In John Grisham‘s novel “The Litigators” he takes the dark world of lawyers and brings some light to it.  While reading other Grisham novels, they all feel the same, but this one stands above the rest.
It starts with the main character, David Zinc who finds himself suffocating at the law firm he works for.  He arrives at work one day and immediately leaves.   David discovers himself drunk at a bar when he hears a wreck down the road.  He notices some lawyers running to the scene and then fighting over the victim.  This somehow gives him the inspiration to switch to a small boutique of ambulance chasers.
At Finley and Figg, David sees that Oscar Finley is ready to retire and just counting the days and Wally Figg seems to find the most unlikely cases.  They handle everything from divorces to estate settlements.  The two lawyers “fight like a married couple” or two drama queens.  The secretary they have in the office and the dog, who barks when an ambulance is coming, add humor at all the right moments.
David left a huge law firm where they made millions.  But he worked more than 70 hours a week.  With no time for his new wife and a job where he was drowning he felt that F&F was the answer he was looking for.
Money is running low and now all three lawyers are feeling the pinch.  Until Figg discovers a class-act against a drug company.  He talks his partners into signing up and taking on cases in the Chicago area.  The drug company they are up against doesn’t play nice though.  The other class acts in Florida and other areas drop out when they hear about stipulations against the lawyers.  Now with Finley in the hospital and Figg on a bender it is all left up to David. When some say they have a hero most people think of superheroes not lawyers.  David Zinc was a hero that day.  He opened a door which led him to present evidence that the defense could not dispute.  Even though they lost the case, David had made a name for himself.  With their first litigation case behind them and Finley saying he is retiring now, David announces that he has another litigation case against a toy manufacturer.  The toy company though doesn’t want the publicity of the damage the toy caused to a young boy.  So they settled out of court with David and the family.  The heartbreaking thing was that the boy died days before the papers were filed.  The President of the toy company amazingly said he didn’t want anything to change and would still give them the money.  It is nice to see in a novel the bad guy do the right thing for once.  This small family went through so much and David had promised them that even if they didn’t win he would still help them with medical bills.  David and his wife later had a baby and named him after the boy who died.  David expanded his law firm and has no problem litigating cases.

Grisham uses a lot of lawyer jargon but doesn’t dumb it down to help you understand.  Readers of all levels can read this novel without feeling that they were talked down to.  The story is believable enough to be a non-fiction novel.  Something that could be seen in the news or read about is drugs that have class-act law suits against them.  Grisham’s characters were not over the top or too dramatic either.  At first I thought there was no way a lawyer would leave a big law firm where there are company perks like cars, vacation pay and a fixed salary.  After reading David’s problems about working more than 70 hours a week and having no time with his wife you start to understand why he snapped one day.

This novel brought tears and laughter, which makes it to the top of my list.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/360371749

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