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.
John Grisham was born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker. He received an undergraduate degree in accounting from Mississippi State University in 1977 and then attended law school at the University of Mississippi, where he earned a law degree in 1981. In the same year as he graduated from law school he married Renee Jones who was to become Renee Grisham. That same year, he married Renee Jones. He established a law practice in Southaven, where he practiced both criminal and civil law. In 1983, he was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives, and in 1989 he published his first novel, A Time to Kill.
Since first publishing A TIME TO KILL in 1988, Grisham has written one novel a year (his other books are THE CHAMBER, THE RAINMAKER, THE RUNAWAY JURY, THE PARTNER, and THE STREET LAWYER), and all of them have become bestsellers, leading Publishers Weekly to declare him “the bestselling novelist of the 90s” in a January 1998 profile. There are currently over 60 million John Grisham books in print worldwide, which have been translated into 29 languages. Six of his novels have been turned into films (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, and The Chamber), as was an original screenplay, The Gingerbread Man.
Now Grisham has gone on to be recognized as one of the world’s bestselling novelists. In addition to A Time to Kill and The Firm, his titles include The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, and The Rainmaker, each of which has been scripted into immensely successful film versions. His most recent novels are The Partner (1997), The Street Lawyer (1998), and The Testament (1999).
When he’s not writing, Grisham devotes time to charitable causes, including taking mission trips with his church group. He also keeps up with his greatest passion: baseball. The man who dreamed of being a professional baseball player now serves as the local Little League commissioner. The six ballfields he built on his property have played host to over 350 kids on 26 Little League teams.
Grisham lives with his wife of 16 years, Renee, and their two children, Ty, 13, and Shea, 11. The family splits their time between their Victorian home on a 67 acre farm in Mississippi and a 204 acre plantation near Charlottesville, VA.
My Impressions:
The last Grisham I read/listened to (The Associate) left me feeling eh. I have always loved Grisham and was really let down. So when faced with a long solo car trip last week, I had mixed feelings about listening to the audiobook version of The Litigators. What I got was a very enjoyable experience! Boy am I glad I picked it up. The Litigators is page-turner or in this case a disc flipper! I became immersed in the firm of Finley and Figg and their new associate, the former 80 hour work horse from a big firm downtown, David Zinc. David is a good guy and good lawyer who literally stumbles into his new firm. Wally Figg is always looking for that one big personal injury case to break into the big time. Senior partner Oscar Finley is beaten down by his marriage and the 40 years he has spent on the fringes of good lawyering. None of the lawyers have any litigation experience, but that doesn’t keep them from going after the surefire case that will bring them riches untold. Grisham displays an irreverent humor in The Litigators that had me laughing out loud. It also gave this reader something to think about in its portrayal of the tort Bar. The audiobook is read by Dennis Boutsikaris who did a great job portraying all the voices in the book. I was thoroughly entertained and the miles and time flew by. I think this would be a great book to read as well.
So if you are looking for a great audiobook to pass the time on your commute, trip, or treadmill, pick up The Litigators.
Recommended.
Please note: This is not a Christian book. There is profanity and some adult situations that may be offensive.
(I rented this audiobook from my local Cracker Barrel. The opinions expressed are mine alone.)
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