plot, David Zinc stumbles on a lead poisoning brain damage case involving the child of Burmese immigrants. His efforts to identify the American company which imported the child’s toxic toys from China, and reach a settlement with the importer, help him survive the demise of Finley & Figg and open his own successful law firm with Rochelle as his legal secretary.
Critical review
The Litigators is said to be “an amusing and appalling look into the machinations of a nationwide class-action suit,” according to Tobin Harshaw of Bloomberg L.P. The Wall Street Journal’s Christopher John Farley noted that the book is lighter than Grisham’s other works. Publishers Weekly called it a “bitingly farcical look at lawyers at the bottom of the food chain”. CNN described the book as an original perspective of “the best and worst the American system of justice has to offer”. Louis Bayard of The Washington Post, who described himself as someone who abandoned Grisham after his first three novels, noted that this book might be a good starting point for those who have tired of Grisham. Andrea Simakis of The Plain Dealer describes the book as a “heartier meal” than Grisham’s usual “potato-chip fiction”. Publishers Weekly also notes that the fairy tale ending is not really in keeping with the introduction’s dark humor. Rick Arthur of The United Arab Emirates publication The National describes the book unfavorably as a cross between prior Grisham works The Street Lawyer and The King of Torts and similarly describes the protagonist unfavorably to those of The Firm and The Rainmaker.
The book has been derided for its lack of suspense. Carol Memmott of USA Today says that Grisham’s latest attempt to capture the spirit of the legal David and Goliath story is missing “the ratcheting-up of suspense” that he has employed successfully in recent adult and youth novels. Harshaw claims that the book is lacking in the suspense that made The Firm so successful. Arthur finds elements of the plot implausible and the story unsuspenseful as well as unsatisfying. Although the book is somewhat predictable, Bayard notes that “Grisham swerves clear of the usual melodramatic devices. Corporations aren’t intrinsically venal; plaintiffs aren’t lambent with goodness. And best of all, no one is murdered for stumbling Too Close to the Truth.”
Some sources noted that the book has potential to become an adapted screenplay. Irish Independent describes Grisham’s new book as “following his usual route to the bestsellers list” and projects it as a candidate to be his next Hollywood film. Although it is standard Grisham fare, Independent noted that it provides the usual thrills in Grisham’s comfortable legal world and should be a gripping read for his usual fans. The Sunday Express noted that the book could be readily converted to a screenplay, but its critic, Robin Callender Smith, viewed the “ambulance chasing” ethos as a foreign thing that Brits might have to worry about in the near future.
Simakis praised the book for having more depth of character than Grisham’s novels customarily do. She compares the protagonist to Mitch McDeere from The Firm and Rudy Baylor from The Rainmaker. Memmott says that most of the claimants that they find are unsympathetic, but a few are from somewhat sympathetic immigrant families. Simakis notes that Wally trades sex for legal services with one claimant. Harshaw says that the book is a bit sentimental and comparatively lacking in terms of secondary character development for Grisham. Larry Orenstein of Canada’s The Globe and Mail notes that on the dramatic scale this book has instances of laugh out loud humor that make it more like Boston Legal than The Practice, which Boston Legal was spun off from.
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: The Litigators
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1. LUANNE OLLIVIER reviews for The Litigators
Well, I had great plans to jot down some notes and quotes to share with you about John Grisham’s newest book – The Litigators. Yeah, that didn’t happen…. because it ended up being a non stop read for me – I picked it up on a Sunday morning and turned the last page late (late) that night.
I was hooked from the opening pages. David Zinc has toiled away at a prestigious law firm in relative obscurity for the last five years. Until the morning he realizes he can’t do it anymore and walks away. And lands at the firm of Finley & Figg – ambulance chasers, divorce court specialists and anything else they can make a buck at. Although Wally and Oscar refer to the office as a ’boutique firm’, they are anything but – Wally has just placed an ad for the firm on local bingo hall cards.
When Wally gets wind of a potentially big case involving a big name cholesterol drug. It seems folks taking it are suffering heart damage and even death. If they can find a few cases of their own and ride on the coat tails of the big players in a mass claim action suit, they could all be rich. It seems simple enough……and that’s enough of the plot given away.
