I was just watching “The Firm” again after many years—my old friend and the terrific actor, the late Bart Whiteman, played “Dutch”—to get the ick of “Cabin Fever 3” out of my head. (It was part of last night’s Halloween triple feature at my house.)
Pay attention, Tom…
In an early scene in the film, Harvard Law student Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) is being courted by big law firms offering perks and cash. Then a small Memphis firm he never heard of —later, he learns that it is run by the Mob— blows him away with an offer he can’t refuse. The firms partners tell him that they wanted him so much, they bribed the clerk at Harvard’s placement office to learn what salaries the other firms had offered Mitch, then matched it plus 20% more. Tom is impressed, and flattered, and greedy, and takes the offer, even though the firm had openly revealed itself as unethical and proud of it.
He should have seen this as signature significance of a dangerously unethical culture in a profession with high ethical obligations, and walked out the door. A young lawyer with well-maintained ethics alarms would have. Who knows? Maybe this was a test the corrupt firm used to weed out ethical associates.
I always thought Mitch was just unlucky, but in the film, at least, he ended up in a bad firm because an ethics alarm wasn’t working.
Ethics Alarms 
Obviously Danielle hasn’t been looking in the right places.
Penn, you may or may not understand this. You owe me a keyboard. Blew coffee all over mine.
Jack does it to me all the time — sorry you got caught in the backsplash.
No sweat. After I found Jack’s site and followed along for a while, I laid in a supply of replacement keyboards. Too many people have the same sort of sense of humor.
The ID number in your IMDB link got cut off after the first three digits. The new version goes to what must be a fascinating piece of film history from 1895: “Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory.”
Ooops.
This is definitely one of life’s lessons. People who are willing to act unethically aren’t usually very selective about it. If your auto mechanic is willing to help you cheat to pass your emissions inspection, he’s probably also going to charge you for new parts when they’re actually reconditioned. The waitress who saves you a few bucks by leaving an item off the bill is probably not going to hesitate to re-plate food she dropped on the floor. The colleague who badmouths everyone behind their back is probably also saying nasty things about you. The person who cheats on their spouse with you is also going to cheat on you. If you know someone who is always working the angles to get one over on everyone, he’s probably working an angle on you.
Bingo.
By the way, Mark, I just posted on your terrific takedown of the Salon proposed Constitution embarrassment.
Absolutely! And people act all shocked when it happens…