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by: John Grisham
List Price: $30.00Amazon.com's Price: $19.80 You Save: $10.20 (34%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780385490993
ISBN: 0385490992
Label: Doubleday
Manufacturer: Doubleday
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: February 04, 1998
Publisher: Doubleday
Release Date: February 04, 1998
Sales Rank: 84918
Studio: Doubleday
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Michael was in a hurry. He was scrambling up the ladder at Drake & Sweeney, a giant D.C. law firm with eight hundred lawyers. The money was good and getting better; a partnership was three years away. He was a rising star with no time to waste, no time to stop, no time to toss a few coins into the cups of panhandlers. No time for a conscience.
But a violent encounter with a homeless man stopped him cold. Michael survived; his assailant did not. Who was this man? Michael did some digging, and learned that he was a mentally ill veteran who'd been in and out of shelters for many years. Then Michael dug a little deeper, and found a dirty secret, and the secret involved Drake & Sweeney.
The fast track derailed; the ladder collapsed. Michael bolted the firm and took a top-secret file with him. He landed in the streets, an advocate for the homeless, a street lawyer.
And a thief.
Amazon.com Review:
John Grisham is back with his latest courtroom conundrum, The Street Lawyer. This time the lord of legal thrillers dives deep into the world of the homeless, particularly their barely audible legal voice in a world dominated by large, all-powerful law firms. Our hero, Michael Brock, is on the fast track to partnership at D.C.'s premier law firm, Sweeny & Drake. His dream of someday raking in a million-plus a year is finally within reach. Nothing can stop him, not even 90-hour workweeks and a failing marriage--until he meets DeVon Hardy, a.k.a. 'Mister,' a Vietnam vet with a grudge against his landlord--and a few lawyers to fry. Hardy, with no clear motive, takes Brock and eight of his colleagues hostage in a boardroom, demanding their tax returns and interrogating them with a conviction that would have put perpetrators of the Spanish Inquisition to shame. Hardy, a man of few words and a lot of ammunition, mumbles cryptically, 'Who are the evictors?' as he points a .44 automatic within inches of Brock's face. The violent outcome of the hostage situation triggers an abrupt soul-searching for the young lawyer, and Hardy's mysterious question continues to haunt him. Brock learns that Hardy had been in and out of homeless shelters most of his life, but he had recently begun paying rent in a rundown building; that means he has legal recourse when a big money-making outfit such as Sweeny & Drake boots him with no warning. When Brock realizes that his profession caters to the morally challenged, he sets out on an aimless search through the dicier side of D.C., ending up at the 14th Street Legal Clinic. The clinic's director, a gargantuan man named Mordecai Green, woos Brock to the clinic with a $90,000 cut in pay and the chance to redeem his soul. Brock takes it--and some of the story's credibility along with it; it's hard to believe that a Yale graduate who sacrificed everything--including his marriage--to succeed in the legal profession would quickly jump at the opportunity for low-paying, charitable work. However, Brock's search for corruption in the swanky upper echelons of Sweeny & Drake (via the toughest streets of D.C.) is filled with colorful characters and realistic, gritty descriptions. In the The Street Lawyer, Grisham once again defends the voiceless and powerless. In the words of Mordecai Green, 'That's justice, Michael. That's what street law is all about. Dignity.'
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Ideals lost and regained
Michael Brock had grand ideals of serving humanity when he entered law school. When he graduated and joined a leadinng Washington, D.C., law firm, the realities set in. Success was measured by billable hours, and the competition to be one of the few who advanced to partner was intense. Practicing trust law meant few contacts with actual people except other attorneys. The practice of law was an jealous mistress. There was little time for anything else, and the divorce rate was high.
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Rating: - Just a step away
Many people that I know live from paycheck to paycheck. Housing prices are out of sight. Gasoline prices for commuting have gone past $4 a gallon. Grain prices are high and food prices are up. This is an era of downsizing and outsourcing. Job security may be tenuous. Everyone except the president seems to know that the country is in a recession and that things will get worse before they get better. Someone, observing the homeless, said that he was only a short step away from joining them. This ... Read More
Rating:  - Boring boring boring and more boring. Did I mention it's boring?
Booooooooorrrring!!! Too much of a snoozer to finish reading it. I can see why they didn't make a feature film out of this Grisham book
Rating:  - A Lawyer Develops a Heart for the Homeless
This is an arresting novel about a corporate lawyer who is taken hostage by a desperate homeless mannamed Devon Hardy. He survives physically, but is forever changed internally. Michael Brock develops a heart for the homeless, while also discovering that it was his firm that wrongfully evicted this man along with 16 others.
Michael deceitfully steals a file containing the evidence for this wrongful eviction. Soon enough, his former employee becomes his enemy.
John Grisham is certainly ... Read More
Rating: - John Grisham
This was the first book I read by this author. I loved it. IT was so emotional! I could empathize for him. I felt like I was there in the room during the hostage part! When the guy's brain were on his face, I was disgusted along with him!!!! I could imagine it all happening! It was because this first book that I read was so good that I read (am reading) all his other books. HE HAS SO MANY!!! I won't go into what I felt along with the rest of the book because that would be a spoiler and that's not fair, and cause ... Read More
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