What made The Litigators a non stop read? The characters for sure. Wally and Oscar’s tactics are cringe worthy, their actions walk a fine line between working for the law and breaking it, but you just can’t help rooting for them in this David and Goliath fight. David is eminently likable as well. He is sense and reason, but with a new found freedom since escaping the big firm drudgery.The personal storyline involving his wife Helen also added much to the book.
It seems like Grisham has a lot of fun writing The Litigators – there is a sly sense of humour underlying the entire book. I laughed out loud many times at the situations and dialogue. It was eye opening to see the legal maneuvering – much of the machinations involving the drug companies and lawyers gave me pause and made me wonder how much of it is fact. Quite frightening actually.
The Litigators is by far one of Grisham’s best in my opinion (and I’ve read them all) An absolutely entertaining page turner that will be a well deserved best seller!
2. JOHN WALKER reviews for The Litigators
An elite lawyer rediscovers himself and the law at a gritty retail firm
Every now and then you come across a novel where it’s obvious, from the first few pages, that the author had an absolute blast telling the story, and when that’s the case, the reader is generally in for a treat. This is certainly the case here.
David Zinc appeared to have it all. A Harvard Law graduate, senior associate at Chicago mega-firm Rogan Rothberg working in international bond finance, earning US$300,000 a year, with a good shot of making partner (where the real gravy train pulls into the station); he had the house, the car, and a beautiful wife pursuing her Ph.D. in art history. And then one grim Chicago morning, heading to the office for another exhausting day doing work he detested with colleagues he loathed, enriching partners he considered odious (and knowing that, if he eventually joined their ranks, the process of getting there would have made him just the same), he snapped. Suddenly, as the elevator ascended, he realised as clearly as anything he’d ever known in his life, “I cannot do this any more”.
And so, he just walked away, found a nearby bar that was open before eight in the morning, and decided to have breakfast. A Bloody Mary would do just fine, thanks, and then another and another. After an all day bender, blowing off a client meeting and infuriating his boss, texting his worried wife that all was well despite the frantic calls to her from the office asking where he was, he hails a taxi not sure where he wants to go, then, spotting an advertisement on the side of a bus, tells the driver to take him to the law offices of Finley & Figg, Attorneys.
This firm was somewhat different than the one he’d walked out of earlier that day. Oscar Finley and Wally Figg described their partnership as a “boutique firm”, but their stock in trade was quicky no-fault divorces, wills, drunk driving, and that mainstay of ground floor lawyering, personal accident cases. The firm’s modest office was located near a busy intersection which provided an ongoing source of business, and the office was home to a dog named AC (for Ambulance Chaser), whose keen ears could pick up the sound of a siren even before a lawyer could hear it.
Staggering into the office, David offers his services as a new associate and, by soused bravado more than Harvard Law credentials, persuades the partners that the kid has potential, whereupon they sign him up. David quickly discovers an entire world of lawyering they don’t teach at Harvard: where lawyers carry handguns in their briefcases along with legal pads, and with good reason; where making the rounds of prospective clients involves visiting emergency rooms and funeral homes, and where dissatisfied clients express their frustration in ways that go well beyond drafting a stern memorandum.
Soon, the firm stumbles onto what may be a once in a lifetime bonanza: a cholesterol drug called Krayoxx (no relation to Vioxx—none at all) which seems to cause those who take it to drop dead with heart attacks and strokes. This vaults the three-lawyer firm into the high-rolling world of mass tort litigation, with players with their own private jets and golf courses. Finley & Figg ends up at the pointy end of the spear in the litigation, which doesn’t precisely go as they had hoped.
Here are two of the funniest paragraphs I’ve read in some time.
