The Litigators by John Grisham (Epub)

Description

The partners at Finley & Figg often refer to themselves as a “boutique law firm.” Boutique, as in chic, selective, and prosperous. Oscar Finley and Wally Figg are none of these things. They are a two-bit operation of ambulance chasers who bicker like an old married couple. Until change comes their way—or, more accurately, stumbles in. After leaving a fast-track career and going on a serious bender, David Zinc is sober, unemployed, and desperate enough to take a job at Finley & Figg.

Now the firm is ready to tackle a case that could make the partners rich—without requiring them to actually practice much law. A class action suit has been brought against Varrick Labs, a pharmaceutical giant with annual sales of $25 billion, alleging that Krayoxx, its most popular drug, causes heart attacks. Wally smells money. All Finley & Figg has to do is find a handful of Krayoxx users to join the suit. It almost seems too good to be true . . . and it is.

User’s Reviews

Review PRAISE FOR THE CONFESSION “Brilliant . . . Superb . . . the kind of grab-a-reader-by-the-shoulders suspense story that demands to be inhaled as quickly as possible.” —Washington Post “One of Grisham’s best efforts in many seasons . . . a rous­ing return to his dexterous good-guy-faces-corrupt-system storytelling.” —People magazine “Packed with tension, legal roadblocks, and shocking rev­elations.” —USA Today From the Hardcover edition. Review Praise for John Grisham:’The best thriller writer alive’ — Ken Follett, Evening Standard ‘His stories are ferociously plot driven: they will keep you awake all night’ — Independent on Sunday Grisham is a superb, instinctive storyteller’ — The Times ‘Few writers have so much to say, the skills to make reading what they say an irresistible pleasure – and the clout to say it to an audience of millions’ — Independent ‘Enthralling characters and mesmeric plot’ — Time Out ‘As exciting as a car chase with a load of dynamite thrown in’ — Daily Mail Grisham reigns supreme’ — Sunday Express ‘No one does it better than Grisham’ — Daily Telegraph ‘Grisham knows what he’s doing. The book is crisply written (with some agreeably sly one-liners) and the narrative canters along.’ — Andrew Taylor, The Spectator ‘…entirely gripping…’ — The Evening Standard 20111201 ‘Grisham in reliable form.’ — The Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin 20111126 ‘The Litigators is Grisham at his very best, fast-paced, funny and packed with living and breathing characters that you’d love to share an after-court beer with. Set aside a weekend for this one, because you won’t want to put it down’. — Irish Examiner 20111112 This is the master of the legal thriller at his best. You won’t want to put it down!’ — Press Association 20111112 ‘After a slow build setting the scene, the case turns pear-shaped; and by the time we get to court, there’s a compelling argument for readers to demolish this classic page-turner in one epic sitting.’ — Townsville Bulletin 20111119 The Litigators reminds fans of this genre just what a creative genius Grisham is. A very entertaining read.’ — Launceston Examiner 20111112 ‘Grisham is back on top form with this courtroom thriller… Unusually for Grisham he is injecting quite a lot of humour into this book which I found worked really well… The Litigators’ is a courtroom battle that will keep you turning the pages until the end, wanting to see the big guns fail, but you will have to wait until the last few pages until you find out who wins. A welcome return to form for Grisham.’ — Crimesquad.com 20111112 ‘Grisham hasn’t lost his deft touch. What a rollicking ride it turns out to be.’ — Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Herald Sun 20111204 ‘A tremendously entertaining romp, filled with the kind of courtroom strategies, theatrics and suspense that have made John Grisham America’s favourite storyteller.’ — Gympie Times 20111203 –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. CHAPTER 1 The law firm of Finley & Figg referred to itself as a “boutique firm.” This misnomer was inserted as often as possible into routine conver­sations, and it even appeared in print in some of the various schemes hatched by the partners to solicit business. When used properly, it implied that Finley & Figg was something above your average two-bit operation. Boutique, as in small, gifted, and expert in one specialized area. Boutique, as in pretty cool and chic, right down to the French-­ness of the word itself. Boutique, as in thoroughly happy to be small, selective, and prosperous. Except for its size, it was none of these things. Finley & Figg’s scam was hustling injury cases, a daily grind that required little