The Brief

In the broadest sense, John Grisham has written the same story over and over. It goes like this: A decent person finds themselves the David in a David and Goliath story where the opposition is the government, or a shady criminal enterprise, or a huge corporation. That person finds a way, at some cost and compromise, to get what is usually only a partial victory. It has worked, many times over.
His books have been adapted both for film and for television. A new series adaptation of The Rainmaker is arriving this week on USA (and streaming later on Peacock), and well, it's no Francis Ford Coppola movie.

But a lot of them are really pretty good. How good? This highly opinionated list ranks them and notes, among other factors, their "Grisham score," which reflects how much they feel, entirely subjectively, like Grisham stories.

(Disclaimers: I did not include his nonfiction or his non-legal novels, nor did I get my hands on the unsuccessful TV pilot for The Street Lawyer, starring Eddie Cibrian, or the 1995 TV adaptation of The Client, starring JoBeth Williams. (Contrary to the way it often seems, everything is not available to stream somewhere.) I also stuck to the novel adaptations, so I omitted The Gingerbread Man, an adaptation of a story Grisham had written but never published as a novel.)

9. The Firm (TV) (2012, NBC)
Plot: In 2012, NBC made 22 episodes of the sequel series The Firm as a standard network legal drama, where there was always a case of the week plus some ongoing intrigue about Mitch McDeere (Josh Lucas) and the shady firm he worked for — a different shady firm than the one he had escaped years before. (Disclaimer: I have watched the first bunch of episodes and the last one and researched what happened in the interim, which is a lot more of this show than most people experienced.)
Notable supporting cast: Assistant Tammy (played by Holly Hunter in the movie) is played by Juliette Lewis. Callum Keith Rennie, stepping in for David Strathairn, plays Mitch's brother.
Bad guys: Big law firms, sometimes his own clients, Tricia Helfer from Battlestar Galactica
The bottom line: Aside from the suspension of disbelief required to believe that Mitch would stumble his way into another law firm infested with murderers, the attempt to translate Grisham to this format, where the actual story was constantly interrupted by dull little cases for Mitch to fiddle with, did not work at all. Grisham stories are nothing if not propulsive and escalating, and this was sputtering and slow.
Highlight: The sheer audacity to start the season with an unexplained flash-forward of Mitch running with a briefcase while wearing a suit and then end the season with an unexplained flash-forward of Mitch running with a briefcase while wearing a suit in a completely different situation
Lowlight: The endlessly meandering references to "the truth" that nobody will just spit out already
Grisham score: 1

8. The Chamber (1996, directed by James Foley)
Plot: Attorney Adam Hall (Chris O'Donnell) travels to Mississippi to try to prevent the execution of his grandfather (Gene Hackman), who's long been on death row for bombing the office of a Jewish civil rights lawyer in 1967.
Notable supporting cast: Faye Dunaway as Adam's aunt, Lela Rochon as a staffer from the governor's office, and Bo Jackson (!!) as a prison guard. That's right: Bo knows acting.
Bad guys: The death penalty, racists in general and the Ku Klux Klan in particular
The bottom line: The Chamber is the most somber of the Grisham adaptations, and while there is some legal maneuvering and some mystery-solving, much of it is a character piece about a young man trying to figure out how to live alongside his family's dark legacy. The legal thriller elements don't entirely mesh with the heavy story. Still, it's an effort to get into themes, including generations of racism as well as the death penalty, that Grisham has been interested in for his entire career.
Highlight: Gene Hackman, seething and spiteful
Lowlight: Gene Hackman's alarming teeth
Grisham score: 9

7. The Rainmaker (TV) (2025, USA/Peacock)
Plot: Rudy Baylor and his girlfriend finish law school and get jobs in the same evil big law firm. He gets fired and soon finds himself working for a scrappy small firm run by Bruiser (Lana Parrilla), representing a woman whose son supposedly died of an overdose but who is sure there was foul play. Boyfriend and girlfriend end up on opposing sides of the case. He also meets a young woman in an abusive marriage. (Note: They have only offered critics the first five episodes.)
Notable supporting cast: John Slattery plays the head of the big bad firm. Dan Fogler plays a nurse with a dark heart and ... a lot going on.
Bad guys: Not entirely clear yet, but certainly big law firms and insurance companies
The bottom line: This series isn't bad, exactly, but the plot is completely different from the book and movie. Where the tone of the original story is of a scrappy underdog against a big law firm, the series becomes more of a clash between Rudy and his girlfriend about the ethics of their different choices. It also introduces a confusing plot full of murders rather than the bureaucratic evil of the original story, in which a corporate handbook telling workers to refuse claims was enough to cause a tragic death. Moreover, the story of the abused wife felt a little extraneous to the original, and it feels even more extraneous here.
Highlight: John Slattery being an only slightly more wicked version of Roger Sterling from Mad Men 
Lowlight: Turning Bruiser into a woman who very quickly ends up in a sex scene in lingerie for no particularly compelling reason
Grisham score: 3

