John Grisham`s 21st novel is out. Titled The Associate, it is one of his lesser efforts. The story, however, has great potential. The protagonist Kyle McAvoy is an all-American guy-next-door type who is a star athlete and student at Yale Law School. Despite being courted by some of the top New York law firms for a starting salary of $200,000-a-year, he`s an idealist who would rather do legal aid work with migrant workers.
He isn`t given much choice however. An unexpected visit by a sinister, suit-wearing Bennie Wright has, in the narrator`s words, `[the] 25-year-old former editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal being stalked on the streets of New York City by a deadly group of professional operatives who are blackmailing him into spying on his own law firm.`
Wright has discovered McAvoy`s `dirty little secret`, one that could cost the rising star his legal career which involves him and three others of his fraternity brothers. One of them recorded the episode on his cell phone camera and as the drunken lady in question drifted in and out of consciousness during the encounter, she later cried rape.
Although McAvoy didn`t participate, he was present at the scene of the alleged crime and thus could be charged as an accessory to rape — a crime that can carry prison time.
With the secret in hand, Wright demands McAvoy forget legal aid and instead join one of the largest law firms in the world and become a spy who smuggles confidential documents from a multibillion dollar lawsuit between two defense industry giants. He and his team of thugs bug McAvoy`s apartment, call, email and follow him everywhere he goes. Worried for his future, McAvoy agrees to Wright`s demands but is determined to outsmart his blackmailers.
The bulk of the novel is about how he tries to do so, all while working insane hours as an associate on Wall Street. Grisham, who has never been a fan of the Big Law Firm, clearly revels in depicting the sacrifices lawyers have to make while working at one such firm.
Newbie associates compete over billing hours, face false deadlines and soon start bringing sleeping bags to work. As the narrator sums it up `With 103 associates at a starting salary of $200,000 there was now more than $20 million in fresh legal talent sitting in the room.
`A lot of money, but over the next 12 months each would bill at least 2,000 hours at $300-$400 an hour. The hours would vary, but it was safe to say that the rookie class would generate at least $75 million for the firm in the coming year.`
Many associates and partners pad their hours. Partner Doug Peckam explains the necessity of this to McAvoy `Our biggest client is BXL, the seventh largest company in the world, sales last year of $200 billion.
`Very smart businessmen who have a budget for everything... Last year their budget for legal fees was one per cent of their total sales, or about $2 billion... Guess what happens if they don`t spend the amount they budget? Their in-house lawyers... call us up and raise hell. What are we, the lawyers, doing wrong? Aren`t we properly protecting them? They expect to spend the money. If we don`t take it, then it screws up their budget.`
So McAvoy bills and bills and bills some more. Eventually, all the hard work gives him entry into a secret file room where virtual research is conducted. Now his role as spy must begin and his desire to escape Wright`s claws only grows stronger when a fellow fraternity brother, now in Alcoholics Anonymous, writes a letter of apology to the rape victim.
The novel was inspired to some degree by the much publicised case in 2005 of an American man who, as part of an Alcoholics Anonymous recovery programme, wrote a letter of apology to a woman who claimed he had raped her in their college days.
The letter puts McAvoy in a very vulnerable situation until, as expected, he bravely executes his escape plan. This is probably one of the less believable parts of the novel as there is a weak denouement and, overall, plenty of loose ends.
The Associate has a lot of promise great title, solid story and an appealing hero. But somehow it doesn`t quite meet Grisham`s own high standards. The story drags at times and stretches believability a little too often.
The Associate
By John Grisham
Arrow Books, UK
ISBN 0-0995-3699-4
485pp. Rs495