The Street Lawyer

So I'm trying to get in 54 books this year. According to Goodreads, I am eight percent and four books behind. So I knew this would be a quick read. It was. I still need to get caught up, especially if I am going to be getting a job soon. Which I am. Because that I what I am saying right now to be hopeful and positive about what is coming in my life. But enough of that. This is my review.

The Street Lawyer by John Grisham

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So I know that I ranked this three stars sometime ago. And I think I remember reading it when it came out in 1998. I had a conversation about it with a friend back then. And parts of it were vaguely familiar. Very very vaguely familiar. That and I own the book. Although I could have inherited it from a former student or roommate. I don't know.

In any case, I suppose one would think that since I've obviously forgotten the story in all of its detail that I would give it fewer stars, not more.

But then, I hadn't gone to law school back in 1998.

And that made all the difference. It isn't that I think Grisham is or isn't correct on all his legalese and lawyerly discussion of ethics, street law, Constitutional protections and so forth. He probably is, for all I know. I paid attention in law school, don't get me wrong. But some details escape me now, a year out of school. No, it's more that it came alive for me because I understood the legalese, the ethics, and so forth.

To be honest, this isn't as exciting as so many of his other stories, like The Firm or The Pelican Brief, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed because they were taught nail biters. I mean were these folks going to get caught in the act of stealing files and uncovering the bad guys? Was someone going to find them and kill them? That just isn't the story for Michael Brock, an associate attorney just a few years from making partner in a large firm. This guy finds his conscience after a homeless man holds him, and a few other lawyers at Drake & Sweeney, hostage in their conference room. Soon after said hostage crisis, Mr. Brock goes out to find out more about his assailant's history and discovers a whole world of homeless people living on the mean streets of D.C. Michael finds himself swept up in a desire to help the homeless find justice. In the process he actually does steal a file. But it isn't something that he risks his life and limb to obtain.

Still even if it isn't as exciting, it did remind me of the thrill you feel when you are trying to do something for the little guy. I don't know if I ever want to practice law. I really don't think I do. But I did appreciate my experiences in the law clinic at Seton Hall, helping out migrant workers who weren't getting paid or a woman who was seeking asylum for her six children in Cameroon. There is something very satisfying about helping out people who don't have a voice. And I quite enjoyed reading about it in The Street Lawyer.




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