“While Wally doodled on a legal pad as if he were heavily medicated, Oscar did most of the talking. ‘So, either we get rid of these cases and face financial ruin, or we march into federal court three weeks from Monday with a case that no lawyer in his right mind would try before a jury, a case with no liability, no experts, no decent facts, a client who’s crazy half the time and stoned the other half, a client whose dead husband weighed 320 pounds and basically ate himself to death, a veritable platoon of highly paid and very skilled lawyers on the other side with an unlimited budget and experts from the finest hospitals in the country, a judge who strongly favors the other side, a judge who doesn’t like us at all because he thinks we’re inexperienced and incompetent, and, well, what else? What am I leaving out here, David?’
‘We have no cash for litigation expenses,’ David said, but only to complete the checklist.”
This story is not just funny, but also a tale of how a lawyer, in diving off the big law rat race into the gnarly world of retail practice rediscovers his soul and that there are actually noble and worthy aspects of the law. The characters are complex and interact in believable ways, and the story unfolds as such matters might well do in the real world. There is quite a bit in common between this novel and The King of Torts , but while that is a tragedy of hubris and nemesis, this is a tale of redemption.
3. WILLIAM M reviews for The Litigators
A severely burnt out lawyer finds new life in a most unscrupulous law office.
David Zinc, a brilliant but seriously fed up attorney walks away from a hugely successful law firm. During his near complete breakdown and a 24 hour bender, Zinc quite literally falls into the law office of Finley and Figg. What ensues is a delightful yarn about the trials (no pun intended) and tribulations of a tiny law office of ambulance chasers taking on a corporate giant. This is another winner from Grisham. Loved it.
4. WILL SAUNDERS reviews for The Litigators
When I first began reading John Grisham’s The Litigators I was immediately drawn into it. It’s a must-read book, if you enjoy the snappy witty charm of a young black woman keeping her older bosses together.
It begins with the plot centering on Wally, Oscar, and Rochelle – then a short time later David – who’s personalities are as different as night and day. Oscar, the senior partner in Finley and Figg law offices situated on the West Side of Chicago, is a conservative jaded attorney who prides himself as a proverbial ambulance chasing attorney seeking the easy way to make a fast buck. His partner, Wally, a recovering alcoholic, sometimes employs questionable business ethics but goes just far enough to avoid too much legal scrutiny. Rochelle a former client who threatened to sue Finley and Figg for malpractice, was hired as a settlement of sorts and is the first buffer between the two lawyers and some of their shady clients and business associates. David joined the team later brought a sense of soundness to the motley crew, leaving his six figure law firm, high-stress job for the peace of mind at the low-key firm of Finley and Figg. The story tells of good and bad of a class action lawsuit filed against a cholesterol-lowering drug that has caused a number of deaths.
The Litigators presents a very graphic account – using drama, humor, suspense, and sarcasm – to present a very entertaining and sometimes predictable picture, especially if you read Grisham’s King of Torts. This has many of the same nuances. Nonetheless, it’s a great read and I highly recommend it.
5. ROB reviews for The Litigators
A legal thriller published published 2011.
A 4 star David & Goliath read.
Whilst I have to say that I did enjoy this rendition of the legal giant vs the legal minnow there was always the feeling that I’ve read it before. I hadn’t but I have read the same scenario before from the pen of John Grisham.
On this occasion it’s the evil multi national pharma corporations that are under the microscope.
I have no problem with that, greed and the desire for power is alive and well just as much in that sector of the business world as in most other sectors.
The problem is that to be at the top, and stay there, in this game can often endangering lives.
So, when this small legal firm of ambulance chasers get a chance to be a part of a class action against one of the major pharma players, where the pay day is spoken of in millions, temptation wins out. It seem that greed and the desire for power is also alive and well in the legal world.
The main problem for the ambulance chasers is, they are useless. The tank they now find themselves swimming in is full of predators, from both sides of the divide.
Little did they realise when this rags to riches story started just how good life was before the lure of money got them.
No professional body comes out looking good here. It’s like the old adage says, the shits the same it’s just the depth that changes’.
So, all in all an enjoyable, if familiar, read.
6. MATT reviews for The Litigators
While he has had a few ‘less than stellar’ books of late, Grisham delivers with a stong story steeped in legal jargon in this latest novel. I was hooked from page one and remain baffled at how he can write so fluidly about all sorts of legal topics.
