The King of Torts

Published in 2003, The King of Torts is a legal thriller by John Grisham, a former attorney renowned for best-selling novels like The Firm and The Rainmaker that explore the US legal system. A #1 New York Times bestseller, The King of Torts follows a disillusioned public defender who is drawn into the lucrative and ethically compromised world of mass-tort litigation after uncovering a deadly corporate conspiracy. The story is set against the real-world rise of mass-tort lawsuits in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a period that saw multi-billion-dollar settlements and created a new class of ultra-wealthy trial lawyers. This context fuels the novel’s examination of themes including The Corrupting Influence of Wealth, The Ambiguity of Justice in the American Legal System, and The Negative Impact of Ambition on Personal Identity.

This guide refers to the 2013 Bantam Books Trade paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, death, illness, addiction, substance use, racism, and gender discrimination.

Plot Summary

The novel opens with the murder of Ramón “Pumpkin” Pumphrey in a Washington, DC, alley. A suspect, Tequila Watson, is quickly identified and arrested. J. Clay Carter II, a burned-out, 31-year-old public defender, is unluckily present in court and assigned the case. Clay is deeply dissatisfied with his low salary and his career at the Office of the Public Defender (OPD). He is in a long-term relationship with Rebecca Van Horn, whose wealthy, social-climbing parents, Bennett and Barb, disapprove of his lack of ambition. At the jail, Clay interviews Tequila, who confesses to the murder. He explains that he had a random, irresistible urge to kill someone after being released on a two-hour pass from Deliverance Camp, a rehabilitation facility where he had been in recovery from addiction for 115 days.

Clay investigates Deliverance Camp and meets its director, Talmadge X, who describes Tequila as a model patient with no history of violence, making the sudden outburst inexplicable. During a contentious dinner with Rebecca and her parents, Bennett ambushes Clay with a high-paying job offer, which Clay resents as an attempt to control his life. The ensuing argument causes Clay and Rebecca to break up. Later, Clay learns from a colleague, Jermaine Vance, about a similar case of violence committed by a man recently released from another rehabilitation center. This prompts Clay to subpoena the full records from both facilities. Soon after, he receives a call from a man named Max Pace, who poses as a legal headhunter. At their meeting, Pace reveals that he is a “fireman,” a fixer for an unnamed pharmaceutical company. He discloses that an experimental anti-addiction drug, Tarvan, was secretly tested in DC rehabilitation clinics. The drug has a devastating side effect: In about 8% of users, it triggers an irresistible homicidal impulse. Tequila and the other man both experienced this side effect. Pace offers Clay a deal to secretly settle with the Tarvan users’ families to avoid a public lawsuit, with a massive fee for Clay. Clay negotiates a new deal: $5 million for each of the seven victims’ families and a $15-million fee for himself. He resigns from the OPD, establishes his own law firm, and hires his former colleagues Paulette Tullos and Rodney Albritton.

Clay’s new firm successfully settles the Tarvan cases, beginning with Pumpkin’s mother, Adelfa Pumphrey. Now extremely wealthy, Clay buys a Porsche Carrera and a Georgetown townhouse. Pace then brings Clay a new, much larger case: A competing company, Ackerman Labs, manufactures a popular arthritis drug, Dyloft, which Pace’s client knows causes bladder tumors. Pace provides Clay with stolen internal research to prove it. Clay attends the Circle of Barristers conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he is introduced to the world of mass-tort litigation and its indulgent practitioners, including the notorious Patton French. Clay launches a nationwide TV ad blitz to solicit Dyloft clients, coordinated with a massive class-action lawsuit against Ackerman Labs. He shorts the company’s stock, making a large profit as the share price plummets. Impressed by the bold attack, French persuades Clay to form a partnership and move the class action to Mississippi, giving them control over the litigation. The media dubs Clay the “King of Torts,” and his firm expands rapidly to handle thousands of Dyloft clients.

The Dyloft litigation settles quickly after a competing drug manufacturer, Philo Products, acquires Ackerman Labs. The settlement is structured in tiers, with most plaintiffs receiving a modest $62,000 before fees. Clay’s firm earns over $100 million. While his original colleagues receive large bonuses, many clients, including the first plaintiff, Ted Worley, are angry about their small payouts and the pre-authorization clause in their contracts that allowed Clay to settle their cases for any amount above a low threshold without their final approval. At Pace’s urging, Clay files another massive class action, this time against corporate giant Goffman over its female hormone drug, Maxatil. However, other top tort lawyers, including French, avoid the case, citing difficulties in proving causation. Clay’s attempt to force a settlement in a smaller class action against Hanna Portland Cement Company backfires, pushing the company into bankruptcy and causing massive layoffs, which earns him more negative press. Clay is then lured from his home by a man and severely beaten by assailants who also vandalize his car with cement from the Hanna company. While Clay is recovering, it is revealed that Dyloft causes a delayed, aggressive, and fatal form of kidney cancer. Worley and hundreds of other former Dyloft clients are now dying. A new class-action lawsuit is filed against Clay and the other Dyloft lawyers by Attorney Helen Warshaw, alleging malpractice and a premature, negligent settlement. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also begins investigating Clay for his connection to Pace, who is wanted for securities fraud, and for insider trading related to the Ackerman lawsuit. The case stalls, however, when the doctor who reviewed the stolen research for Clay refuses to cooperate. The final blow comes when the first major Maxatil trial ends in a shocking verdict favoring Goffman, rendering Clay’s 26,000 Maxatil cases worthless and leaving his firm with millions in unrecoverable expenses.

Facing financial ruin, professional disgrace, and potential criminal charges, Clay begins dismantling his firm and prepares for personal bankruptcy. Rebecca, whose own marriage has failed, returns to Clay. They agree to flee the country together. Consumed by guilt over the original Tarvan cover-up, Clay contacts a reporter from The Washington Post and provides a full confession, exposing the conspiracy and naming Philo Products as the likely manufacturer of Tarvan. After giving his story, Clay and Rebecca board his Gulfstream jet for a final flight to London, England, leaving behind his fortune, his legal career, and his life in Washington, DC.