6. Runaway Jury (2003, directed by Gary Fleder)
Plot: Nick Easter (John Cusack) maneuvers his way onto the jury for a big civil case against a gun manufacturer and starts scheming to sell the verdict to the highest bidder.
Notable supporting cast: Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman as the opposing lawyers, Rachel Weisz as Easter's girlfriend and co-conspirator, Nora Dunn as a fellow juror with a flask on her at all times.
Bad guys: Gun manufacturers and their lawyers
Bottom line: There's a pretty big dropoff in quality from The Client to here. It's tough to build an underdog story around a guy who's trying to rig a trial and extort money, even if he thinks it's for a good cause. The movie never quite figures out how Cusack and Weisz are so sure that things are going to turn out the way they plan, and it makes their machinations seem a little less clever. There is also nothing here of Grisham's usual insistence that doing something good requires giving something up, which means his flair for a bittersweet ending doesn't quite come through.
Highlight: Hackman and Hoffman having a spicy confrontation in a courthouse restroom
Lowlight: A somewhat muddled ending
Grisham Score: 6

5. The Client (1994, directed by Joel Schumacher)
Plot: Lawyer Reggie Love (Susan Sarandon) agrees to represent 11-year-old Mark Sway (Brad Renfro), who has information about a mob murder and is being pressured by an ambitious prosecutor (Tommy Lee Jones) to cooperate, risking his own safety.
Notable supporting cast: Mary-Louise Parker as Mark's mother, Bradley Whitford as one of the prosecutor's lackeys, Anthony Edwards as Reggie's assistant, Anthony LaPaglia as an incompetent wannabe mobster
Bad guys: Mafia, grandstanding prosecutor
Bottom line: It makes sense that Grisham would do a book where the underdog is a kid; nobody is more vulnerable and nobody needs more help to navigate the system. Unsurprisingly, Tommy Lee Jones, who appeared in this movie the year after The Fugitive, lends even a very obnoxious prosecutor some welcome notes of humor.
Highlight: The goodbye scene between Renfro and Sarandon, which is genuinely moving
Lowlight: A very silly action sequence set in a boathouse
Grisham Score: 9

4. A Time To Kill (1996, directed by Joel Schumacher)
Plot: Samuel L. Jackson plays Carl Lee Hailey, a father on trial for shooting the violent racists who brutally assaulted his young daughter. Attorney Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) and a helpful law student (Sandra Bullock) defend him.
Notable supporting cast: Kiefer Sutherland as a creep who's trying to reinvigorate the local Klan, Oliver Platt as Jake's cynical buddy, Ashley Judd as Jake's wife, Kevin Spacey as the district attorney
Bad guys: Racists in general and the Ku Klux Klan in particular, an unethical showoff prosecutor
Bottom line: Despite its clunky racial politics, the adaptation of Grisham's first novel makes it easy to understand how Matthew McConaughey instantly became a leading man. Still, much of the most effective drama comes from Jackson, including in a terrific scene where he visits the deputy, played by Chris Cooper, who lost a leg in the shooting — an outcome Carl Lee did not intend but takes responsibility for.

Highlight: Carl Lee's speech correcting Jake's mistaken impression that Carl Lee considers them a team
Lowlight: Even in a story taking place in a hot climate, a garish quantity of sweat
Grisham Score: 9

3. The Firm (1993, directed by Sydney Pollack)
Plot: New associate Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) discovers that his fancy law firm is up to its eyeballs in organized crime and murder and so forth. You know how it is.
Notable supporting cast: Gene Hackman (who also appears in Runaway Jury and The Chamber) as a tragically compromised attorney, Ed Harris as an FBI guy, Jeanne Tripplehorn as Mitch's wife, Wilford Brimley as the firm's dangerous enforcer
Bad guys: Mafia and their lawyers
Bottom line: The Firm was the book that made Grisham a superstar, and the movie is solid. It does change Grisham's ending, making it easier for Mitch and his wife to continue in a relatively normal life. That either sells out Grisham's repeated theme of sacrificing the life you've built to do the right thing or makes considerably more sense in real life, depending on whom you ask. Also, if you think Tom Cruise has a quirky running style in the Mission: Impossible movies, wait until you see him running in The Firm.
Highlight: Tom Cruise beating Wilford Brimley unconscious with a briefcase
Lowlight: Tom Cruise (or, as it would appear, Tom Cruise's stunt double?) doing gymnastics on the sidewalk while out on the town
Grisham Score: 12 (yes, 12 out of 10)

