The Firm

49 pages • 1 hour read

The Firm

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1991

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

Chapters 16-20

Chapters 21-25

Chapters 26-30

Chapters 31-35

Chapters 36-41

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Grand Cayman and the Cayman Islands

Bendini, Lambert & Locke conduct a significant amount of business in the Cayman Islands because of their unique financial and banking system. It is explained to Mitch that they like to take advantage of the lenient tax laws in the Cayman Islands for their many clients, but it is later revealed that they also use the Cayman Islands because their financial laws make it easy to launder money for the Morolto family. For this reason, the firm has two condos on Grand Cayman, the main island. The first time Mitch visits, he is followed and coerced into having a one-night stand with a local sex worker. However, it is also during this stay that Mitch notices the locked room in one of the condos where he later discovers there are incriminating files on the firm’s illegal activities.

Grand Caymans is symbolic both of success and the illegal activities that created that success. When Mitch first hears about the Cayman Islands, he is excited by the idea of going to a vacation paradise for work, but also the idea of having a free place to stay while vacationing on such a luxurious island. However, while there, Mitch is followed, he is set up by the DeVasher, and he discovers the hidden file room filled with information on the illegal actions of the firm on behalf of the Morolto family.

Files

When Mitch speaks to the director of the FBI, he learns that the FBI would like copies of files from the firm that prove their illegal activities. Mitch is highly intelligent and can see where the situation is going: Either he provides what they are asking for, or he’ll be arrested. However, if he provides what they want, he will have to testify as to how the FBI got the files and to what they contain. This will reveal his identity to the Morolto family and make him a target for revenge. Mitch is unwilling to go to jail where his wife and brother will be unprotected, but he is also unwilling to place a target on his own back. In this way, the files become a character all in their own, as an object that represents fear, danger, and the end of the ideal life Mitch thought he found.

Mitch sneaks his own files out of the firm and has Tammy copy them. He knows these files do not show enough of what the FBI wants to see, but it is the safest thing he can do to show his cooperation and to buy himself some time to figure out what his long play will be. When Mitch sends Tammy and Abby to Grand Cayman to copy the files in the firm owned condo, it is the beginning of the end. These files show the illegal activity and will be the basis of the FBI’s case against the firm. The files are Mitch’s ticket to keeping the FBI satisfied, but also the last thing the firm thought he would find and the one thing that could destroy them. The files are everything to Mitch: his protection and his downfall. Mitch uses the files to escape the FBI, but also uses them to pay for his escape from the Morolto family. In the end, the FBI gets what they want, and Mitch escapes with his wife and brother, but he is left with a mark on his back that will likely never go away.

Security Room

DeVasher is head of security at Bendini, Lambert & Locke with offices on the fifth floor. The offices are hidden behind a fortified door that not only allow protection, but also provides a high level of secrecy. The associates at the firm are aware that there is security because there are guards stationed at the firm’s parking lot and lobby. However, if they were aware of how extensive the security really was, they would likely be surprised. DeVasher runs his office like a mob boss, talking down to the firm partners and making it clear that he is the one who runs the illegal side of things, the most important part of the firm. DeVasher is in direct contact with the Morolto family, taking his orders only from them. Since the family runs the firm through their influence and influx of illegal business, the partners of the firm must allow DeVasher autonomy.

The security room is only visited a handful of times in the novel, but it is clearly the source of the malignancy within the firm. It is in this room where the associates are observed, and their conversations are surveilled via listening devices planted in their homes and cars. It is the room where assignments are made to personnel meant to follow the associates to ensure they are not aware of the legal activity within the firm and doing anything to undermine it. It is in this room that the deaths of Marty and Joe were planned. It is also this room where Mitch’s possible involvement with the FBI is discussed, and his murder planned. DeVasher is the antagonist of the novel, and the security room is his lair, making it symbolic of fear, control, and everything that is wrong with this law firm.

The Firm

Symbols & Motifs

Grand Cayman and the Cayman Islands

Files

Security Room

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