The Firm

Overview

Book Details

The Firm is the second legal thriller written by attorney John Grisham. It followed his 1988 debut novel A Time to Kill. The Firm was the top-selling novel of 1991 on the New York Times bestseller list, bringing its author international fame. It focuses on new Harvard Law School graduate Mitch McDeere, who accepts a financially lucrative position with a Memphis law firm that he discovers is embroiled in unethical and illegal activities.

Author Highlights

Grisham is the author of over four dozen consecutive number one bestsellers, including The Pelican Brief and The Client. Grisham published a sequel to the novel, The Exchange: After the Firm, in 2023.He is also an advocate for people who are wrongly incarcerated and is a board member of the Innocence Project. His nonfiction work The Innocent Man focuses on this issue.

Film Adaptations

In 1993, The Firm was adapted as a feature film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Tom Cruise. In 2012, it was made into a television series that portrayed the McDeeres 10 years after the events in the book; the series ran only one season.

This study guide refers to the e-book published by Dell, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

Plot Summary

Mitch McDeere is third in his class at Harvard Law School. Weeks before graduation, he receives multiple job offers from firms in New York and Chicago. He takes a meeting with the Bendini, Lambert & Locke firm out of Memphis, Tennessee, out of politeness, however, he is surprised by the financial offer the firm makes him. Mitch, who grew up poor and who has struggled all his life, likes the idea of the financial opportunities at Bendini, Lambert & Locke. For this reason, he accepts the offer.

Mitch’s first few months with the firm are filled with both legal work and studying for the bar exam. He is partnered with one of the firm’s partners, Avery Tolar, with whom he works closely. When he passes the bar with exceptional scores, he pushes himself to work long hours in the hopes of becoming the youngest partner the firm has ever had. However, he has questions about the firm. Two lawyers, Marty Kozinski and Joe Hodge, died the weekend he arrived in Memphis. Mitch has since learned three other lawyers died mysteriously as well. When Mitch is approached by FBI Agent Wayne Tarrance, he begins to think there is something wrong at the firm.

Mitch travels to Grand Cayman on a work trip with Avery. During this trip, Mitch has a one-night fling with a native woman the firm later uses to control him. At the same time, he meets with Barry Abanks, the owner of the dive group with whom Marty and Joe were with the day they died. When he returns home, Mitch hires Eddie Lomax, a private investigator who served time in jail with his brother Ray, to investigate the lawyers with his firm who died. Eddie tells him each of the deaths was deemed suicidal or accidental, but they all look suspicious to him. A short time later, Eddie is killed while investigating a cheating spouse.

Mitch is approached by the FBI again while he is in Washington, DC attending a tax seminar. This time, he meets with FBI Director F. Denton Voyles and learns that Bendini, Lambert & Locke has direct connections to the Morolto Mafia family. Voyles wants Mitch to give the FBI files that show illegal activity and can be used to indict the lawyers and cripple the Morolto family. Mitch does not immediately agree, but instead enters negotiations with Wayne. Once it is agreed that Mitch will be paid $2 million in three installments, and that his brother will be released from prison, Mitch agrees to provide the files. He has already made copies of his own files, but believes they are legitimate.

Mitch begins working with Tammy Hemphill, Eddie Lomax’s secretary. She flies to the Cayman Islands and helps Mitch’s wife, Abby, make copies of files locked in a room in a firm-owned condo on Grand Cayman. Mitch also makes copies of some of Avery’s files. However, before Mitch can turn over the files showing illegal money transactions, a mole in the FBI reveals Mitch’s actions to the Morolto family. Mitch goes on the run and directs his wife to run as well. Mitch’s brother, who was released from prison, meets up with Abby and together they escape to Florida. Mitch joins them and they make videos of Mitch detailing and explaining the files as they wait for a safe moment to escape. While the mafia and the FBI are both searching for them, the McDeeres escape Florida by a boat piloted by Barry Abanks and alert the FBI as to where they can find the files and the recorded deposition. As the FBI indicts more than half of Bendini, Lambert & Locke, Mitch, Ray, and Abby escape to the Caribbean.