The Firm by John Grisham is a legal thriller. Released in 1991, the book made Grisham known. Mitchell Y. McDeere is a young, bright law student who graduated at Harvard Law School, married to his high school sweetheart, Abby. Mitch has offers from law firms in New York and Chicago but finally he has chosen the small Memphis tax firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke. The firm paid his student loans, offered him a large salary, a luxury brand new car and a low interest mortgage on a house...

But Mitch soon finds out that the FBI wants to take down the firm because it's a front for one of the most powerful crime families. And they need Mitchell's help to bring them to justice...

The Firm excerpt:

"THE SENIOR PARTNER studied the résumé for the hundredth time and again found nothing he disliked about Mitchell Y. McDeere, at least not on paper. He had the brains, the ambition, the good looks. And he was hungry; with his background, he had to be. He was married, and that was mandatory. The firm had never hired an unmarried lawyer, and it frowned heavily on divorce, as well as womanizing and drinking. Drug testing was in the contract. He had a degree in accounting, passed the CPA exam the first time he took it and wanted to be a tax lawyer, which of course was a requirement with a tax firm. He was white, and the firm had never hired a black. They managed this by being secretive and clubbish and never soliciting job applications. Other firms solicited, and hired blacks. This firm recruited, and remained lily white. Plus, the firm was in Memphis, of all places, and the top blacks wanted New York or Washington or Chicago. McDeere was a male, and there were no women in the firm..."