The Street Lawyer - John Grisham

The Street Lawyer

John Grisham


As some my regular readers (I wish…) will know, I am a John Grisham fan and am currently reading and reviewing all of his books.

As with all Grisham books, this is based around the law and lawyers. The Street Lawyer, as the name suggests, deals with a lawyer who works the street. In this sense, I mean in an office helping the homeless - not ambulance chasers.

The Characters

John Grisham has always been good at character building and this gives the reader a good insight into every detail. By the middle of the book, you feel as if you know them. This is good as it draws the reader in and allows more emotions to be felt. E.g. sorrow when something bad happens to the ’good guy.’ However, nobody is perfect and each character has another side, this is not always clear at first and so makes for a good read.

Michael Brock
Mike is a Yale graduate and currently working at a top law firm called Drake and Sweeney. He is in his mid-thirties and will soon become a partner and will earn close to a million dollars a year and bonuses. He works eighty hours a week minimum and is climbing the ladder of success. However, one day he has an encounter with a homeless man. This turns his life upside down.

Claire Brock
Claire met the week he moved from Yale and got married soon after. She, like Michael, is unhappy with their marriage and has been for years. Since they met, Michael has worked non-stop as an upcoming lawyer and she has become bored. She then went to medical school and trained up as a brain surgeon. This was done to try to get her own back at Michael. They both became workaholics and are always competing on things such as: Who earns the most? Who works the most? etc…

Devon Hardy
Devon is only known as Mister until after the encounter with the lawyers. (Complicated but you’ll see soon.) He is a ’typical’ homeless man who has been living rough for a while. He arrives at the offices and takes several lawyers hostage at gunpoint.

Mordecai Green
Mordecai is a street lawyer and runs a centre for the homeless to come and get their problems solved by professional lawyers. Mordecai is a long time street lawyer who can get anything from bureaucrats at Capitol Hill. He owns the centre, which is called 14th Street Legal Clinic.

Branden Chance
Branden is a real-estate lawyer who works for Drake and Sweeney. His main clients are a firm called River Oakes. He makes a fatal blunder that creates an unlikely lawsuit later on.

Hector Palma
Hector is a lowly paralegal who works for Chance. He is an anonymous informer who helps Michael.

Lontae Burton
Lontae is a homeless mother of four children. She calls into a shelter and briefly meets Michael. She is later found dead in a car. She, and her four children, all died in their sleep from exhaust fumes whiles trying to stay warm. She becomes the focus of attention for the press and street lawyers. Her children are all from different men and out of wedlock.

Ruby
Ruby is a crack addict who has one son - Terrence. She rented a loft for him and paid the house owners rent. The owners of the house then raised him and let Ruby see him every night. After a while, he was a bright student and was getting ready for university. The house owners then refused Ruby her nightly visits and kept him for themselves. Ruby is allowed him back when she kicks the crack addiction. She become a friend of Michael and acts as a link between Michael and Megan.

Megan
Megan is the owner of Naomi’s - a women’s homeless shelter that runs NA/AA meetings. (Narcotics anonymous/Alcoholics anonymous.) Megan soon becomes friendly with Michael.

Arthur
A top boss at Drake and Sweeney who is eighty and getting tired. He is still a good lawyer and very menacing.

Of course, there is a large selection of other people around including lawyers, democratic officials, homeless people, and volunteers.

The Story

I’ll tell you a lot but I can assure you that there is much more to this story. As usual with John Grisham novels, there are tons of twists and it is practically impossible to predict the end of the story.

’The Street Lawyer opens with the best scene Grisham has ever put on paper.’ Sunday Times

This statement is not over the top; the opening scene starts with Michael Brock walking into a lift (or elevator) and being followed by a homeless man. Michael is in a rush as usual and ignores him. He leaves the lift and walks to a receptionist and then proceeds to his office. Before, he reaches it, he stops and turns around to see the receptionist lying bleeding. The homeless man then asks Michael to bring him into a conference room. Michael with very little options agrees and brings the hostage-taker into a room with a group of litigators. (Top lawyers who challenge parts of the law.) He is forced to tie them up and get the tax records so that the hostage-taker can see how much each one earns and how much they give to the needy. Several donate money to Yale and Garden Party Clubs and this annoys ’Mister.’ (His newly acquired title.)

Eventually, Mister is shot and the hostages released. They all go home and take the day off. The next day, all of them are back in work billing hours like there was no tomorrow. Michael, however, is disturbed by the previous day’s events. He goes to a homeless centre and meets Mordecai Green who is a street lawyer earning $30,000 pa. He is convinced to help for one night at the centre cutting vegetables as a snowstorm is approaching. He meets a few homeless people and is touched/inspired.

Within a few days, he learns a homeless woman, Lontae Burton died later that night with the children he was playing with. He investigates and finds that (DRUM ROLL…………) Drake and Sweeney (his current firm) wrongfully evicted the tenants/squatters. He quits his job, divorces his wife, and becomes a street lawyer all within a few days.

He starts up in the clinic working on hundreds of cases while preparing a lawsuit against his old firm. This is hard work, but matters are complicated as before Michael left, he borrowed a file that showed Drake and Sweeney are guilty of wrongful eviction. However, he was involved in a crash and so couldn’t return the file before someone noticed. This leads to complications and a good story.

Overall
This book will make you think about the desperate plight of the homeless. It might encourage some people to become volunteers, others will want donate money, and some will think it’s a good book and that’s it.