Money functions as a prominent symbol for power and status in the novel. It enters the narrative as Pace’s primary tool in the Tarvan settlement conspiracy, as he uses it to convince Clay to represent the legal front of the conspiracy. He also uses it to buy the silence of the families of those were directly affected by Tarvan’s dangerous side effects. For Pace, money is the only way to achieve the outcome his clients desire, subverting the power of justice with the power of profit. When Clay is still considering his offer, Pace notes that he can always approach another lawyer to take the deal. This signals the limits of Pace’s purchasing power: If Clay had enough professional integrity, he would be forced to turn to someone else with weaker values.

Once Clay becomes entrenched in the world of mass-tort law, he starts using money to signal his success as a lawyer. This marks its transformation into a symbol for status. Clay repeatedly justifies his indulgent expenses to accountant Rex Crittle by saying, “You have to spend money to make money” (151). This indicates that Clay isn’t concerned with using his income to support his essential needs but to show his capacity to profit from his line of work. This resonates with the way he handles money in his casework. It isn’t enough for him to achieve a settlement or win the case for his clients. He also must get the highest possible offer to affirm his status as the “King of Torts.” This is best demonstrated in the Hanna Cement subplot, where Clay relentlessly pursues exorbitant settlement deals to affirm his status as one of the country’s highest-paid lawyers. The rejection of Hanna’s initial settlement offers suggest that Clay doesn’t really care about what the money will do for his clients. His desire for status and power ultimately becomes the cause of his downfall in this case since the settlement negotiations force Hanna Cement to file bankruptcy, rendering all of Clay’s cases worthless.