skill or creativity and would never be considered cool or sexy. Profits were as elusive as status. The firm was small because it couldn’t afford to grow. It was selective only because no one wanted to work there, including the two men who owned it. Even its location suggested a monotonous life out in the bush leagues. With a Vietnamese massage parlor to its left and a lawn mower repair shop to its right, it was clear at a casual glance that Finley & Figg was not prospering. There was another boutique firm directly across the street—hated rivals—and more lawyers around the corner. In fact, the neighborhood was teeming with lawyers, some working alone, others in small firms, others still in versions of their own little boutiques. F&F’s address was on Preston Avenue, a busy street filled with old bungalows now converted and used for all manner of commercial activity. There was retail (liquor, cleaners, massages) and professional (legal, dental, lawn mower repair) and culinary (enchiladas, baklava, and pizza to go). Oscar Finley had won the building in a lawsuit twenty years earlier. What the address lacked in prestige it sort of made up for in location. Two doors away was the intersection of Preston, Beech, and Thirty- eighth, a chaotic convergence of asphalt and traffic that guaranteed at least one good car wreck a week, and often more. F&F’s annual overhead was covered by collisions that happened less than one hundred yards away. Other law firms, boutique and otherwise, were often prowling the area in hopes of finding an available, cheap bunga­low from which their hungry lawyers could hear the actual squeal of tires and crunching of metal. With only two attorneys/partners, it was of course mandatory that one be declared the senior and the other the junior. The senior partner was Oscar Finley, age sixty-two, a thirty-year survivor of the bare- knuckle brand of law found on the tough streets of southwest Chicago. Oscar had once been a beat cop but got himself terminated for crack­ing skulls. He almost went to jail but instead had an awakening and went to college, then law school. When no firms would hire him, he hung out his own little shingle and started suing anyone who came near. Thirty-two years later, he found it hard to believe that for thirty- two years he’d wasted his career suing for past-due accounts receivable, fender benders, slip-and-falls, and quickie divorces. He was still mar­ried to his first wife, a terrifying woman he wanted to sue every day for his own divorce. But he couldn’t afford it. After thirty-two years of lawyering, Oscar Finley couldn’t afford much of anything. His junior partner—and Oscar was prone to say things like, “I’ll get my junior partner to handle it,” when trying to impress judges and other lawyers and especially prospective clients—was Wally Figg, age forty-five. Wally fancied himself a hardball litigator, and his blustery ads promised all kinds of aggressive behavior. “We Fight for Your Rights!” and “Insurance Companies Fear Us!” and “We Mean Business!” Such ads could be seen on park benches, city transit buses, cabs, high school football programs, even telephone poles, though this violated several ordinances. The ads were not seen in two crucial markets—television and billboards. Wally and Oscar were still fighting over these. Oscar refused to spend the money—both types were horribly expensive—and Wally was still scheming. His dream was to see his smiling face and slick head on television saying dreadful things about insurance compa­nies while promising huge settlements to injured folks wise enough to call his toll-free number. But Oscar wouldn’t even pay for a billboard. Wally had one picked out. Six blocks from the office, at the corner of Beech and Thirty- second, high above the swarming traffic, on top of a four-story tene­ment house, there was the most perfect billboard in all of metropolitan Chicago. Currently hawking cheap lingerie (with a comely ad, Wally had to admit), the billboard had his name and face written all over it. But Oscar still refused. Wally’s law degree came from the prestigious University of Chi­cago School of Law. Oscar picked his up at a now-defunct place that once offered courses at night. Both took the bar exam three times. Wally had four divorces under his belt; Oscar could only dream. Wally wanted the big case, the big score with millions of dollars in fees. Oscar wanted only two things—divorce and retirement. How the two men came to be partners in a converted house on Preston Avenue was another story. How they survived without chok­ing each other was a daily mystery. Their referee was Rochelle Gibson, a robust black woman with attitude and savvy earned on the streets from which she