The Street Lawyer

I was packing my gym bag when my mother called.
Me (opening my blinds): “…and it’s snowing here.”
Mom: “And you’re still going to the gym?”
Me: “If I used the snow as an excuse not to leave the house –“
Mom: “ – then you’d never go anywhere.”
Me: “Exactly. Not until March at least.”
The scene outside of the house:

After the gym I went to the student union and continued re-reading The Street Lawyer.

I first read The Street Lawyer the summer before I started high school.

I didn’t have access to Law & Order and Court TV during my summers Germany, so Grisham was the only way I could get my legal fix. My copy still has the Deutsche Mark price sticker on it.

The plot is only vaguely familiar but the book is still exciting as any Grisham novel. A significant change is that I now notice the novel’s shrill call to public interest law. I obviously didn’t pick up this theme as a 13-year-old…

I think public service element is preachy and distracting, but it fits the novel’s premise: A young lawyer leaves his big-law associate position to become a street lawyer for the homeless. He then sues his old firm, the firm goes after him because he stole a file…and krawall & remmidemmi ensues.