The Firm

Mitch McDeere is a graduate of Western Kentucky University
with a degree in accounting who has passed his Certified
Public Accountant exam on the first attempt and graduated
third in his class at Harvard Law School. Mitch is married
to his high-school sweetheart Abby McDeere an elementary
school teacher who also attended Western Kentucky
University. His older brother Ray is imprisoned in
Tennessee for manslaughter and his other brother Rusty
died in Vietnam. His mother suffers from mental health
issues and lives in Florida. Mitch spurns offers from law
firms in New York and Chicago in favor of signing with
Bendini Lambert and Locke a small tax law firm based in
Memphis. He finds the firms offer—a large salary a lease
on a new BMW and a low-interest mortgage on a house—too
generous to resist. Soon after he joins his new colleagues
help him study and pass his bar exam the first priority
for new associates. Mitch is assigned to partner Avery
Tolar the firms bad boy but a highly accomplished
attorney. Two of Mitchs colleagues Marty Kozinski and Joe
Hodge die in a scuba diving accident in the Cayman Islands
a few days before he starts at the firm. On his first
scheduled day of work Mitch attends their funerals. Mitch
finds the deaths unsettling but focuses on his goal of
becoming the youngest partner in the firms history. During
a memorial service at the firm for the two deceased
attorneys Mitch notices plaques commemorating three other
attorneys who died while working at the firm. Suspicious
he hires a private investigator Eddie Lomax an ex-cellmate
of his brother Ray to investigate the deaths. Lomax
discovers that the other three deceased attorneys died
under suspicious circumstances: in a car accident a
hunting accident and a suicide. While the details of their
deaths dont add up nothing concrete was ever proven. Lomax
cautions Mitch to be careful. Soon after delivering his
report to Mitch Lomax is murdered. FBI agent Wayne
Tarrance confronts Mitch telling him the FBI is watching
the firm. While Mitch is in Washington D.C. on business
Tarrance approaches him again this time alongside FBI
Director F. Denton Voyles. The FBI reveals that the firm
is a white collar front for the Morolto crime family of
Chicago. The firms founder Anthony Bendini was the
son-in-law of old man Morolto. He founded the firm in 1944
and for almost half a century the firm has lured young
lawyers from humble backgrounds with the promise of
prestige and financial security. Although Mitchs work so
far has been legitimate the partners and senior associates
are deeply immersed in a massive tax fraud and money
laundering operation that accounts for as much as 75
percent of the firms business. By the time members of the
firm become aware of its true nature they cannot leave. No
lawyer has escaped the firm alive; the five who tried were
killed to keep them from talking. Kozinski and Hodge were
actually in contact with the FBI at the time of their
murders leading Voyles to take personal charge of the
investigation. Mitch learns that his house office and car
are bugged. The FBI tells Mitch that in order to get
enough evidence to bring down the firm he must reveal
information about his clients. The attorney-client
privilege in most U.S. states including Tennessee[1] does
not apply to situations when a lawyer knows that a crime
is taking place. However if Mitch cooperates he will have
to reveal information about some of his legitimate clients
as well which will all but end his legal career. The FBI
warns Mitch that he will almost certainly go to prison if
he chooses to ignore them. The firm also ramps up the
pressure on Mitch; the firms security chief DeVasher
suspects he is getting too close to the FBI. Desperate to
find a way out and stay alive in the process Mitch has to
make a decision quickly. Ultimately Mitch and Abby decide
to cooperate with the FBI. He promises to collect enough
evidence to bring down the firm in return for $2 million
and Rays release from prison. However they secretly decide
to flee after turning over enough evidence to topple the
firm since they do not completely trust the FBI to protect
them. Working with Lomaxs secretary and lover Tammy
Hemphill Mitch obtains several confidential documents from
the firms bank records in the Cayman Islands eventually
copying over 10000 documents detailing over 20 years of
illegal transactions. Mitch tells Tarrance that while
these documents spell out only a fraction of the firms
criminal activities they contain enough evidence to indict
roughly half the firms active members and several retired
partners. However the documents will also provide strong
circumstantial evidence that the firm is part and parcel
of a criminal conspiracy. This will give the FBI probable
cause to obtain a search warrant for the firms building
and with it access to all of the firms dirty files. Mitch
is certain those files will provide enough evidence for a
massive RICO indictment that will bring down the firm and
cripple the Morolto family. Meanwhile the firm becomes
suspicious of Mitch. Tarry Ross alias Alfred a top FBI
official and close confidant of Voyles who is actually a
mole for another crime family confirms that Mitch is
indeed working with the FBI. Once Mitch learns of the leak
he flees to Panama City Beach Florida with his brother and
wife with the Moroltos and FBI chasing them. On the way he
steals $10 million from one of the firms Grand Cayman bank
accounts sending some of the money to his mother and
in-laws depositing some in a Swiss bank account for his
use and leaving the rest for Tammy. Mitch Abby and Ray
manage to escape to the Cayman Islands with the help of
Barry Abanks a scuba diving business owner from the
islands whose son died in the incident which killed
Kozinski and Hodge. Armed with Mitchs evidence the FBI
indicts 51 present and former members of the Bendini firm
as well as 31 alleged members of the Morolto family for
everything from money laundering to mail fraud. As the
book ends Mitch Abby and Ray enjoy their newfound wealth
in the Cayman Islands.