While we have seen Grisham delve into the litigious side of the law in past thrillers, this one takes on a new angle. Introduce the young, wet behind the ears, lawyer out to make the world his oyster. Add some legal issue that begs for notice and justice and sprinkle in some character development and an underlying personal victory for the main character. That said, Grisham reforms the clay and makes this fresh and all together highly entertaining. The HUGE American drug manufacturers are salivating with all their successes and the question remains, could this latest drug be doing more harm? Grisham tackles the subject head-on and builds it up to a great courtroom climax… with an end that I will not reveal.
I loved the development, the dialogue, and the down right plausibility of this all happening. I have been a Grisham fan forever and lived through some minor disasters (pizza, anyone?), but this is the calibre I prefer and something that I cannot help but recommend to Grisham lovers, or even those who like a good legal thriller.
Kudos Mr. Grisham!
7. DAVID RUBENSTEIN reviews for The Litigators
This is a most enjoyable book, about David Zinc, a lawyer who got fed up with his job in a huge, fancy law firm. He got drunk, then joined up with a two-man law firm that specialized in ambulance chasing, DUI’s, and quick divorces. This small firm had a weak grasp of ethical behavior. Zinc suffers a spectacular drop in salary, but sees an unusual opportunity, and grabs it.
Along comes the potential for a huge class action suit against a drug company. Their drug, Krayoxx, seems to be in the spotlight, and anecdotes of severe side effects are in the news. The small firm gets involved, hoping to avoid doing any real work. They think that their only job is to find plaintiffs and other lawyers will do their job for them. They are clueless; they have no idea how much trouble they are getting into!
This was a fun book; lots of twists in the plot, funny dialog, and generally unpredictable. That’s the type of story I like the most; a story line that cannot be predicted ahead of time. And the characters are well-developed. Their personalities are so different from each other, that really helped make the book come alive.
I didn’t read this book; I listened to the audiobook, as read by Dennis Boutsikaris. He does an excellent job as a narrator.
8. PIYANGIE reviews for The Litigators
In The Litigators Grisham shows two sides of law practice: the corporate lawyers and the ambulance chasers. It seems that the author has no patience with either type of practice. So he creates the character David Zinc, who runs away from a lucrative but a boring job in a reputed firm and who ends up with ambulance chasers ultimately rescuing them from resorting to such lurid practice. Grisham is always the master in showing the ugly side of the law and justice system. And in this story too, he has kept true to his art.
Additionally, through this book, Grisham exposes the malpractices of big companies and their powerful manipulations to cover their negligence.
The story is good and engaging. This novel might be not one of his best, but nevertheless interesting enough to keep you going through.
9. MEGAN reviews for The Litigators
It has been a long time since I have read a really good John Grisham novel, most likely due to the fact that it’s been so long since he’s actually written a really good novel. I read his first four, became a devoted fan until somewhere around “The Brethren” and it’s been a pretty steady downward spiral ever since. But “The Litigators” sounded and just felt more like his usual style. I loved, sometimes hated, the characters and was so glad that there was that redemptive quality at the end that was missing in a few of the last books I read. It still didn’t have the page-turning suspense of his earlier novels, but it was funny, well-written and except for a few boring pages during the trial, it was very entertaining. Nicely done, Johnny!
10. MIKE reviews for The Litigators
Legal disclaimer: I have never listened to an audio book before. I have never read a John Grisham book before. I have never read a courtroom/legal book before. I am not a lawyer. I do have some good lawyer jokes though.
With all that out of the way let me say I enjoyed the heck out of this audio book and it served me well on long car trips.
Right off the bat Dennis Boutsikaris does a very nice job with the audio portion of this audio book. He has a nice cadence, great inflections, and does a wonderful job giving each character their own voice. I could tell who was speaking in a long conversation just by the speech patterns he was using. I think his Chicago accent would occasionally stray into a Bostonian accent but it wasn’t very distracting. Boutsikaris was a great voice for this and I was pleased by the quality of his contribution.
