C2 Proficiency - Reading: Multiple Matching

The Last Juror

In 1970, the first person narrator, a 23-year-old college drop-out by the name of Willie Traynor, comes to Clanton, Mississippi for an internship at the local newspaper, The Ford County Times. However the editor, Wilson Caudle, drives the newspaper into bankruptcy through years of mismanagement. Willie decides to buy the paper spontaneously for fifty-thousand dollars, through money from his wealthy grandmother, and becomes the editor and owner of The Ford County Times. Shortly after this, a member of the notorious and scandalous Padgitt family brutally rapes and kills a young widow named Rhoda Kassellaw. The murderer, Danny Padgitt, is tried in front of a jury and is found guilty. Prior to being sentenced, Danny threatens to kill each of the jury members, should they convict him. Although they do find him guilty, the jury cannot decide whether to send him to life in prison or to Death Row, so Danny is sentenced to life in prison at the Mississippi State Penitentiary.

After only nine years in prison, Danny Padgitt is paroled and returns to Clanton. Immediately, two jury members are killed and one is nearly killed by a bomb. Jury member and close friend of Willie, Miss Callie Ruffin, reveals that the recent victims were the jurors who were against sentencing Danny to Death Row. Callie Ruffin is black, and was the first black on a jury trying a white criminal in Ford County. With her husband, she has a family of highly accomplished adult children, who live outside of Mississippi. Convinced that Danny is exacting his revenge, as promised, the judge of Clanton issues an arrest for Danny Padgitt.

At Padgitt's trial, the former lover of Rhoda Kassellaw, Hank Hooten, guns down Danny Padgitt in the courtroom by positioning himself on the balcony. Willie later discovers that the assassin is also a schizophrenic and would often hear the voices of the victim's children in his head, convincing him to murder Danny and the three jurors who voted against his conviction to Death Row. After nine years of ownership, Willie sells The Ford County Times for 1.5 million dollars. Soon after, Callie Ruffin dies of a heart attack, and the book ends with Willie writing her obituary.

The Brethren

Three former judges (known as "The Brethren") incarcerated at Trumble, a fictional, federal minimum security prison located in northern Florida, develop a scam to blackmail wealthy closeted gay men. With the help of their lawyer, Trevor Carson, they transfer their ill-gotten money to a secret Bahamian bank account.

Meanwhile, Teddy Maynard, the ruthless and soon-to-retire director of the CIA, is orchestrating a scheme to control the United States presidential election. Aaron Lake, a strongly pro-defense expenditure candidate has been identified and Maynard is determined to control him - and then get him elected.

Unknowingly, the Brethren hook Teddy's candidate for President. The CIA scrambles to stop them from finding out what they've done. But, a leak has sprung. It takes all of Teddy's experience with illegal maneuvering to save his candidate from being exposed.

The Brethren lose their trust in Trevor and fire him; he is later killed by CIA agents in the Caribbean. The CIA plant a man inside Trumble, who tells the judges that he knows they have been involved in the scam. A deal is worked out, money changes hands and the judges are pardoned by the out-going President at Maynard's insistence. The judges leave the country and travel in Europe. Later, they re-start the scam.

The Street Lawyer

A homeless man calling himself "Mister" enters the offices of the Washington DC law firm Drake & Sweeney and takes many of the lawyers hostage. Although he is eventually shot by a police sniper and the hostages freed, one of the hostages, an antitrust lawyer named Michael Brock, is concerned by what he has learned and feels compelled to investigate further. He finds his way to the 14th Street Legal Clinic, where he meets Mordecai Green, an advocate for the homeless, who asks him to help one night at a homeless shelter. As Brock's investigation deepens, he finds that his own employer was complicit in an illegal eviction, which eventually resulted in the death of a young homeless family.

He takes a confidential file, intending to copy it, but is quickly suspected of its theft. Shocked by what he has found, Brock leaves his firm to take a poorly-paid position with the 14th Street Legal Clinic, which works to protect the rights of the homeless. This leads to his wife divorcing him. He admits one of his clients, Ruby, to a therapy class for drug-addicted women, and in the process meets Megan, the book's love interest. As Drake & Sweeney comes after Brock with theft and malpractice allegations, the Clinic launches a lawsuit against the law firm and its business partners.

Terrified of the certain bad publicity, the matter is settled by mediation and the clinic receives a large payout to be shared with the victims of the eviction. Drake & Sweeney's head partner, deeply troubled by the events, offers to make pro bono staff available to assist the work of the Clinic in fighting for the rights of homeless people. The book ends with Brock taking a short vacation with Megan and Ruby, and them reflecting on their lives.

The King Of Torts

Clay Carter is a poorly-paid lawyer at the Office of the Public Defender. He dreams of one day joining a big law firm. Reluctantly, he takes on the case of Tequila Watson, a man accused of a random street killing. Clay assumes that it is just another D.C. murder.

But Clay soon learns of a pharmaceutical conspiracy, with the help of the mysterious Max Pace. The pharmaceutical company was illegally using recovering drug addicts for medical trials without their consent. The drug, 'Tarvan', works for 90% of their patients, but in some cases (including Tequila Watson), it leads to random violent killings.

The drug company employs Pace and his shadowy associates to solicit Clay's help in paying off the victims with large settlements. Clay has reservations, but soon profits from the legal retainer offered by Pace. He leaves the Office of the Public Defender and raids some of their staff to establish his own law firm.

Pace offers Clay insider information on the dangers of another drug (Dyloft and Maxatil). Clay uses this information to launch a new career in Tort Law. Soon he finds himself being one of the legal profession's biggest tort lawyers and conniving with other high-powered tort lawyers. But this sudden fame isn't without a price and soon he's under investigation for various misdemeanors, including insider trading. In the end, Clay is beaten up by some men from Reedsburgh, sending him to the hospital. Then he loses a huge case against Goffman and slides downhill as previous, disgruntled clients sue him. In the end he runs away with Rebecca to London.

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