The Litigators

John Grisham

The Partners at Finley and Figg - all two of them - often refer to themselves as 'a boutique law firm.' 'Boutique,' as in chic, selective and prosperous. They are, of course, none of these things. What they are is a two-bit operation always in search of their big break, ambulance chasers who've been in the trenches much too long making much too little. Their specialties, so to speak, are quickie divorces and DUIs, with the occasional jackpot of an actual car wreck thrown in. After twenty plus years together Oscar Finley and Wally Figg bicker like an old married couple, but somehow continue to scratch out a half-decent living from their seedy offices in southwest Chicago.

And then change comes their way. More accurately, it stumbles in. David Zinc, a young but already burned-out attorney, walks out of his fast-track career at a fancy downtown firm, goes on a serious bender and finds himself literally at the doorstep of our 'boutique firm'. Once David sobers up and comes to grips with the fact that he's suddenly unemployed, any job - even one with Finley and Figg - looks OK to him.

With their new junior partner on board, FandF are ready to tackle a really big case, a case that could make them rich without requiring them to actually practice much law. An extremely popular drug, Krayoxx , the no. 1 cholesterol reducer for the dangerously overweight, produced by Varrick Labs, a giant pharmaceutical company with annual sales of $25 billion, has recently come under fire as several patients taking it have suffered heart attacks. Wally smells money.

A little online research confirms Wally's suspicions - a huge plaintiff's firm in Florida is putting together a class action suit against Varrick. All Finley and Figg have to do is find a handful of people who had a heart attack while taking Krayoxx, convince them to become clients, join the class action, and ride along to fame and fortune. With any luck, they won't even have to enter a courtroom!

It almost seems too good to be true.

And it is.