As for the book portion of the audio book, Grisham presents the reader/listener with a very colorful cast. From the grumpy Oscar Finley, to the hustling Wallace “Wally” Figg, to the earnest David Zinc, to all the many supporting characters we come across there is more than enough personality to go around. Grisham does a great job having the characters play off against each other and giving relationships a deep sense of history. I really liked how Grisham crafted the characters and relationships, making them all feel very natural and real.
The story was also a lot of fun. Instead of just focusing on the courtroom drama of a major litigation, the vast majority of the book detailed all the out of court maneuvering by the mass tort bar, the tiny firm of Finley and Figg, and the pharmaceutical company that manufactured the questionable drug. It was fascinating to see how these sorts of things play out, how opportunistic the lawyers in question were, and strategy the corporation used to defend themselves.
But beyond the legal drama, this was a book about people. We learned and sympathized with Oscar’s marital troubles, we got to know Wally and his challenge to stay sober, and we got to root for David as he cast off the golden shackles of a giant legal firm for the uncertainty of street law. More importantly, we got to see some of the other law they practiced and what drove them as people. I greatly enjoyed how the characters and story lines interwove themselves and was left with a very satisfied feeling as all the loose ends were (logically and reasonably) tied up by the end.
All in all this was a great first audiobook for me. I was constantly engaged, laughed out loud many times, and found the story lots of fun. The audio was great, the book was great, it was all great!
III. The Litigators Quotes
The best book quotes from The Litigators by John Grisham
“Rochelle Gibson, a robust black woman with attitude and savvy earned on the streets from which she came.”
“Wally Figg, age forty-five. Wally fancied himself a hardball litigator, and his blustery ads promised all kinds of aggressive behavior.”
“Number two on the legal team was a woman named Judy Beck, another veteran of the mass tort wars.”
“It had been tested extensively in clinical trials in third-world countries;”
“You know what they say—the reason divorce is so expensive is because it’s worth it.”
“A “snap” is certainly not a medical term. Experts use fancier language to describe the instant when a troubled person steps over the edge. Nonetheless, a snap is a real moment. It can happen in a split second, the result of a terribly traumatic event. Or it can be the final straw, the sad culmination of pressure that builds and builds until the mind and body must find a release.”
“sometimes it takes balls to walk away. Do it now while you can still enjoy life.”
“Take one of our brand-new Krayoxx contracts for legal services, explain it to her, sign her up. Piece of cake.” “What if she has questions about the lawsuit and settlement?” “Make an appointment and get her in here. I’ll answer her questions. What’s important is getting her signed up. We’ve created a hornet’s nest here in Chicago. Every half-assed ambulance chaser in the business is now loose on the streets looking for Krayoxx victims. Time is of the essence. Can you do it, Ms. Gibson?” “I suppose.” “Thank you so much. Now, I suggest we all hit the”
“said, her eyes suddenly darting from David’s to Wally’s. “That’s the deal. Who is it?” “There’s a man two blocks over, used to play poker with Percy, croaked last year in the shower two months after my Percy passed. I know for a fact he was on Krayoxx.” Wally’s eyes were wild. “What’s his name?” “You said cash, right? Five hundred cash.”
“I like your plan.” CHAPTER 15 At least twice a year, and more often if possible, the Honorable Anderson Zinc and his lovely wife, Caroline, drove from their home in St. Paul to Chicago to see their only son and his lovely wife, Helen. Judge Zinc was the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Minnesota, a position he had been honored to hold for fourteen years. Caroline Zinc taught art and photography at a private school in St. Paul. Their two younger daughters were still in college. Judge Zinc’s father, and David’s grandfather, was a legend named Woodrow Zinc, who at the age of eighty-two was still hard at work managing the two-hundred-lawyer”
“the reason divorce is so expensive is because it’s worth it.”
“and, without question, first place when counting assholes per square foot.”
