The Firm

Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise), about to graduate from Harvard Law School, accepts a generous job offer from Bendini, Lambert & Locke, a boutique firm in Memphis, Tennessee. Mitch was being courted by many companies who offered a generous starting pay package, reasonable working hours, and even perks such as court-side tickets to basketball games. Exit options include a cushy Government job as a Senator, Governor, Congressman or some such. Mitch meets senior partner Oliver Lambert (Hal Holbrook) and Managing Director Royce McKnight (Jerry Hardin) at a fancy hotel room in Boston. Olver inquiries about Mitch's family and says that family stability is important for the firm. Bendini, Lambert & Locke has 41 lawyers. The firm offers 20% more than the highest offer Mitch has (Mitch offered $96,000 a year, which is equivalent to $150,000 in New York) and adds a low interest mortgage and a leased Mercedes. Mitch and his wife Abby (Jeanne Tripplehorn) move to Memphis, and he studies to pass the Tennessee bar exam. Mitch becomes friends with Lamar Quinn (Terry Kinney) and his wife Kay (Barbara Garrick) tells Abby that the firm has had zero divorces and they don't employ bachelors or females. She says that the firm encourages children because children promote stability. All the furniture and electronics at the home are installed by companies contracted by the firm. Senior partner Avery Tolar (Gene Hackman) mentors Mitch and introduces him to the firm's professional culture, which demands strict loyalty, confidentiality, and a willingness to charge exceptional fees. Mitch is seduced by the money and perks, including a house, new car, and his student loans paid off, but Abby is suspicious of the firm's interference with employees' families. The first amber flag is when 2 associates at the firm die in a boat explosion off the Cayman Islands. Mitch finds Lamar in a pensive mood at his own backyard, deeply contemplating his own future. Mitch passes the bar exam and begins working long hours, straining his marriage. Working closely with Avery, Mitch learns that most of the firm's work involves helping wealthy clients hide money in offshore shell corporations and other dubious tax-avoidance schemes. On a trip to the Cayman Islands, Mitch hears a client state that the firm's Chicago clients break people's legs. Seduced by a local woman, Mitch cheats on Abby; this encounter was arranged by the firm's security chief, Bill DeVasher (Wilford Brimley), who blackmails Mitch with photos of his tryst to keep him quiet about the firm's activities. Learning that four of the firm's associates died mysteriously, Mitch hires private investigator Eddie Lomax (Gary Busey), a former cell mate of Mitch's brother Ray, who is shot dead, which Lomax's secretary Tammy (Holly Hunter) witnesses. Mitch is approached by FBI agents who reveal that BL&L's biggest client is the Morolto crime family of the Chicago Outfit. Most of the firm is complicit in a massive tax fraud and money laundering scheme. The dead associates had learned the truth and were killed on the firm's orders, as was Lomax. The FBI warns Mitch that his house, car, and office are probably bugged, and pressures him to provide evidence against the firm and the Moroltos. The FBI informs him that every associate who has ever tried to leave The Firm ends up murdered. His life as he knows it is forever changed. He has a choice: work with the FBI and risk being discovered by The Firm, or stay with The Firm knowing that at some point he will get involved with laundering mob money and in the end go to jail when the FBI cracks The Firm. Either way he will lose his life as he knows it. Mitch agrees to cooperate in return for $1.5 million and the release of his imprisoned brother Ray (David Strathairn) (who is in prison for manslaughter). The FBI releases Ray, planning to return him to prison once Mitch hands over the incriminating files, and gives him half the money to a Swiss account Mitch has set up. Mitch confesses his one-night stand in the Caymans to Abby, who prepares to leave him. When a client complains that he was billed for several hours of extra fees, Mitch realizes that mailing clients these padded bills is mail fraud, exposing the firm to RICO charges. Mitch finds a possible way to save his career. He secretly copies the firm's billing records with help from Tammy but needs files from Avery's house in the Caymans. Avery invites Abby to come with him to the Caymans and she declines, but he reveals his work schedule has changed, threatening Mitch's plans. Telling Tammy not to inform Mitch, Abby flies to the Caymans to seduce and drug Avery. The firm's phone tap picks up Abby's warning to Tammy, and DeVasher sends his hit-men to the Caymans. After Abby copies the files, Avery tells her the firm set up the prostitute who seduced Mitch on the beach. He warns Abby to leave and is later killed by DeVasher's hit-men, staging his death as a bathtub drowning. Mitch's plans are jeopardized when a prison guard on the Moroltos' payroll alerts DeVasher after Ray is transferred to FBI custody without the usual formalities. Evading DeVasher and his thugs, Mitch meets with the Moroltos, presenting himself as a loyal attorney looking out for his clients' interests. He claims that his contact with the FBI and his copying of files were an attempt to expose the firm's illegal over-billing and asks the Moroltos for permission to turn over their billing invoices to help the FBI's case against the firm. Revealing that he has made his own copies, he assures them that as long as he is alive, any information he knows about their legal affairs is safe under attorney-client privilege. Guaranteeing Mitch's safety, the Moroltos let him give the FBI the evidence it needs to prosecute the firm. Mitch's decision to work with the Moroltos angers the FBI, but he reminds them that the evidence he has provided is enough to make a RICO case and ensure that the firm's senior members go to prison for a long time. The McDeeres return to Boston in their old car. Ray, now with Tammy, enjoys his new life in the Caymans with the money Mitch obtained for him.