Rating: 
Summary: A Compelling Departure
Review: As evidenced by the reviews you will find on Amazon[.com], this is a departure for John Grisham. However, I think it is an intersting one--maybe not the classics he has written before, but a compelling tale nonetheless.His depictions of DC are incredible. You feel as if you are walking the streets as he describes them throughout the book, leaving no blighted neighborhood behind. As is typical with Grisham's works, the story focuses aroung a young, idealistic attorney. This one leaves fame and fortune behind to fight for the homeless. His wife, not sensing the same generous spirit, determines that he no longer matches her needs, and leaves him in the lurch. I guess most of the complaints with this work are that it is too contrived, perhaps written directly for the screen, instead of exclusively for literary content. Some of that may be the case, but I think that Grisham does an overall good job of potraying the classic "give everything up to help the poor" that society could perhaps use a little more of.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible
Review: I had to look at the cover a few times while I was reading this book to make sure it was really written by John Grisham
Rating:
Summary: Grisham Heads For Burbank (Again)
Review: Was this written in a mansion? Another enjoyable quick read by Grisham. The scenario is predictable and the general themes are known to the reader by page 30. And with Grish that's OK. Michael Brock is a young lawyer living in Georgetown and working for the prestigious law firm of Drake & Sweeney: the ambitious climb up the corporate law firm ladder, a high income, a wife he never sees in an unhappy dysfunctional marriage and 80 hour work-weeks, are broken up by martini lunches billed to clients. Grisham again presents the "lawyerly atmosphere," with layman descriptions of legalese and strategies, in an interesting and intriguing way as the story unfolds. The descriptions of the District of Columbia are true-to-the-heart, and bring you to its Victorian townhouses, bad parts of town, popular night-spots, "lettered" streets, and DC's restaurants and cafes. Even though he's a lawyer who lives in D.C., Brock goes through a personal, professional, and spritual metamorphosis after a traumatic incident--but all in 32 days? Now, Acknowledging a boring existence in life, through introspection, he has a series of conscious-raising revelations as the result of event. He then ventures out to fight for the needy. Those who don't have a voice. Those who have multiple self-induced problems, make mistakes in life, and screw-up on a regular basis. Illegitimate children, dependence on drugs and the habitual inability to keep a job: these are the people who are the victims. And, these are victims who need justice. These people need a voice in society for theirs' is muted in the mahogany and oak halls of justice. And, Brock will be the man: risking his freedom, life, high income, career, and a certain future as a million-dollar-partner in his law firm that he leaves. He chucks it. For spiritual enlightenment perhaps. White guilt. Lawyer guilt. He gets a divorce. He marches with the homeless of D.C. He moves into a furniture-less loft in Adams-Morgan, buys a clunker of a car, and eats out in cheap restaurants he describes as "run by Pakistanis". And, all this, at the bewilderment and dismay of his white-collar judgemental yuppie family. Although I'm no cynic, as I read this story, and am inundated by its general stereotypes we see in our media everyday, I picture this: Tom Cruise on a crusade....growing a 3-day stubble, wearing a loose tie, blue-jeans and sneakers, while he helps the "disadvantaged" as a street lawyer on a crusade for justice against the bad guy dapper-dons adorned in Hermes suits. Larry King prime-time is next for Michael Brock. This has "movie screenplay" written all over it. Thematic expressions of good guy under-dog David the protaganist, versus the Goliath nemesis of Drake and Sweeney, the antagonist. The fight for justice. To right a wrong. David vs. Goliath--and David triumphing. Perhaps some suburban cul-de-sac liberals will feel they aren't donating enough of their years-old canned food from their suburban gated community cupboards. (Volunteering is out of the question--they don't have time.) The sensitive may shed a tear. First year law students who are clueless will trick themselves into believing they'll be a pro bono lawyer after law school for a couple of months after they read this book, before they completely forget about it. Hollywood will be shooting this one down the road. Once again, film-makers who live in Malibu will feel good about themselves after they call this one a "wrap."
Rating: 
Summary: Hit the street
Review: Brock is a big time lawyer who seems to have everything. Success, money and a wife working her way up the medical ladder. Then one day a tramp shares a lift with him to his floor at the legal firms offices. Brock and others are held hostage.
Brock does some digging and finds out something unjust is going on in the streets. The homeless have no voice, no rights and very little help. That is until Brock joins a small run down practice and becomes a street lawyer.
Grisham had done his homework with this one, a good mix of the inadequacy of the state to help the homeless and Brocks battle to uncover the truth from the firm he once worked in. A very good taut story.