came. Ms. Gibson handled the front—the phone, the reception, the prospective clients arriving with hope and the disgruntled ones leaving in anger, the occasional typing (though her bosses had learned if they needed something typed, it was far simpler to do it themselves), the firm dog, and, most important, the constant bickering between Oscar and Wally. Years earlier, Ms. Gibson had been injured in a car wreck that was not her fault. She then compounded her troubles by hiring the law firm of Finley & Figg, though not by choice. Twenty- four hours after the crash, bombed on Percocet and laden with splints and plaster casts, Ms. Gibson had awakened to the grinning, fleshy face of Attorney Wallis Figg hovering over her hospital bed. He was wearing a set of aquamarine scrubs, had a stethoscope around his neck, and was doing a good job of impersonating a physician. Wally tricked her into signing a contract for legal representation, promised her the moon, sneaked out of the room as quietly as he’d sneaked in, then proceeded to butcher her case. She netted $40,000, which her husband drank and gambled away in a matter of weeks, which led to a divorce action filed by Oscar Finley. He also handled her bankruptcy. Ms. Gibson was not impressed with either lawyer and threatened to sue both for malpractice. This got their attention—they had been hit with similar lawsuits—and they worked hard to placate her. As her troubles multiplied, she became a fixture at the office, and with time the three became comfortable with one another. Finley & Figg was a tough place for secretaries. The pay was low, the clients were generally unpleasant, the other lawyers on the phone were rude, the hours were long, but the worst part was dealing with the two partners. Oscar and Wally had tried the mature route, but the older gals couldn’t handle the pressure. They had tried youth but got themselves sued for sexual harassment when Wally couldn’t keep his paws off a busty young thing. (They settled out of court for $50,000 and got their names in the newspaper.) Rochelle Gibson happened to be at the office one morning when the then-current secretary quit and stormed out. With the phone ringing and partners yelling, Ms. Gibson moved over to the front desk and calmed things down. Then she made a pot of coffee. She was back the next day, and the next. Eight years later, she was still running the place. Her two sons were in prison. Wally had been their lawyer, though in all fairness no one could have saved them. As teenagers, both boys kept Wally busy with their string of arrests on various drug charges. Their dealing got more involved, and Wally warned them repeatedly they were headed for prison, or death. He said the same to Ms. Gibson, who had little control over the boys and often prayed for prison. When their crack ring got busted, they were sent away for ten years. Wally got it reduced from twenty and received no gratitude from the boys. Ms. Gibson offered a tearful thanks. Through all their troubles, Wally never charged her a fee for his representation. Over the years, there had been many tears in Ms. Gibson’s life, and they had often been shed in Wally’s office with the door locked. He gave advice and tried to help when possible, but his greatest role was that of a listener. Excerpted from The Litigators by John Grisham. Copyright © 2011 by Belfry Holdings, Inc.Excerpted by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. All rightsreserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission inwriting from the publisher. –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ I’ve read a few Grisham novels, and have enjoyed several movies based on his books. What I love about his stories is that there’s usually a lot of players on the field; multiple parties with their own agendas and desires end game. A common theme in Grisham novels I’ve read is the element of the big guy versus the little guy. In The Litigators, the Finley & Figg law firm have two “big guys” to face – Varrick, the company that produces the drug in question, and a big law firm (one that specializes in mass tort cases) they consider linking with to file suit against Varrick.The trial portion (or rather, preparation for upcoming trial) doesn’t start to get underway until around 40% (kindle count). Up until that point, the reader gets a glimpse into the lives of Wally Figg, Oscar Finley, and David Zinc (his portions were my favorite parts of the early chapters). It’s the background stories that helped me connect and decide to what degree I was rooting for some of the players in the game.This story is quite a ride with plenty of ebb and flow. I found the ending to be satisfying, and the epilogue made everything feel complete.