“Su primera tarea consistía en verificar el registro de clientes en busca de un tal Chester Marino, que en esos momentos descansaba pacíficamente en un económico ataúd”
“was released from rehab. “What time did she get him?” she asked without looking up from the newspaper. “After eight. He walked out of here, even asked if he could drive. She said no.” “Was she upset?” “She was pretty cool. Relieved more than anything else. The big question is whether he’ll remember anything. And if he does, then the question is whether he’ll find us again. Will he really walk away from the big firm and the big bucks? I got my doubts.” Rochelle had her doubts too, but she was trying to minimize the conversation. Finley”
“showing Mr. Finley grinning and shaking hands with unknown”
“is this?” Wally growled angrily. “Why is everybody”
“Boutique, as in small, gifted, and expert in one specialized area. Boutique, as in pretty cool and chic, right down to the Frenchness of the word itself. Boutique, as in thoroughly happy to be small, selective, and prosperous.”
“With nothing to lose, David decided to roll the dice and”
Excerpted from The Litigators by John Grisham
Chapter 1 – The Litigators
The law firm of Finley & Figg referred to itself as a “boutique firm.” This misnomer was inserted as often as possible into routine conversations, and it even appeared in print in some of the various schemes hatched by the partners to solicit business. When used properly, it implied that Finley & Figg was something above your average two-bit operation. Boutique, as in small, gifted, and expert in one specialized area. Boutique, as in pretty cool and chic, right down to the French-ness of the word itself. Boutique, as in thoroughly happy to be small, selective, and prosperous.
Except for its size, it was none of these things. Finley & Figg’s scam was hustling injury cases, a daily grind that required little skill or creativity and would never be considered cool or sexy. Profits were as elusive as status. The firm was small because it couldn’t afford to grow. It was selective only because no one wanted to work there, including the two men who owned it. Even its location suggested a monotonous life out in the bush leagues. With a Vietnamese massage parlor to its left and a lawn mower repair shop to its right, it was clear at a casual glance that Finley & Figg was not prospering. There was another boutique firm directly across the street—hated rivals—and more lawyers around the corner. In fact, the neighborhood was teeming with lawyers, some working alone, others in small firms, others still in versions of their own little boutiques.
F&F’s address was on Preston Avenue, a busy street filled with old bungalows now converted and used for all manner of commercial activity. There was retail (liquor, cleaners, massages) and professional (legal, dental, lawn mower repair) and culinary (enchiladas, baklava, and pizza to go). Oscar Finley had won the building in a lawsuit twenty years earlier. What the address lacked in prestige it sort of made up for in location. Two doors away was the intersection of Preston, Beech, and Thirty- eighth, a chaotic convergence of asphalt and traffic that guaranteed at least one good car wreck a week, and often more. F&F’s annual overhead was covered by collisions that happened less than one hundred yards away. Other law firms, boutique and otherwise, were often prowling the area in hopes of finding an available, cheap bungalow from which their hungry lawyers could hear the actual squeal of tires and crunching of metal.
With only two attorneys/partners, it was of course mandatory that one be declared the senior and the other the junior. The senior partner was Oscar Finley, age sixty-two, a thirty-year survivor of the bare- knuckle brand of law found on the tough streets of southwest Chicago. Oscar had once been a beat cop but got himself terminated for cracking skulls. He almost went to jail but instead had an awakening and went to college, then law school. When no firms would hire him, he hung out his own little shingle and started suing anyone who came near. Thirty-two years later, he found it hard to believe that for thirty- two years he’d wasted his career suing for past-due accounts receivable, fender benders, slip-and-falls, and quickie divorces. He was still married to his first wife, a terrifying woman he wanted to sue every day for his own divorce. But he couldn’t afford it. After thirty-two years of lawyering, Oscar Finley couldn’t afford much of anything.
His junior partner—and Oscar was prone to say things like, “I’ll get my junior partner to handle it,” when trying to impress judges and other lawyers and especially prospective clients—was Wally Figg, age forty-five. Wally fancied himself a hardball litigator, and his blustery ads promised all kinds of aggressive behavior. “We Fight for Your Rights!” and “Insurance Companies Fear Us!” and “We Mean Business!” Such ads could be seen on park benches, city transit buses, cabs, high school football programs, even telephone poles, though this violated several ordinances. The ads were not seen in two crucial markets—television and billboards. Wally and Oscar were still fighting over these. Oscar refused to spend the money—both types were horribly expensive—and Wally was still scheming. His dream was to see his smiling face and slick head on television saying dreadful things about insurance companies while promising huge settlements to injured folks wise enough to call his toll-free number.