Rating:
Summary: Community Service
Review: (This review is for the UNABRIDGED VERSION audio cassette version of the book) When reading this book, I could not help being overcome with the feeling that I am not doing enough for my fellow man. I felt down right guilty. I suppose that was the purpose of this book. It was a message to the public that the homeless are a part of our world, and we as the people with warm beds at night should not turn our heads. The legal aid counselor Mordecai Green belongs in every major city with lots of Michael Brock's at his disposal. It's a shame we have to be pushed into a corner to see that public service in any form is a wonderful thing. Grisham points that out quite well here. At times, the book 'stuck' in places and I wanted it to fast forward. Some elements were introduced without a follw-thru later in the plot. But all in all, it was enjoyable. It was a good read by Frank Muller. However if you like the smooth voice of Muller (as in Grisham's "The Brethren"), it is not present in this read.
Rating:
Summary: Weakens at the end
Review: This book starts out great and then sort of fizzles. There were about 100 more pages that could have been written to tie up the loose ends and to consummate and end some of the relationships. It was exciting and could be a great movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for the right wingers
Review: Grisham uses an improbable but interesting attorney to plumb the depths of inner city poverty. He looks at the policies of the various governments to document how and why poverty and its effects are with us. Like his book, A Painted House was used to turn white rural poverty inside out, the Street Lawyer is a vehicle to expore the options of the inner city poor. The right wing thinkers who wrap themselves in the rhetoric of "Family Values" will be offended by this book because the families Grisham speaks of are the wrong color and wrong class. The policies of Reagan and his ilk, including the current incumbent of the White House, raised poverty, the accompanying suffering, and the outrageous costs associated with paying for everything from prison costs to health costs. Grisham tries to show how it's a lot cheaper to accomplish "Family Values" by applying Christian values that the right wing loves to use as their rallying belief. Of course, the book is fiction because the victims of poverty have no heroes like the book's protagonist.
Rating:
Summary: An internal conflict
Review: I was engaged in The Street Lawyer because of the protagonist's internal conflict that carried through the book. The events that surrounded Michael made him face the moral, ethical dilemma that faces many, i.e., the desire to succeed monetarily and in the eyes of others, versus the need to do good.
Michael was a successful young attorney in a large law firm and could have continued to partnership. The reader is aware that this is a possibility and then is faced, as Michael is, with the realization that the firm is hired to handle problems for clients that put lawyers in the position of acting immorally, whether or not their actions are illegal. The reader follows Michael as he makes his first choice, becoming a "street lawyer" and representing those in need, while turning away from money and "success." The reader feels the ramifications of the decision, as monetary rewards and comforts are negated for an obscure feeling of goodness.
John Grisham does not leave Michael and the reader there however. The internal conflict becomes even more apparent when Michael chooses to go further and steal from his old firm. Again, the conflict is evident. Doing bad to end with a good result. Does the means justify the end? Michael took the first step, leaving the firm, which leads to the next, and another conflict.
As the reader follows Michael, his thoughts and actions, the reader is forced to feel the decisions Michael makes, and feel the conflict. This feeling, this discomfort, is what makes The Street Lawyer worth reading and makes it a piece of literature worth the readers' time. It is the internal conflict that makes the story come to life and catch the readers' interest.
Rating:
Summary: From Millions to Nothing
Review: Money is everything to Michael Brock, a veteran lawyer three years away from partnership and a seven-digit paycheck at DC's premier firm, Drake & Sweeney. He is a wealthy lawyer without a conscience until a frightening encounter with a street bum who prefers to be called Mister. Mister holds a group of lawyers at gun-point in a conference room for many hours until he is shot down by a sniper. At the legal clinic, a voluminous man by the name of Mordecai Green tells Michael how Mister and many other people were evicted wrongfully from a warehouse where they were paying rent to an ex-pimp. Michael is taken down to the 14th Street Legal Clinic by Modecai, and is offered a job. He accepts with a [money]cut in pay, for the redemption of his soul. Back at Drake & Sweeney Michael does some snooping around and finds out that Braden Chance, along with Drake & Sweeney wrongfully evicted 16 tenants from the warehouse. Mordecai and Michael file a suit against Drake & Sweeney for their eviction. They take the case to court, and end up winning 4 million dollars on the behalf of Lontae and the others that were evicted. Michael Brock found happiness, not in money, but in the happiness of others. I would recommend The Street Lawyer, by John Grisham to any reader. This book has all the elements needed to make a book complete. It has drama, suspense, and twists in the plot on each page.The Street Lawyer is a great book for anyone who is interested in reality of life on the streets, and how it can change a person's life.
Rating:
Summary: Good escapism
Review: Mr. Grisham never fails to present a riviting story with lots of lawyer trivia. In this one, a promising young associate with a powerful law firm in DC is among a group of fellow lawyers taken hostage by a homeless man. This incident propels the protagonist into the seeing the plight of the poor. It is certainly predictable that he quits the firm, who has unwittingly allowed a terrible injustice to occur. The rest of the book, which I won't reveal, is about the wrangle between the firm and the lawyer. It got a little tiresome in places; I felt the book could lose many, many pages! But it was an OK read by a solid performer. It filled up a rainy holiday.
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