Book Review: The Litigators by John Grisham

Synopsis (from Goodreads):  The partners at Finley & Figg—all two of them—often refer to themselves as “a boutique law firm.” Boutique, as in chic, selective, and prosperous. They are, of course, none of these things. What they are is a two-bit operation always in search of their big break, ambulance chasers who’ve been in the trenches much too long making way too little. Their specialties, so to speak, are quickie divorces and DUIs, with the occasional jackpot of an actual car wreck thrown in. After twenty plus years together, Oscar Finley and Wally Figg bicker like an old married couple but somehow continue to scratch out a half-decent living from their seedy bungalow offices in southwest Chicago.

And then change comes their way. More accurately, it stumbles in. David Zinc, a young but already burned-out attorney, walks away from his fast-track career at a fancy downtown firm, goes on a serious bender, and finds himself literally at the doorstep of our boutique firm. Once David sobers up and comes to grips with the fact that he’s suddenly unemployed, any job—even one with Finley & Figg—looks okay to him.

With their new associate on board, F&F is ready to tackle a really big case, a case that could make the partners rich without requiring them to actually practice much law. An extremely popular drug, Krayoxx, the number one cholesterol reducer for the dangerously overweight, produced by Varrick Labs, a giant pharmaceutical company with annual sales of $25 billion, has recently come under fire after several patients taking it have suffered heart attacks. Wally smells money.

A little online research confirms Wally’s suspicions—a huge plaintiffs’ firm in Florida is putting together a class action suit against Varrick. All Finley & Figg has to do is find a handful of people who have had heart attacks while taking Krayoxx, convince them to become clients, join the class action, and ride along to fame and fortune. With any luck, they won’t even have to enter a courtroom!

It almost seems too good to be true.

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.

My Thoughts:  I loved how this book had some humor that some of Grisham's previous novels have not had.  It kept the slows parts a little more entertaining and I found myself quietly laughing a few times.

David is a lawyer at the prestigious Rogan Rothberg law firm.  He works 12 hours a day on foreign financial accounts.  He has never seen a courtroom and he never sees his wife.  The day we meet David, he is on his way to work on the 80-something floor in his stuffy suit with his stuff co-workers, many of who he doesn't even know. 

As he steps out onto his floor, something happens to David.  He cracks and dives back into the elevator and heads to Abner's, a bar opened at 7:30 in the morning.  There he spends his entire day dodging phone calls from the office and his wife.  He drinks away his worries and talks to Abner.  About 4:30 that afternoon, Abner puts David into a taxi and David ends up on the doorstep of the Law Firm of Finley and Figg.  He decides he wants to work there and after impressing the two partners he gets the job. 

This is where things get interesting.  Wally (the junior partner) is always looking for a get rich quick case and he thinks he has finally found it.  He jumps on the coattails of the big mass tort lawyers on a case against Krayoxx, a drug that lowers cholesterol.  As Wally talks David into this case, David is also following up on a lead poisoning case along with the usual wills, DUIs and divorces. 

I loved the characters in this book.  I loved how David's wife, Helen, supported him not only in his decision to change law firms but also with his lead poisoning case and even his Krayoxx case.  David is an honest guy and I liked how he tried to maintain his morals while working with the likes of Wally and Oscar. 

Wally and Oscar are like an old married couple.  They fight non-stop but there is so much humor in it that it makes it entertaining. Rochelle was probably my favorite character.  She was sassy and took no crap from the lawyers or their clients.  I enjoyed her small part in the story.

This book had some slow parts while the attorneys were working on the Krayoxx case but it wasn't unbearable nor was it too drawn out. The ending was fabulous and fast paced and well worth the smaller slow parts.