Mitchell Y. McDeere, or Mitch, is a Harvard Law School student who is about to graduate in the top of five of his class. Mitch has three job offers he is considering with prestigious firms in Chicago and New York, but agrees to one last interview with a small, unassuming firm from Memphis, Tennessee. Mitch goes into the interview not expecting much but is offered more money than any of his other offers, the promise to work only on tax law where the other firms would require him to work other types of cases, and the potential to become partner in 10 years. Impressed by the offer, Mitch considers a visit to Memphis. Mitch is unaware that this law firm, Bendini, Lambert & Locke, has a strict hiring code that excludes minorities and women, and that they’ve done extensive research on Mitch and his wife, learning much more than an average employer might be interested in, including the death of Mitch’s father when he was young, his mother’s breakdown after his brother was killed in Vietnam, the poverty his family experienced that limited Mitch’s choices, and the football scholarship that changed his life.