Novel Study-The Rainmaker, by John Grisham

Rudy Baylor is a rookie lawyer from Memphis State. He’s having a hard time finding a job, so he starts knocking on law offices in downtown Memphis, to solicit any job available because he needs to pay his bills. Even though his boss at the pub, where he waits tables, treats him well but he wants a decent job to pay off seven-year-hard-work at law school.

After being turned down by so many as to make Rudy to a state of depression, his boss kindly introduces his lawyer, also his buddy, who has been a experienced trail lawyer for a long time. Even though Rudy knows that his boss is a nice guy, he suspects his boss has some illicit activity with his lawyer in the skin business (strip bar), and they probably skim some money offshore or somewhere only known to themselves.

Since Rudy desperately needs a job, he accepts the job offered by his boss’s lawyer at a salary based on performance. Later Rudy learns that his new boss specializes in car injury cases, and his boss asks him to stakeout in hospitals where prospects are likely to be found. Although Rudy despises his new boss’s way of making money from the wrecked and miserable people, he reluctantly lurks himself in the cafeteria of hospital where he prepares for bar exam while preying on potential clients. Out of the fluke from his stakeout, Rudy has found a girl named Kelly for whom he admires profusely, you know, a boy in his 20′s is so susceptible to a young and beautiful body by natural instincts. Kelly has a domestic-abuse problem, you know, husband beats up wife when he is drunk and insane. She has asked for help from authority for a couple of times, but hasn’t made up her mind to file for divorce. Rudy steps up and says that he can help if one day down the road Kelly decides to file for divorce. Chivalrous kind of guy in the field of law is exactly what Rudy is.

One day his partner Deck hears that FBI and other law enforcement are trying to nail down their boss because they have seized the evidence to indict their boss and Rudy’s former boss at the pub, which means that they will soon lose their job. Deck suggests for Rudy to join him in establishing their own company, just like other partners who have departed from their boss. Since Deck failed many times in bar exam in the past and not likely to pass in the foreseeable future, he really needs Rudy,who has recently passed the bar exam, to run the show. Deck suggests the scenario of which he goes out to find accident reports and solicit injury cases while Rudy sits in the office to conduct his lawyerly things. And they would split 50/50 of the settlement fees after incurred expenses. This idea excites Rudy, and the Law Office of Rudy Baylor is thus established, with Rudy,the sole lawyer and Deck, the sole paralegal.

Rudy has been working on the Black’s case since the time before joining his former bosses, who are nowhere to be seen, probably on the run somewhere in the tax-free havens, enjoying their sordid money. Black’s case is an insurance scam which results in the death of a young kid who suffers through acute leukemia.The litigation could have been avoided if the Great Benefit Insurance, the defendant, had accepted the Black’s claim and dispersed the money needed for the mallow transplant.The Great Benefit Insurance is greedy, and in no way they would send two hundred thousand dollars needed for mallow transplant without bouts of denials and humiliation against the Blacks. Rudy, being a rookie lawyer, decides to seek justice for the Blacks and to bring down the 450-million-dollar company-the Great Benefit Insurance.

After numerous depositions of defendants and witnesses, the trial begins as Judge Kipler being partial on the Plaintiff’s side. The judge himself is an advocate for the poor and the underprivileged, and it seems obvious the the Great Benefit Insurance is at fault in denying Black’s claim. Rudy works the case day and night with very little sleep, all for the sake of preserving justice for the deceased Donny Ray Black and possibly many others who are too poor to hire a lawyer to file lawsuits on their behave. Besides, this is Rudy’s first trial appearance and first big case to prove himself that after seven years of law school, he still adamantly believes to search justice for all, especially the most helpless ones in our society.

The final verdict gives the plaintiff, the Blacks, two hundred thousand dollars mallow-transplant money and 50 million dollars in punitive damage, of which they will never receive because the Great Benefit has declared bankruptcy and the parent company has skimmed its assets offshore, away from the authority. Although the justice has been sought and the Great Benefit has been tumbled, the bad guy behind the scene will never be caught-that is the loophole of our judicial system. Finally, Rudy drives away from Memphis with his beloved Kelly, with no intention of returning to his hometown, at least for the time being, and he vows to let his lawyer license expire and never to touch the field of law again in his life.

A very good book to read and get inspired by John Grisham’s compelling delivery of his novel. The Rainmaker is no doubt one of the best I have ever read. I strongly recommend it to everyone who is interested in exploring law-relative novel.