The Rooster Bar

American author John Grisham’s 25th legal thriller, The Rooster Bar (2017), concerns the efforts of three would-be lawyers who pose as attorneys. The book is inspired by real-life events chronicled in the Atlantic magazine article, "The Law-School Scam."

Mark Frazier, Todd Lucero, and Zola Maal are third-year law students at a disreputable Washington D.C. law school known as Foggy Bottom Law School or FBLS. The school has few standards for admissions and is widely considered to be a diploma mill that doesn't offer students a very rigorous education in the law. Zola's boyfriend, Gordon Tanner, who suffers from bipolar disorder, unearths evidence that Hinds Rackley, the owner and lead investor in FBLS and other diploma mills, uses a complicated but technically legal scheme to bilk students out of what collectively amounts to millions of dollars while his victims are stalled in a cycle of debt with no job prospects. Gordon hopes to expose Rackley in advance of a potential class-action lawsuit brought against him by Zola and other students. Having stopped taking his medication, an increasingly manic Gordon is arrested for a DUI. With the help of street lawyer Darrell Crowley, Zola and her friends Mark and Todd secure Gordon's release on bail. But before long, Gordon runs off again when Mark and Todd aren't looking. Later it is discovered that he jumped off a bridge to his death.

Blamed for Gordon's death, Mark and Todd find their job prospects even grimmer than before, as a D.C. firm withdraws its employment offers. Mark and Todd drop out and begin working at the Rooster Bar owned by a man named Maynard. They decide to lease space in the building from Maynard to set up a fake law firm, Upshaw, Parker, and Lane. Under false identifies and with forged credentials, Mark and Todd believe this is a way to make money while also avoiding the many creditors affiliated with FBLS. Reluctant but desperate, Zola joins the pair in the scheme.



At first, the trio wins numerous victories in the D.C. courts. At Zola's suggestion, the fake firm expands its clientele to include personal injury victims. With little experience or knowledge of personal injury cases, Mark seeks out Ramon Taper, who files a lawsuit against the hospital where his infant son died. Although experts tell Mark the case is sound, he later learns that the statute of limitations has already passed. As a result, Mark can be sued by Ramon for legal malpractice and for giving him demonstrably unsound legal advice. With such a case imminent, Mark sees no other course of action than to reveal to Ramon's new lawyer, Edwin Mossberg, that he is not a real attorney. Given that a legal malpractice suit cannot be filed against a fake lawyer, Mossberg drops the case but reveals the trio's scheme to the D.C. Bar Association. Meanwhile, Ramon enlists the services of Crowley to pursue some other form of legal recourse against Mark.

Now aware that the D.C. Bar Association knows of their deception, Mark, Todd, and Zola regroup and hatch another scheme involving Swift Bank, a financial institution associated with FBLS founder Rackley that is involved in a class action settlement and is set to pay out billions of dollars to defrauded customers. The trio concocts thousands of fake customers, filing fraudulent claims on their behalf, hoping to earn enough money to escape the United States and the Bar Association's investigation. However, they don't count on the fact that the police are also investigating them. Mark and Todd are arrested. Zola, meanwhile, evades arrest after she is forced to return to her parents' country of Senegal to protect them from an extortion scheme launched by that country's corrupt officials. From Senegal, with the $26,000 left in the fake law firm's account, Zola hires the high-priced lawyer Idina Sanga who manages to get Mark and Todd released on bail, given that they do not leave the district.

Using Gordon's evidence of the FBLS fraud, Mark and Todd convince Rackley to pay out the Swift Bank settlements at a quick pace, including those to the fraudulent clients concocted by the trio of protagonists. With the fortune they quickly amass, Mark and Todd obtain fake passports to travel to Senegal. Evidence of the fraudulent class action clients quickly becomes known, but by that time the trio's money is safe in a Caribbean hedge fund. Meanwhile, all three are indicted in absentia for racketeering. From Senegal, the three send money to the United States to cover their debts and to support their families. Permanently exiled from their home, Mark, Todd, and Zola open an establishment in Senegal called the Rooster Bar.



The Rooster Bar is an entertaining legal thriller that doubles as an exposé of for-profit colleges and the student debt crisis.