⭐ I purchased this book in Kindle format and had a great deal of fun with both the story and the quirky characters. I don’t think I’ve ever read another author who can present and track a more fascinating set of characters. The law details can get a bit long and dry at times, but they support the premise well and never get in the way of the strong characterizations. We have a young lawyer who hates his suffocating job and the mega-firm that employs him to the point of “snapping” in the elevator one morning and giving it all up to join (accidentally) a ramshackle ambulance-chasing firm that he stumbles upon consisting of two quarreling attorneys, their streetwise secretary, and a “firm dog” named AC. I found the four of them, and the various other people who make up this busy adventure, just plain good old fashioned fun. I recommend this book as a pleasant diversion. Glad I bought it.

⭐ I noticed there were some single star reviews, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why anyone would give this story a low rating. Different strokes, I guess. For me, this was a great read. Maybe because I know what it’s like to dread going to a job I hate, I completely understand walking away from something that pays well but literally makes you feel sick. So when David Zinc walked away from his big-time paycheck and grinding 80 hour work week, I couldn’t help but think yeah! As far as the other characters in the book go, I liked them. Yes, they were a bit quirky, but that’s what made them fun.As a writer, I envisioned Grisham sitting there, pounding on the keyboard, maybe laughing at some of the craziness he was inventing and enjoying every minute of it. The enjoyment shines through on every page.The story has a good, even pace – you never get bogged down waiting for what comes next because the progression moves smoothly. There’s a lot here: a bit of tongue in cheek humor, the legal wrangling we all expect from Grisham, done in true Grisham style (which I happen to love), some pathos, some suspense and a resolution that is satisfying and gratifying. It’s a good ride and I didn’t want to put it down until I knew how it would all come out. It didn’t disappoint.

⭐ Every now and then you come across a novel where it’s obvious, from the first few pages, that the author had an absolute blast telling the story, and when that’s the case, the reader is generally in for a treat. This is certainly the case here.David Zinc appeared to have it all. A Harvard Law graduate, senior associate at Chicago mega-firm Rogan Rothberg working in international bond finance, earning US$300,000 a year, with a good shot of making partner (where the real gravy train pulls into the station); he had the house, the car, and a beautiful wife pursuing her Ph.D. in art history. And then one grim Chicago morning, heading to the office for another exhausting day doing work he detested with colleagues he loathed, enriching partners he considered odious (and knowing that, if he eventually joined their ranks, the process of getting there would have made him just the same), he snapped. Suddenly, as the elevator ascended, he realised as clearly as anything he’d ever known in his life, “I cannot do this any more”.And so, he just walked away, found a nearby bar that was open before eight in the morning, and decided to have breakfast. A Bloody Mary would do just fine, thanks, and then another and another. After an all day bender, blowing off a client meeting and infuriating his boss, texting his worried wife that all was well despite the frantic calls to her from the office asking where he was, he hails a taxi not sure where he wants to go, then, spotting an advertisement on the side of a bus, tells the driver to take him to the law offices of Finley & Figg, Attorneys.This firm was somewhat different than the one he’d walked out of earlier that day. Oscar Finley and Wally Figg described their partnership as a “boutique firm”, but their stock in trade was quicky no-fault divorces, wills, drunk driving, and that mainstay of ground floor lawyering, personal accident cases. The firm’s modest office was located near a busy intersection which provided an ongoing source of business, and the office was home to a dog named AC (for Ambulance Chaser), whose keen ears could pick up the sound of a siren even before a lawyer could hear it.Staggering into the office, David offers his services as a new associate and, by soused bravado more than Harvard Law credentials, persuades the partners that the kid has potential, whereupon they sign him up. David quickly discovers an entire world of lawyering they don’t teach at Harvard: where lawyers carry handguns in their briefcases along with legal pads, and with good reason; where making the rounds of prospective clients involves visiting emergency rooms and funeral homes, and where dissatisfied clients express their frustration in ways that go well beyond drafting a stern memorandum.Soon, the firm stumbles onto what may be a once in a lifetime bonanza: a cholesterol drug called Krayoxx (no relation to Vioxx—none at all) which seems to cause those who take it to drop dead with heart attacks and strokes. This vaults the three-lawyer firm into the high-rolling world of mass tort litigation, with players with their own private jets and golf courses. Finley & Figg ends up at the pointy end of the spear in the litigation, which doesn’t precisely go as they had hoped.Here are two of the funniest paragraphs I’ve read in some time.“While Wally doodled on a legal pad as if he were heavily medicated, Oscar did most of the talking. ‘So, either we get rid of these cases and face financial ruin, or we march into federal court three weeks from Monday with a case that no lawyer in his right mind would try before a jury, a case with no liability, no experts, no decent facts, a client who’s crazy half the time and stoned the other half, a client whose dead husband weighed 320 pounds and basically ate himself to death, a veritable platoon of highly paid and very skilled lawyers on the other side with an unlimited budget and experts from the finest hospitals in the country, a judge who strongly favors the other side, a judge who doesn’t like us at all because he thinks we’re inexperienced and incompetent, and, well, what else? What am I leaving out here, David?’‘We have no cash for litigation expenses,’ David said, but only to complete the checklist.”This story is not just funny, but also a tale of how a lawyer, in diving off the big law rat race into the gnarly world of retail practice rediscovers his soul and that there are actually noble and worthy aspects of the law. The characters are complex and interact in believable ways, and the story unfolds as such matters might well do in the real world. There is quite a bit in common between this novel and The King of Torts , but while that is a tragedy of hubris and nemesis, this is a tale of redemption.