2. The Rainmaker (1997, directed by Francis Ford Coppola)
Plot: Newly minted Memphis attorney Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon) takes the only job he can get, working for a flashy ambulance-chaser named Bruiser (Mickey Rourke). But when Bruiser skips town, Rudy is left alone with paralegal Deck (Danny DeVito) to represent a family whose son died after his insurance company denied coverage for a bone-marrow transplant.
Notable supporting cast: Jon Voight, as the insurance company lawyer, has never been more slimy (even while being eaten by a snake in Anaconda). Roy Scheider briefly appears as an executive so heartless even his folksy blue cardigan seems to hate his guts. Also features Claire Danes as a young woman whose abusive husband (Andrew Shue) has put her in the hospital.
Bad guys: Insurance company and their lawyers
Bottom line: The most successful of the courtroom Grishams, The Rainmaker perfectly captures the writer's vision of the scrappy lawyer outmatched by wicked profiteers, as well as his vision of the law as a grind of depositions and discovery. Here, the biggest drama comes not from chases or guns or even courtroom speeches, but from finding the missing section that's vanished from a company handbook. Damon is excellent and may have the best take on the quintessential Grisham underdog that an actor has come up with so far.
Highlight: A violent outburst from Randy Travis, playing a potential juror
Lowlight: A violent outburst from Andrew Shue
Grisham Score: 10

1. The Pelican Brief (1993, directed by Alan J. Pakula)
Plot: Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) is a law student who stumbles upon the answer to who killed a pair of Supreme Court justices. When those responsible figure out that she's onto them, they come after her, and she goes to journalist Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington) for help.
Notable supporting cast: Stanley Tucci, as an assassin, has never been more evil. Also on hand are a young Cynthia Nixon as Darby's friend, John Lithgow as Gray's editor, and Sam Shepard as Darby's doomed boyfriend. (Sorry, doomed boyfriend; you're doomed.)
Bad guys: Oil magnate and his lawyers, corrupt president and his toadies
Bottom line: The most successful of the non-courtroom Grishams, The Pelican Brief doesn't just bring together two very charismatic leads at the height of their powers. It is carefully plotted and well-paced, and it reveals its larger conspiracy piece by piece. It is a great ride.
Highlight: A parking-garage chase that lets Pakula wink at All The President's Men
Lowlight: Some of Tucci's disguises, which are (intentionally) unattractive
Grisham Score: 10
Copyright 2025 NPR

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve an $843 million homelessness spending plan that includes nearly $200 million in reductions to programs and services in the next budget year.

Among those programs is Pathway Home, which helps move people from encampments into temporary housing. The county reduced funding for that program by $92 million, which will shrink it from 20 project sites to seven, officials said.

Supervisors also approved $105 million in reductions to other programs, including large cuts to street outreach teams, homelessness prevention programs and other supportive services.

County officials said they had to reduce spending in order to cover the rising costs of operating shelter beds and the loss of tens of millions in temporary state and federal funding, including some COVID-19 relief dollars.

“With federal neglect and state cuts, we have to do more with less,” Supervisor Lindsey Horvath told LAist. “And we will.”

The county’s new Department of Homeless Services and Housing has been warning about the looming shortfall since July. County officials solicited input on how to fill an initial $303 million gap.

Since then, the department adjusted the county’s homelessness spending plan, after finding some one-time state grants and cost-saving measures.

The budget year starts July 1.

Some funding restored

Last month, local homeless service providers urged county officials to restore all of the more than $200 million in proposed reductions to programs and services. Some supervisors raised concerns about specific cuts.

Since then, new revenue projections show the county stands to bring in $21 million more through Measure A than originally anticipated.

Measure A is a sales tax ordinance, approved by L.A. County voters in 2024, that funds homeless services and affordable housing initiatives. It is expected to generate about $1 billion annually, but exact revenues fluctuate with consumer spending.

The county’s slightly rosier revenue projections allowed the homeless department to roll back a fraction of the proposed reductions.

“It’s not a windfall and it doesn’t solve every challenge, but it does give us the ability to restore important programs that were on the chopping block,” Supervisor Janice Hahn said.

