The Street Lawyer

The Street Lawyer, by John Grisham, was originally published by Bantam Books in January 1998. Grisham’s ninth novel, The Street Lawyer occupied a spot in Grisham’s streak of top-ten bestselling novels, which began with the record-breaking success of his second novel, The Firm, and lasted over two decades. Prior to penning his first novel, A Time to Kill, Grisham earned a JD from University of Mississippi School of Law and practiced civil and criminal trial law for ten years. He also served as a Democrat in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1983-1990. In 2009, the Library of Congress honored Grisham with the Creative Achievement Award for Fiction. Over the course of almost 50 novels, Grisham has addressed myriad facets of law and humanity, providing his audiences with not only fast-paced legal thrillers but also important ethical questions to ponder.

This guide refers to the trade paperback edition of the novel, published in 2012 by Bantam Books.

Plot Summary

Set in Washington, DC, in the 1990s, The Street Lawyer is a legal thriller that follows the story of Michael Brock, a 32-year-old antitrust lawyer who is on the fast track to becoming a partner and making millions. After an unhoused man holds him and eight of his colleagues hostage in the conference room of their law offices at Drake & Sweeney, Michael reconsiders his career choice and opts to take a lower-paying position with the 14th Street Legal Clinic, a small public-interest operation run by Mordecai Green. As Michael continues to investigate the recent warehouse eviction that displaced DeVon Hardy, the man who held him hostage, he discovers some underhanded, possibly illegal dealings connected to his old firm. Mordecai joins him in the fight against Drake & Sweeney and its cohorts, determined to protect the rights of the true victims. Along the way, Michael encounters a cast of characters who all have a hand in changing his perspective, and in the end, they become his new family. In addition to being a novel of mystery and suspense, The Street Lawyer explores the concepts of justice, moral responsibility, and personal transformation and asks the reader to question where one person’s rights stop and another one’s begin.

The novel opens in medias res, or “in the middle of things,” as an unnamed man follows Michael into Drake & Sweeney and ushers him and eight other lawyers at gunpoint into a nearby conference room. Mister, as he requests to be called, holds the men in the room for several hours, challenging them with questions regarding what percentage of their earnings they have contributed to help people without homes. Eventually, the police shoot and kill Mister, whose real name is DeVon Hardy, and everyone is free to return to the status quo of their lives. The ordeal leaves a permanent mark on Michael, however, as he no longer sees his work as meaningful. This marks the inciting incident of the narrative; Michael leaves the firm in search of a more purposeful existence.

His search leads him to the ramshackle brick building that houses the 14th Street Legal Clinic, where Mordecai Green and two somewhat abrasive colleagues provide free legal representation to people without access to permanent housing. Mordecai informs Michael that DeVon Hardy has recently been evicted from a local warehouse where he had been living for several months. Mordecai suspects foul play with the unannounced eviction because word on the street is that the tenants were paying rent, in cash, to a handler for River Oaks/TAG, the company that owns the building. If Mordecai and Michael can confirm this information, the tenants have rights and the eviction is illegal. As the rising action continues, Michael investigates the deal and discovers a connection to his old firm, Drake & Sweeney.

On the news, Michael learns that Lontae Burton and her four children, a family he has gotten to know through volunteering at a shelter, have died of asphyxiation in their car while trying to stay warm in the freezing DC winter. As it turns out, the Burtons were also victims of the River Oaks eviction. This event spurs Michael into high gear, and he pursues a deeper investigation into Drake & Sweeney’s role, discovering that a real estate lawyer named Braden Chance and his paralegal, Hector Palma, are handling the River Oaks case. Palma provides Michael with some anonymous inside information, and Michael steals a top-secret file from Chance’s office, intending to copy and return it. Chance quickly notices the file’s absence, however, and the firm immediately suspects that Michael Brock is the culprit.

Meanwhile, Michael’s marriage is failing. He and his wife, Claire, have long since stopped communicating and interacting, their coping mechanism for difficulties being extreme workaholism. Both feel a sense of numbness, and Michael tells the reader divorce is only a matter of time. Eventually, they do officially divorce, but they have small moments of friendship after that point.

Through Hector Palma and some other sources, Michael is able to confirm that the River Oaks tenants were, in fact, paying rent, and he and Mordecai file a lawsuit against Drake & Sweeney, River Oaks, and its parent company, TAG, on behalf of DeVon Hardy and the Burtons. Michael also asks Mordecai to be his own lawyer in his defense against Drake & Sweeney, who have brought a case against him for grand larceny of the file, which he still has in his possession.

The climax of the novel happens nearer to the end than the middle. Knowing one of Hector Palma’s memos, from his second visit to the warehouse, is missing from the file, Michael tries to connect with Palma to retrieve it. Upon learning that Drake & Sweeney have shipped Palma off to their Chicago office to make sure he cannot ruin the lawsuit for them, Michael flies to Chicago and finds Palma. They meet clandestinely in the city, and Hector delivers the missing memo. The information in that memo, plus the attached receipt from one of Lontae Burton’s rent payments, is all Michael and Mordecai need to effectively cement their case.

While Michael is dealing with the detective work for his and Mordecai’s case against the corporations, his family (who strongly objects to his change of career), his failing marriage, and evading the police (who are trying to retrieve the stolen file), he meets Ruby, a walk-in client at the legal clinic. Ruby would like to see her son, Terrence, but first needs to deal with her drug addiction. Through Ruby, Michael meets Megan, the director of Naomi’s—a shelter where Ruby often stays. Together, Michael and Megan help Ruby to become sober. Megan also becomes Michael’s new love interest after his divorce is final.

In the denouement, Michael and Mordecai settle the case against Drake & Sweeney, River Oaks, and TAG for $5 million dollars. Drake & Sweeney drop the ethics charges against Michael once he receives a nine-month suspension of his law license; he still retains his job at the legal clinic as a full-time partner. Megan and Michael take Ruby on a short vacation to the shore to monitor her as she fights to stay sober, then check her into a rehabilitation program. The novel ends with Michael holding Megan on the front porch of their beach rental, processing everything that has changed in his life in the course of a month and realizing that he still has much mental work to do.