But Oscar wouldn’t even pay for a billboard. Wally had one picked out. Six blocks from the office, at the corner of Beech and Thirty- second, high above the swarming traffic, on top of a four-story tenement house, there was the most perfect billboard in all of metropolitan Chicago. Currently hawking cheap lingerie (with a comely ad, Wally had to admit), the billboard had his name and face written all over it. But Oscar still refused.
Wally’s law degree came from the prestigious University of Chicago School of Law. Oscar picked his up at a now-defunct place that once offered courses at night. Both took the bar exam three times. Wally had four divorces under his belt; Oscar could only dream. Wally wanted the big case, the big score with millions of dollars in fees. Oscar wanted only two things—divorce and retirement.
How the two men came to be partners in a converted house on Preston Avenue was another story. How they survived without choking each other was a daily mystery.
Their referee was Rochelle Gibson, a robust black woman with attitude and savvy earned on the streets from which she came. Ms. Gibson handled the front—the phone, the reception, the prospective clients arriving with hope and the disgruntled ones leaving in anger, the occasional typing (though her bosses had learned if they needed something typed, it was far simpler to do it themselves), the firm dog, and, most important, the constant bickering between Oscar and Wally.
Years earlier, Ms. Gibson had been injured in a car wreck that was not her fault. She then compounded her troubles by hiring the law firm of Finley & Figg, though not by choice. Twenty- four hours after the crash, bombed on Percocet and laden with splints and plaster casts, Ms. Gibson had awakened to the grinning, fleshy face of Attorney Wallis Figg hovering over her hospital bed. He was wearing a set of aquamarine scrubs, had a stethoscope around his neck, and was doing a good job of impersonating a physician. Wally tricked her into signing a contract for legal representation, promised her the moon, sneaked out of the room as quietly as he’d sneaked in, then proceeded to butcher her case. She netted $40,000, which her husband drank and gambled away in a matter of weeks, which led to a divorce action filed by Oscar Finley. He also handled her bankruptcy. Ms. Gibson was not impressed with either lawyer and threatened to sue both for malpractice. This got their attention—they had been hit with similar lawsuits—and they worked hard to placate her. As her troubles multiplied, she became a fixture at the office, and with time the three became comfortable with one another.
Finley & Figg was a tough place for secretaries. The pay was low, the clients were generally unpleasant, the other lawyers on the phone were rude, the hours were long, but the worst part was dealing with the two partners. Oscar and Wally had tried the mature route, but the older gals couldn’t handle the pressure. They had tried youth but got themselves sued for sexual harassment when Wally couldn’t keep his paws off a busty young thing. (They settled out of court for $50,000 and got their names in the newspaper.) Rochelle Gibson happened to be at the office one morning when the then-current secretary quit and stormed out. With the phone ringing and partners yelling, Ms. Gibson moved over to the front desk and calmed things down. Then she made a pot of coffee. She was back the next day, and the next. Eight years later, she was still running the place.
Her two sons were in prison. Wally had been their lawyer, though in all fairness no one could have saved them. As teenagers, both boys kept Wally busy with their string of arrests on various drug charges. Their dealing got more involved, and Wally warned them repeatedly they were headed for prison, or death. He said the same to Ms. Gibson, who had little control over the boys and often prayed for prison. When their crack ring got busted, they were sent away for ten years. Wally got it reduced from twenty and received no gratitude from the boys. Ms. Gibson offered a tearful thanks. Through all their troubles, Wally never charged her a fee for his representation.
Over the years, there had been many tears in Ms. Gibson’s life, and they had often been shed in Wally’s office with the door locked. He gave advice and tried to help when possible, but his greatest role was that of a listener.
….
Note: Above are quotes and excerpts from the book “The Litigators 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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