| Summary, etc. |
The story starts with Mitch McDeere, a young ambitious lawyer, getting ready to graduate from Harvard Law School. He is offered jobs by a few law firms, but he is ultimately won over by a law firm in Memphis, Tennessee – Bendini, Lambert & Locke. Mitch and his wife, Abby, fly to Memphis, where Mitch gets a tour of the firm. By the end of his meeting with Lamar Quin, a senior member, he knows that Bendini, Lambert & Locke is the place for him. Meanwhile, another senior member of the firm, Oliver Lambert, and the head of the firm’s security, DeVasher, meet in secrecy to discuss Mitch and whether or not he is a threat to the firm’s security. The men listen to tapes of Mitch and his wife talking on the phone, and then they talk about Mitch’s brother, Ray, whom they have been unable to locate. Finally, they talk about two other members of the firm, and how they might need to kill them, as well as an FBI agent, who is investigating the firm. Not knowing the dark truth about the firm, Mitch and his wife move to Memphis, where they buy a house and settle into their new life in the south. One evening, they go to the Quins’ house for dinner, and they discover that two members of the firm – Marty Kozinski and Joe Hodge – were killed in a boating accident in the Cayman Islands. After attending the men’s funeral, Mitch starts working at the firm, spending a hundred hours a week at the office. He is keen to become the best lawyer the firm has ever had.<br/>DeVasher sends some of his men to Mitch and Abby’s house to hide several bugs in the rooms so that he can record their conversations. Mitch eventually discovers that five of the firm’s lawyers have died in the past fifteen years. One day, while Mitch is eating lunch, an FBI agent, Wayne Tarrance, approaches him and tells him that the lawyers’ deaths weren’t accidental, and that he should be very careful. Mitch tells Lambert, who tells him to stay away from Tarrance. Mitch ends up hiring a private investigator, Eddie Lomax, who agrees to look into the firm for him. A week later, Mitch and Avery fly to the Cayman Islands to do some tax work for a client. Later that night, after drinking in a bar, Mitch goes for a walk on the beach and meets a mysterious woman, who seduces him. They make love in the sand, and from the darkness, someone takes photos of the pair. The photos end up with DeVasher. Meanwhile, Mitch meets with Lomax, who tells him that the lawyers’ deaths were likely not accidents.Finally, Mitch shares the bad news with Abby.<br/>After Lomax is murdered by a professional killer, his secretary meets with Mitch, and they decide to keep in touch with each other. Mitch flies<br/>to Washington for a tax conference, where he meets with the head of the FBI, a man named F. Denton Voyles, who tells him that the firm is owned by the Mafia, and that no lawyer ever leaves the firm alive. Voyles asks Mitch to gather some evidence against the firm, and then promises to protect him and Abby after the FBI makes its move against the firm and its criminal partners. Shortly after, Mitch is approached by DeVasher, who shows him the photos that were taken on the beach in the Cayman Islands. DeVasher threatens to send the photos to his wife. Mitch responds by helping the FBI to gather evidence against the firm – in exchange for two million dollars and the release of his brother from prison.<br/>Abby pretends to leave Mitch and visit her mother, who is ill, but instead she flies to the Cayman Islands with Tammy, Lomax’s secretary, who<br/>helps her to copy several files in Avery’s room. However, in the morning, as the women are talking on the phone, a recorder tapes their conversation. Meanwhile, a member of the Mafia family that owns the firm pays an FBI agent to find out if Mitch is indeed selling files to the agency as the partners suspect. After collecting more evidence from Mitch, Abby and Tammy, the FBI helps Ray to escape from prison, as per their agreement. However, a dirty FBI agent tells the Mafia family that Mitch is selling documents to them, and Voyles shares this news with Mitch, who decides to make a run for it. He tells Abby and Tammy to run too.<br/>Mitch, Abby and Tammy go on the run, and Ray helps to protect Abby from a hired killer. The FBI and the Mafia do everything within their power to find them, but the four always manage to stay one step ahead of their pursuers. Eventually, Mitch makes some videotapes explaining exactly how the Mafia uses the firm to commit crimes. Later that night, Mitch, Abby and Ray escape in a boat, and in the morning, Tammy<br/>phones Tarrance and tells him that he can pick up the rest of the files in a hotel room. Mitch, Abby and Ray fly to the Cayman Islands to start their new life in hiding. Meanwhile, back in the United States, fifty-one members of the firm – past and present – are arrested by the FBI,<br/>along with several Mafia members. Thanks to Mitch and his companions, the firm is finished |