⭐ I work in a law firm and have been employed in law firms for more than 30 years. I have only recently gotten into John Grisham’s books because I had thought they were mass market. I could not put the book down, especially toward the last half. What a wonderful ending. Plus my granddaughter who was recently accepted into Howard University on a full scholarship, and wants to pursue a law degree after her undergraduate studies, says she’s been reading Grisham since the fifth grade. LOL!

⭐ This was the 1st Grisham book I’ve read since The Rainmaker. The Litigators is a quick and easy read with the pages turning fast and faster. This isn’t great literature but light and quick reading. I liked the characters and the plot was good, albeit predictable. I had guessed the outcome 1/3 of the way through the book but that’s ok, it was still fun. I read it in less than a week and it kept me entertained. I would recommend it for light reading

⭐ I’ve read many of GRISHAM’s books, and was expecting more of the same. I walked into this one and hit head-on with his glorious sense of humor. I recommended it to my book group, and I’ve heard all good reviews so far! We’ll be discussing it together next week. I guarantee a fun read sprinkled with characters you can enjoy and for whom you will feel empathy.The whole book is filled with surprises at every turn as well as warm-hearted depictions of humanity at its best…and worst!

⭐ Excellant write. Mr. Grisham has done his usual excellant job in writing about the timely and sensitive topic of tort reform. It seems that most Americans are looking for someone to sue and retire. They are even comedians making jokes about going to the freeway and finding a big truck to wreck with. Tort law is essential to keep big business from railroading the american consumer. Mr. Grisham has tread through this mine field and does so beautifally.

⭐ Litigators are lawyers who represent people who wants money from rich companies, who have done something wrong to them. For example, if a medical drug has serious side effects, people who have been damaged by the drug can request money from the company which produced the drug, and can ask a court of law to decide that the company has to pay damages. When a lot of people have the same damage, this creates a class action suit.This novel is a story about a small law firm specializing in litigation. It is a dangerous issue, if you cannot prove you are right, you can lose all the money you spent collecting the list of people who wants damages. But if you win the court case, you can get a lot of money.John Grisham describes the story of this company with much humour, and the book is very readable.

⭐ Much if not all of this tale of legal chicanery appears based on real life. The major conflict in the book concerning the thinly veiled drug “Krayoxx” and the firm “Varrick” actually happened with Vioxx, Merck Laboratories and the FDA. It was an excellent account of how greed can totally overwhelm rational judgment. The events and characters are beautifully described with an endearing portrayal of human nature at its best and worst. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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