The Firm Essay, Research Paper

Summary

Mitchell Y. McDeere, third in his class at Harvard Law, envisioned a career working on Wall Street, but Bendini, Lambert & Locke, a small, rich, and very private law firm in Memphis, made him an offer which he could not refuse. He and his wife Abbey moved to Memphis to start their new life. Mitch and Abbey believed that they were finally going to be happy but soon after they moved to Memphis, Mitch became very suspicious of some of the firm?s clients and partners. Two partners died in a suspicious diving accident off Grand Cayman. He discovered other odd things at the firm, which included no one had ever resigned from the firm and security measures were very tight. One afternoon, while eating lunch alone at a nearby diner, an agent from the FBI approached him and Mitch then confirmed his suspicions. The FBI agent, Terrance, told Mitch a lot more about the goings on at the firm. Mitch knew that if he helped the FBI the firm would kill him, just like they killed the two partners in the Grand Cayman, but if he didn?t help the FBI, he would be included in the bust for being involved.

Mitch only told his wife these secrets and they decided to be very careful because their house, car, and office were all bugged. Mitch met with the FBI whenever the FBI needed him and he did what he was told. This was all very difficult because of the very tight security in the office. The information that Mitch got for the FBI from the office was not enough for them. Mitch was instructed to find the ?important? files, which were located in the firm?s beach house in the Grand Cayman. To get these files Mitch needed help from his wife and friend Tammy Hemphill. With the help of Abbey, Tammy, and his brother, Mitch was able to get the information to incriminate Bendini, Lambert & Locke, and also escape from the FBI and live in secrecy together.

Film Clip

Abbey, Mitch?s wife, called Mitch at work and told him her father called saying a doctor had found a tumor in one of her mother?s lungs and that she was leaving Memphis to be with her mother. But instead of going home to Kentucky, she went to the Nashville airport and made on her way to The Cayman Islands.

Tammy Greenwood Hemphill was already at The Cayman Islands flirting with Avery Tolar, a partner at Mitch?s firm. Once she got him drunk they went back to his condo, which belonged to the firm where all the ?important? files were kept, Avery excused himself to use the restroom and Tammy dumped one capsule of chloral hydrate into his drink. Avery returned and finished his contaminated drink, which caused him to pass out. Just one shot of that could knock a man out for ten hours, which was about the time she needed. Now Tammy had to go to work. She found Avery?s keys, which had the key to the storage room where the files were kept.

Then Abbey arrives and the two girls start to copy all of the files. But to do this they had to rent a hotel room and a copy machine. Each time the girls returned to the condo to get more

files, Tammy checked on Avery. Around five thirty, Tammy returned to the condo for about the fiftieth time but when she went to check on Avery, he was awake and sitting on the edge of the bed. Tammy reacted fast by playing the role of the party girl, which she played when they first met. She told Avery that is was early and that they should go back to sleep. Avery put his head down on the pillow and was asleep again. Tammy called Abbey and explained the situation. Abbey said she would finish the copying and told Tammy to take a shower and to get into bed with Avery. Tammy lay there and kept thinking over and over again that if this man knew what she just did, he would kill her. At three past nine, Avery woke up and didn?t remember a thing that happened. The girls finished copying the files while Avery was at work.

Style

The writing style of The Firm is easy to read. The chapters are climatic in the end, which makes you want to read the next chapter. John Grishman introduces a lot of characters but presents them in a way that the reader is able to distinguish each. The vocabulary is relatively easy except for the law terms, which can be decoded by the content clues.

Evaluation

The Firm by John Grisham is an excellent book. I would recommend this book to anybody who loves to read about suspense, action, and romance because it is filled with all of this. I like the fact that every chapter ended in suspense and the conclusion remained a mystery until the very end.

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