shortly after her undocumented parents and older brother arrived from Senegal 26 years earlier. Grisham, who’s at his best when he brings his sardonic sense of humor to the sometimes questionable ethics of law and banking, also takes aim at the politics of immigration.

Somehow we root for this trio even when they’re buying fake IDs, breaking every rule in the book and venturing into territory that could land them in jail, like signing on to a class-action lawsuit inspired by the Wells Fargo customer-fraud settlement, which could earn them millions. They enlist a reluctant Zola to join them as an ambulance chaser at city hospitals. The fairly interchangeable Mark and Todd adopt new last names, create a fake firm above a dive bar (The Rooster Bar) and start trolling for cash-only DUI-type clients in District Court. (Maybe they’ve read a few John Grisham novels?) For three kids whose grades couldn’t get them into a first-rate institution, these wannabe lawyers are pretty savvy.

The action kicks off when their bipolar classmate Gordy Tanner (who’s having a fling with Zola) goes all Carrie Mathison on them, complete with a Homeland-style wall chart of conspiracies linking a shady Wall Street investor to their lousy law school.Īfter Gordy leaps off the Arlington Memorial Bridge, the shaken trio decide to punt their classes, evade their loan officers and figure out a way to prove their dead friend’s theories. Pals Mark Frazier, Todd Lucero and Zola Maal are in their 20s and in their final year at (fictional) FBLS, each facing the bar exam, a bleak job market and around $200K in student debt.

John grisham books the rooster bar