The Street Lawyer

by John Grisham and GRISHAM. JOHN

Book Overview

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Michael Brock is billing the hours, making the money, rushing relentlessly to the top of Drake & Sweeney, a giant D.C. law firm. One step away from partnership, Michael has it all. Then, in an instant, it all comes undone.

A homeless man takes nine lawyers hostage in the firm's plush offices. When it is all over, the man's blood is splattered on Michael's face--and suddenly Michael is willing to...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385339097
• ISBN13: 9780385339094
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Engaging from page 1

Seemingly unrelated events are slowly tied together in a way that made me want to keep reading! Was one of Grisham’s best books.

great book

this was the first Grisham book i've ever read, and i loved it! what a great story! it was hard to put down. it felt like a movie in my mind, descriptive enough, not too much. starts off with a bang, when michael, the main character, is taken hostage along with his lawyer coworkers, by a homeless man. from there, michael learns about the poor side of life, mostly from his new friend mordecai, a lawyer at a clinic for homeless people. one moment can be life-changing, and this book demonstrates that. if you haven't read this book, please do so! great legal story, great life story.

A Wake-up Call About the Poor and the Homeless

Attorney Michael Brock is a thirty-two-year-old Yale graduate, who will soon become a partner at the high powered Washington, D.C. law firm of Drake & Sweeney, where he will earn close to a million dollars a year and bonuses. He works eighty hours a week minimum and is climbing the ladder of success. Then one day a homeless man walks into the firm and takes some of its attorneys hostage. He not only has a gun, but a bundle of what looks like dynamite taped to his body and he laments that people like them walk right by him on the street, ignoring the poor and the homeless, and he demands they call him, Mister. Then he demands their tax records. He wants to check their charitable contributions. Mister meets a violent end, but the experience transforms Michael and his attempts to find out what motivated the man lead him to a world of soup kitchens, squatters, homeless shelters and a legal clinic where there are no million-dollar salaries. His guide to the world of the homeless is Mordecai Green, a firebrand in his early 50s who represents the poorest of the poor. He educates Michael and the reader about the elimination of low-cost housing and the trend in America to turn the homeless into criminals. It's not long before Green offers Michael a job and he accepts, becoming, you guessed it, "The Street Lawyer." Michael starts up in Green's clinic working on hundreds of cases, while preparing a lawsuit against his old firm. This is hard work and things start to get complicated when Michael realizes that a Drake & Sweeney file he has shows that his old firm had been guilty of wrongful eviction. This adds a very nice twist to the tale. Though this book is sort of a wake-up call to America about the plight of the homeless, it's first and foremost a John Grisham legal thriller, and as such you can expect a corporate conspiracy and a cover-up with our hero's life and livelihood on the line. You can also expect expertly drawn characters who you can easily identify with and non-stop Grisham suspense. I think everyone should read this book.

One of his Best!!

I read this book over a weekend and have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it! I even liked it as much as The Client, which is my favorite Grisham book. It also has a lesson on ethics within it. We live in a very materialistic society and after reading this book, you really think the next time you buy a shirt at Macy's or go out for dinner and drinks with friends. Not everyone can have these luxuries in life and many of us spend more on a smoothie or coffee from Starbucks than some spend on a meal. It would be a perfect book to tie in with The Lifestyle Makeovers you see on Oprah. That wasn't the only part of the book, though. I did have plenty of law related things as all of his books do. If you enjoy his other books, I am sure you will like this one as well. I know I did!!

OUTSTANDING! Deeply moving!

This is my first Grisham novel. I've put off reading him because he's so popular, which was a mistake.I'm very impressed. He manages to convey powerful human emotions, and to do so realistically and (here's the clever bit) without obvious ploys for our emotions. His characters are real, and they act real, and that makes us care for them.To be honest, I hadn't thought much about the homeless before reading this book, and frankly, now I'm ashamed. If I were a better man, I'd give up everything and work with the homeless like the protagonist did, but I'll have to settle for making sure I give regularly to the appropriate charities.I highly recommend this book. It's gratifying on so many levels, not the least of which is the emotional level.

My Favorite Book

This is my favorite book. I read it in about a week. It's about a senior associate with the largest firm in D.C. named Michael Brock. Michael's life is turned around when a homeless man named DeVon Hardy takes him and eight other lawyers hostage in a conference room with a gun and twelve "sticks of dinamite". When the man's blood and brain fluids splatter on Michael's head after he was snipered by a police officer, he decides to meet with Mordecai Green, DeVon's former lawyer at the 14th Street Legal Clinic, Michael is intantly charmed by Mordecai and starts working with the homeless. When Michael leaves his fast track for partnership for a $30,000 a year job at the non-profit 14th Street Legal Clinic, he's in for the ride of his life. Divorce, law suits, grand larceny, and more cross with Michael's path. This book is an interesting tale of homelessness and law that will pull the reader in and never let him or her out until they finish the book. I reccomend this to anyone.

A Superb Resource for the Budding Lawyer

I recently had to defend myself in a murder case. I got rid of the public defender because he was a cracker. Anyway, this book helped me to learn how to be a lawyer. I was objecting and entering things into evidence just like the hero of this book. I'm from the street, so I could relate to him. PEACE BE WITH YOU ALL