Samantha Kofer
was a third year associate at Scully & Pershing, a massive law firm in New
York when Lehman Brothers failed, an event that sent shock waves through Big
Law. Suddenly equity partners were taking forced early retirements, other
partners were forced to change to less desirable departments, associates were
laid off, promises of new jobs to recent law school graduates were withdrawn,
and support staff were being axed. Everyone was afraid for their careers.
Samantha, Sam, also fell victim to the hard times, and she was given a
furlough. If she would just volunteer (meaning no pay) for a whole year for an
approved non-profit, the firm would keep paying for her insurance and maybe
give her job back. Suddenly, there was a glut of skilled attorneys fighting for
no-pay jobs, and the first 10 places that Sam applied turned her down. The
first one to call her back was the Mountain Legal Aid Clinic in Brady,
Virginia, run by seasoned attorney Mattie Wyatt.
For Scully &
Pershing, Sam had specialized in the financing of skyscrapers which meant she
got paid a lot of money to review boring financial documents. She hadn’t seen
the inside of a courtroom since moot court in her Ivy League law school. Mattie
ran a nuts and bolts free legal aid program to people in rural Virginia and that
was all about being in the courtroom. Short on options and liking Mattie, Sam
decided to give it a try. She faced culture shock in her move from Manhattan to
Brady, and as she moved from her skyscraper office in New York to a down home
setting in the hill country of Virginia.
This is a story
about the coal mining industry and its relentless mistreatment of the miners,
as well as the insurance companies and their lawyers who were adept at denying
honest health claims by these same people. Meanwhile, in the view of the
environmentalists, the mining companies were raping the landscape through strip
mining throughout the Appalachian area. Ecoterrorists were trying to make the
mining efforts more difficult by sabotaging the mining machinery and other
lawyers were attempting to prove the mining companies were the bad guys.
Grisham is a master of legal drama and he has written another winner. I had a
lazy day of lying around a hotel pool, and I read this in one sitting. If
you’ve liked any of Grisham’s earlier works, you won’t be disappointed by this
one. As always, his character development is superior and his descriptions of
life in Appalachia will make you feel like you know what it’s like to live
there. I had a great day being entertained by this story.
I just completed this book as well and will post my review as a comment.
ReplyDeleteGray Mountain is the classic Grisham legal thriller that has made him famous. All the provocative elements are present complete with the starving, idealistic young lawyer, the helpless, down trodden victims, and the notorious money grubbing big company whose hired guns will do anything to win.
Samantha Kofer is an aspiring young attorney with just the right pedigree to be successful. She grew up in Washington DC, daughter of two high powered attorneys, went to Georgetown as an undergraduate then to Columbia for law school and landed a coveted 80 hour a week job with a prestigious New York law firm in the real estate department. But the 2008 financial crisis puts her on the street along with hundreds of other capable lawyers and she finds herself working as an intern for a free legal clinic in Brady, Virginia, the heart of Appalachian coal mining country.
Suddenly, she has desperate people asking for help with real problems that she is fully qualified to solve. One single mom is fired from her job because a credit company has wrongfully garnished her pay check. A man with black lung disease has won the right to benefits from his company but they have appealed and delayed his payments for ten years. Another woman’s two young boys were killed by a boulder that was pushed down the mountain from a nearby strip mining operation and crashed through their mobile home. So, the Mountain Legal Aid Clinic in Brady Virginia even with two full time lawyers has more than enough work. Samantha’s career goes from long hours of tedious document review for unappreciative clients to the full gamut of everyday legal work. Inside a week she prepares a lawsuit, represents a client in a courtroom, is scolded by a judge, and is threatened by locals who resent big city lawyers. But through all this she is greatly appreciated by her clients and has never felt such a sense of fulfilment.
But she can’t avoid the Big Coal companies and the zealot legal ego maniacs on both sides. Big law suits mean big money and dangerous consequences for just being involved. She has to make quick judgments on who she can trust and with a lucrative job offer enticing her back to New York, hastily decide what kind of lawyer and person she wants to be.
I agree with WCD’s assessment… a spell bounding read with a lot of heart… typical Grisham.
I've moved all the way from about #160 on the library's wait list to #77. With any luck I'll get to it by Christmas.
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