The Street Lawyer tells the story of Michael Brock, a wealthy lawyer at a large firm who becomes disillusioned after a homeless man takes hostages at the office. Michael discovers his firm illegally evicted the man, causing the death of a homeless family. He leaves his high-paying job and wife to work for Mordecai Green at a legal clinic helping the homeless. Though the plot is dull, Grisham creates interesting characters like Michael and Mordecai who drive the story of Michael changing his career to help the less fortunate.

2. The Street Lawyer Author John Grisham Country United States Language English Genre(s) Legal thriller Publisher Doubleday Media type Hardcover, paperback ISBN: 9780099281368 Background The legal system in the United States Theme Homelessness

3. Mister - homeless "street bum" who holds hostages at Drake & Sweeney. Michael Brock - the protagonist; a wealthy lawyer at the firm Drake & Sweeney. Mordecai Green - a street lawyer; an advocate for the homeless. Claire Brock - wife of Michael Brock; aspiring neurosurgeon. She divorces Michael after he leaves Drake & Sweeney. Braden Chance - a real estate lawyer at Drake & Sweeney, who covered-up the illegal eviction.

4. Hector Palma - paralegal for Braden Chance, who helps Michael gain evidence for his case. Lontae Burton - a homeless woman with four children; Ontario, Alonzo, Dante and Temeko. They all die of asphyxiation when snow blocks the exhaust pipe of their car. They were victims of the eviction, which indirectly resulted in their deaths. Ruby - a homeless woman addicted to crack. Michael is trying to help her get over her addiction. Megan - Michael's later love interest who works at the women's homeless shelter.

5. A man known only as ' Mister ', enters the offices of the Washington DC law firm Drake & Sweeney and takes many of the lawyers hostage. Although he is eventually shot by a police sniper and the hostages freed, one of the hostages, an antitrust lawyer named Michael Brock , is concerned by what he has learned from "Mister" and feels compelled to investigate the circumstances further. He find his way to the 14th Street Legal Clinic, where he meets Mordecai Green , a fearless advocate for the homeless, who asks him to help one night at a homeless shelter. So Michael is introduced to the world of the homeless. As Michael's investigation deepens, he finds that his own employer was complicit in an illegal eviction, which eventually resulted in the death of a young homeless family.

6. Michael Brock is a wealthy and successful lawyer in Washington DC, but one day a homeless old man walks into the office armed . The old man is shot by the police, and Michael soon realizes that his law firm, Drake & Sweeney, had made the old man homeless . With his marriage breaking up , Michael decides that he can no longer work for the law firm . He meets Mordecai Green , who runs a law firm which helps the homeless, and decides to join him. He steals a file from Drake & Sweeney’s which proves that the company evicted the old man and other tenants. Michael leaves his wife and begins work in a shelter for the homeless. When the police arrest Michael for stealing the file, Mordecai Green defends him . An agreement is reached and Michael starts a new life .

7. The Street Lawyer by John Grisham has a promising setting and characters but never meets the expectations set in the beginning of the book. The beginning of the book includes an exciting hostage situation that brings about changes for the main character. This sets up the book but becomes the most exciting scene in the story because of the relatively dull plot. Grisham continued throughout the story to develop characters that were real and entertaining. The characters were interesting and not shallow. Each one had their distinct personality that was consistent throughout the novel . Michael Brock, the main character, was particularly entertaining because of his way that he dealt with the situations brought to him by the plot. The characters were one of the better points of the book.

8. The book is more effective as motivation for volunteering than of an entertaining story.