The Firm

Abby is the moral and emotional opposite of her husband. While Mitch is highly intelligent and high strung, Abby is calm and quiet. She is patient with Mitch out of a sense of devotion to him and their marriage, but she is proud and just as excited as Mitch when he gets the offer from Bendini, Lambert & Locke. Abby is a feminist, annoyed by Kay Quin’s insistence that the firm dislikes wives who work and encourages wives to have children quickly. Abby likes working and plans to have children on her own schedule. Abby never wavers on this even as it, largely unbeknownst to her, begins to put Mitch in a bad light at the firm.

Mitch cheats on Abby while visiting the Cayman Islands, an indiscretion that is caught on film by the firm’s security division. Mitch makes the conscious choice not to tell Abby about this encounter, but there is a point at which DeVasher sends a manila envelope to the house with Abby’s name on it. Abby claims the envelope was empty. This could have been an attempt to frighten Mitch. If the envelope was empty, Abby stayed in the dark and remains loyal to Mitch because she believes in him. However, if the pictures were in the envelope, Abby’s decision not to reveal that fact to Mitch or use it against him demonstrates that Abby has a stronger character than Mitch. She understands confronting Mitch would not be in their best interest given their circumstances. However, Abby makes comments throughout the novel that suggests she knows and that she has forgiven Mitch’s weakness.

Abby’s forgiving personality is highlighted further as Grisham creates a family dynamic that is complicated and shows extreme patience on Abby’s part. Her parents dislike Mitch because of his lack of family support and poverty. They judge him for his inability to keep their daughter in the middle-class luxury they were able to provide for her. Abby’s parents refused to go to Mitch and Abby’s wedding, but Abby forgives her parents for disrespecting her choices, something Mitch himself is unable to forgive them for. Abby’s parents are an important part of her life, and her decision to be with Mitch highlights her loyalty and feelings for him. Despite everything, Abby consistently chooses Mitch, a fact that further supports the theory that even if she saw the pictures of him with the woman in the Cayman Islands, she would not respond as someone else might, because she knows Mitch’s weaknesses and she believes in the strength of their relationship.

Avery Tolar is a partner with Bendini, Lambert & Locke. When Mitch goes to work for the firm, he is assigned to Avery as his associate so Avery can mentor him in his first year as a lawyer. Avery is loud, disorganized, and gregarious. From their first meeting, Mitch discovers that Avery is the opposite of everything the firm expects of their lawyers. Avery is in the process of getting a divorce where the firm encourages happy marriages, he drinks where the firm discourages drinking to excess on a regular basis, and Avery chases women, another vice the firm would rather their lawyers not engage in. The firm overlooks Avery’s behavior, suggesting to Mitch that they do so because Avery is a great lawyer.

Avery introduces Mitch to the work side of the firm. Unbeknownst to Mitch, Avery is also there to control Mitch, to prime him for the day when he learns the truth about the firm’s biggest client, and to execute actions on behalf of the firm that are designed to trap Mitch into their illegal activities. However, Avery also unwittingly shows Mitch actions that make it much easier for him to believe the story the FBI director tells him and gives him access to the files that will secure the downfall of Bendini, Lambert & Locke.

In the end, Avery’s drinking and womanizing are a result of his unhappiness and the stress of working for a firm that launders money for the mob. When Mitch goes missing, Avery also disappears, attempting to avoid the consequences he can see coming. Avery’s worst fear comes true when the firm finds him and kills him. Avery, like Mitch, is caught up in something he cannot control, but unlike Mitch, he chooses a self-destructive path rather than try to right a wrong.

DeVasher is a former cop who heads the security division at Bendini, Lambert & Locke. DeVasher places listening devices in the homes of the lawyers, has people following the lawyers and their families, and he manipulates situations to get evidence on the lawyers so that he can control them. DeVasher shows disrespect for named partners Oliver Lambert and Nathan Locke by calling them shortened versions of their names. DeVasher believes his position with the firm is more important than anyone else’s because of his direct connection to the Morolto family and the control his job requires.

While DeVasher remains a flat character in the novel, he adds suspense to the plot with his surveillance of Mitch. Because of DeVasher, Mitch must go to extremes throughout the novel to avoid being followed. DeVasher also illustrates the danger that comes with being involved with the mafia with his invasion of the lawyers’ lives and his callous discussion of murder. DeVasher embodies the idea of being capable of flouting the law, law enforcement, and the government.

FBI Agent Wayne Tarrance is the agent in charge of the Morolto case in Memphis. Wayne learned of Bendini, Lambert & Locke’s involvement with the Morolto family when a lawyer from the firm contacted him. Just before this lawyer and another were going to talk, DeVasher arranged an accident that killed them both. In the aftermath, Wayne approached Mitch with the hope that a new lawyer to the firm would be more willing to speak to the FBI than a more established lawyer with more to lose.

Wayne is an intense man with an unwavering gaze on the hope of indicting most of the lawyers in the law firm. While Wayne understands the complexity of what he is asking Mitch, he resists the negotiations Mitch insists on as they discuss compensation for Mitch and his wife in return for Mitch turning over files belonging to the firm. Wayne repeatedly underestimates Mitch’s intelligence, causing Wayne a great deal of trouble, not only as Mitch insists on negotiating higher rewards, but also after Wayne warns Mitch he has been exposed and Mitch refuses to come in. Wayne’s focus is getting the evidence that will destroy the firm and hopefully lead to indictments among the Morolto family. This narrow focus leaves Wayne vulnerable to Mitch’s quick thinking and is what allows Mitch to escape, but also gets Wayne what he wants.

Ray McDeere is Mitch’s older brother. Ray has lived a violent life, first in the military where he was given a dishonorable discharge for “gross insubordination” (132). Eight years ago, he was involved in a bar fight where a man was killed. Ray is serving a 15-year sentence for second-degree murder at Brushy Mountain State Prison. Ray is motivated by love of family and survival, the same motivations that arise from Mitch when he learns the truth about the firm.

Just like Mitch, Ray is highly intelligent, and able to learn languages with little effort. It is his ability to speak Spanish that allows Mitch to warn Ray that he will soon be released from prison. Ray and Mitch have a deep love for one another, and Mitch goes to extremes to get the FBI to secure Ray’s release. Ray plays a pivotal role in Mitch and Abby’s escape, killing a man and disposing of his body as they move to Barry Abanks’s boat. Ray protects both Abby and Mitch and helps them get away from both the Morolto family and the firm.

Eddie Lomax is a former cop who served time at Brushy Mountain State Prison with Ray McDeere. After release, Eddie became a private investigator, specializing mostly in cheating spouses. Ray gives Mitch Eddie’s name because he knows Eddie owes him for protecting him in prison, but he also knows Eddie will help Mitch to the best of his ability. Without Eddie, Mitch would not have learned that the other three lawyers who died while working for the firm did so under suspicious circumstances. The discovery of this information first causes Mitch to believe that there is something not quite right about the firm.

Eddie has only a small part in the book, yet his role is important not only because his work proves the firm is hiding something, but his death again underscores the problems with the firm and brings Mitch into contact with Tammy Hemphill. Eddie represents a turning point in Mitch’s thinking, allowing the reader to see the process through which Mitch goes to conclude that someone needs to do something to stop the firm. At the same time, Eddie’s murder reminds Mitch that his life is in danger if he gets caught working with the FBI. Mitch has no intention of dying, but he’s determined to expose the firm.