The King of Torts

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Clay finds himself suing a large company for a bad drug-- all with the help of this mysterious man who has befriended him. When he becomes a multi-millionaire overnight, the smell of money and his greed only increase. He is hailed as the "King of Torts" and instantly thrown into the spotlight. He buys houses and jets and big boats. He becomes even more greedy and careless, and ultimately winds up with next to nothing. Clay signed the clients but the other lawyers weren't so impressed. "I'm not sure you'll win this one," they said. A little while later Clay discovered the effects of Dyloft were more severe than expected and that he had ripped off his clients. While Clay is slowly recovering in the hospital, Rebecca shows up to tend to him, having divorced her husband and estranged herself from her father. Regaining her love helps Clay take calmly the final blow to his career: the jury in Arizona has rejected the Maxatil tort suit, and all the millions which Clay invested in Maxatil goes down the drain. Clay is forced to declare bankruptcy, close down his firm, give up his assets, and surrender his license to practice law. The FBI stops pursuing their case against Clay due to the loyalty of an old friend who refuses to provide incriminating evidence.

The happy ending literally made me want to throw up. Given how phony the love story was it was like a big F.U. to everyone who actually read the book.Another interesting story by Grisham, about the corruption in legal practice and greedy lawyers taking advantage of clients. It almost felt like a Mobster film, where the main character starts out from beneath, slowly works his way up making it to the top, then in the end everything goes south and starts to crumble. John Grisham's The King of Torts, a fast-paced, edgy legal thriller with surprises and twists along the way, answers these and other questions as we follow the rise and fall of one lawyer who gives in to temptation. Clay tries his best to help his client, plunging into the most dangerous parts of the Washington D.C. slums in search of evidence which may help his case.

Grisham continues to impress with his daring, venturing out of legal thrillers entirely for A Painted House Clay finally gets a subpoena, forcing drug rehabilitation centers to hand over Watson's medical records, as well as those of another man accused of a similar, apparently motiveless murder. ... The very next day a mysterious man walked into Clay's office. "Forget about Tequila," he said. "The reason he did what he did was because the pharmaceutical company hadn't tested his Tarvan properly. So sue the company instead. Here's how you do it." Clay felt a bit sorry for himself when he saw that Rebecca was getting married. "Find me a girlfriend," he barked to Jonah. I'm a bad, bad man," he wailed. "I have followed the path of materialism and abandoned the path of righteousness. I have made innocent people suffer."Meanwhile, Clay’s girlfriend, Rebecca, dumps him in favor of a corporate lawyer to please her rich family. Clay is deeply disappointed, but he’s too distracted by the complexities of the case to dwell on it. He focuses his energy on Tequila’s case—however, soon, he’s asked to resign as public defender, because it’s obvious he now knows too much. Clay decides to open his own law firm specializing in civil damages claims, or torts. He thinks this will impress Rebecca and allow him to sue the pharmaceutical company for huge sums of damages for his clients. Clay, like many other young John Grisham heroes, is losing his idealism about the law as he is ground down by overwork and association with the dregs of humanity. He is demoralized by trying to defend clients who deserve to be behind bars and who cannot be honest even with their own attorneys. He is in love with beautiful, sophisticated Rebecca Van Horn, with whom he has been having sex five times a week. She enjoys that aspect of their relationship but wants a husband who can provide the kind of upper-class lifestyle to which she is accustomed. Her parents regard Clay as a hopeless underachiever. They make him feel unwelcome at the upscale social affairs he manages to crash. His future looks grim. Then a violent incident in the slums of the big city changes Clay’s prospects as well as his entire moral and psychological outlook. This is a good book for those who believe that if they get that promotion, that new house, that new car or whatever it might be, it will satisfy. It won't. Whenever I see another class-action lawsuit advertisement on T.V. I will always think of this book.