Trama

A young lawyer joins a prestigious law firm only to discover that it has a sinister dark side.

Mitch McDeere is a young man with a promising future in Law. About to sit his Bar exam, he is approached by 'The Firm' and made an offer he doesn't refuse. Seduced by the money and gifts showered on him, he is totally oblivious to the more sinister side of his company. Then, two Associates are murdered. The FBI contact him, asking him for information and suddenly his life is ruined. He has a choice - work with the FBI, or stay with the Firm. Either way he will lose his life as he knows it. Mitch figures the only way out is to follow his own plan...—Mark Harding <mah@imdb.com>

Young up-and-coming Harvard law grad Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) is being courted by major law firms across the country, including Chicago, New York & Los Angeles. When he decides on a small but prosperous firm in Memphis, TN, headed up by Oliver Lambert (Hal Holbrook) and Avery Tolar (Gene Hackman), Mitch and his wife Abigail (Jeanne Tripplehorn) are thrilled. But within weeks of joining the firm, 2 lawyers are savagely murdered when their boat blows up under suspicious circumstances. Mitch is soon approached by FBI agents and the U.S. Department of Justice who inform him that the law firm he works for is heavily involved in the criminal enterprises of a mob family in Chicago. In addition he is told that many young lawyers have been killed while employed by the firm. Mitch soon discovers that the firm has indeed been involved in corruption, racketeering, mail fraud, homicide, and grossly over-billing clients. Now, facing prosecution himself - or death from the firm security enforcers - Mitch & Abigail concoct a plan to hand over files exposing the criminal behavior of the firm to the DOJ and FBI. But the sinister security agents of the firm, headed by William Devasher (Wilford Brimley) are also in pursuit of McDeere, and they will stop at nothing to silence McDeere and protect their interests.—medic249a2

A young Harvard Law School graduate, Mitch McDeere, gets a job offer too good to turn down from a Memphis law firm. Once there his mentor is a master of corporate and tax law, specialising in off-shore tax havens. After two lawyers at the firm die in a boating accident McDeere starts to suspect that something sinister is afoot at the firm.—grantss

Mitch is a much sought after young graduate of law school. When he's made an excellent offer by a small law firm in Memphis, he and his wife Abby, are elated. Very soon Mitch becomes worried about "The Firm's" clients, and is approached by the FBI who are investigating their Mafia connections.—Rob Hartill

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.