Treason (novel)

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Treason is a novel by the American author John Grisham . The original edition appeared in 1998 under the title The Street Lawyer , the German edition for the first time in 1999 by Hoffmann & Campe.

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The young lawyer Michael Brock has a well-paying job with promotion prospects, a nice apartment, a nice car and a wife. He dreams of big money - until the day he and eight of his colleagues in the law firm where he works are taken hostage by a homeless man who only calls himself "Mister". Mister accuses the lawyers of only thinking of themselves, being greedy and not donating money to the poor. The hostage situation ends with Mister being shot by a police sniper.

From now on Brock rethinks his attitude towards success and money. After being taken hostage, he comes into contact with Mordecai Green, who runs a law firm for the destitute. Washington winters are cold and shelters are overcrowded. Green calls Brock and asks him to help him in an emergency shelter. For the first time in his life, Brock has to deal with such a level of misery. As a helper in the emergency shelter, he meets Lontae Burton, who has to sleep in a disused car with her four children. When Brock had to read in the newspaper a few days later that the family had suffocated in their car, he quickly found out that they only had to sleep in the car because they illegally took to the street from the law firm where he works were set. Brock tries to learn more about the case and, with the help of a paralegal, steals a file.

Since Brock now knows what machinations his law firm is involved in and the law firm needs help for the poor, he decides to forego success and money and from now on to help the poor as a street lawyer. When the loss of the file is noticed in the office, Brock quickly falls into the crosshairs of the police and his former office, who are now doing everything in their power to get the file back.

Brock and Green decide to file a lawsuit on behalf of Lontae Burton and use the media coverage to raise awareness of the problems of the homeless. But Brock's old firm is not giving up. In the end, there is an out-of-court settlement for $ 5 million and Brock is stripped of his lawyer license for nine months for the theft of the file, which does not affect his work for the law firm of the poor. The last chapter tells how the chairman of the law firm comes to Brock's office and, plagued by a guilty conscience, offers the law firm's help. He suggests that every lawyer in the firm should work regularly for the poor for free.

literature