The board voted to use much of that $21 million to restore funding for two dozen full-time outreach workers and about 100 shelter beds that were previously on the chopping block.

The plan approved Tuesday also calls for $5 million in Measure A revenue to partially restore funding for interim housing in Long Beach, Pasadena and Glendale. It restored more than $1 million to operate family solution centers — hubs to connect unhoused families with services — and about $500,000 for a program that helps military veterans access government benefits.

Supervisor Holly Mitchell said she wishes Pathway Home funding could be maintained. She said it’s been crucial for helping people living in RV encampments in her district, which spans from Koreatown to much of the South Bay.

"These restorations don't expand encampment resolution operations,” Mitchell said Tuesday. “The services with the greatest impact in the Second District remain reduced, and the current plan does not replace what was cut."

County homelessness officials told supervisors the 100 shelter beds they saved will be prioritized for people living in encampments and will help make up for cuts to Pathway Home.

"The reduction to Pathway Home is not a reduced commitment to encampment resolution,” L.A. County Department of Homeless Services and Housing director Sarah Mahin said Tuesday. “It’s a recognition that it was built on one-time funding and we need to expand strategies to include more cost-effective resolution solutions."

New oversight push

The supervisors also voted 5-0 Tuesday to approve a new motion focused on accountability in homeless service contracting. The motion by Horvath and Kathryn Barger directs the homelessness department to work with the county auditor-controller to create strict oversight procedures for contracts, including random site visits, performance monitoring and provisions for termination.

They said the goal is to prevent the mismanagement that has plagued the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, and the fraud that has resulted in recent arrests. Last month, federal authorities arrested Alex Soofer, director of a nonprofit called Abundant Blessings, on suspicion of embezzling tens of millions in dollars meant to serve unhoused Angelenos. Soofer pleaded not guilty to the charges this week.

"Public dollars intended to address homelessness have gone unaccounted for under LAHSA," Horvath said. “That is unacceptable and it ends now with the county.”

Last year, the board voted to divert more than $300 million in county homelessness dollars away from LAHSA and administer the funds itself with a new homelessness department.

“As the department launches, every contract, every dollar, and every outcome must withstand scrutiny,” Horvath told LAist in a statement. “We don’t have resources to waste or time to lose in addressing the homelessness crisis.”

Barger described instances of fraud within the homeless services sector as “moral failures” that cannot be tolerated.

“They represent theft from the most vulnerable people in our community,” she said.

She also argued that ethical service providers “should not have their reputations destroyed by the criminal actions of a few bad actors.”

Barger told fellow supervisors at Tuesday’s meeting it’s their responsibility to monitor how county homelessness dollars are being spent — and to defund programs that aren’t generating results.

“Setting the budget is the easy part,” Barger said. “We have to see results. And if we don’t, we have to have a debate at this board: is that the best use of these resources?”

The department must report back to the board in 60 days with their full plan for monitoring contractors and preventing fraud and misuse of public funds.

Auditor-Controller Oscar Valdez told supervisors his office would submit a plan to county homelessness officials Tuesday.

A crew of four moon-bound astronauts will remain on the ground for at least a month after NASA delayed the launch of the Artemis II mission. During critical pre-launch testing Monday, mission managers uncovered a number of issues that prevented the completion of the test.

NASA is now planning a March launch date for the four astronauts — three from the U.S. and one from Canada — on a ten-day mission to circle the moon and return to Earth, traveling farther than any humans have ventured into deep space.

Issues leading to that delay began about an hour into Monday's test, known as the wet dress rehearsal. As the team began fueling the rocket at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sensors picked up a hydrogen leak. Super-chilled hydrogen is used as the fuel for the massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

Hydrogen is an efficient propellant for rockets — but its molecules are so tiny and light they can escape even the tightest of seals. Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said they had troubleshooted the initial leak, but when they began to pressurize the tank, another leak surfaced.

"And so as we began that pressurization, we did see that the leak within the cavity came up pretty quick," said Blackwell-Thompson.

(L/R) NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, NASA Associate Administrator Lori Glaze, launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, and manager of NASA's Space Launch System Program, John Honeycutt, hold a news conference on the Artemis II mission at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Tuesday.

(

Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo

/

AFP via Getty Images

)

Hydrogen leaks plagued testing of NASA's Artemis I mission in 2022. Blackwell-Thompson said lessons learned from that uncrewed flight were utilized for Artemis II, but there's more investigation is needed.

The wet dress rehearsal uncovered other issues — including a problem with the Orion capsule, which will carry the crew to the moon. While no one was on board Monday, teams practiced preparing the spacecraft for its passengers. A valve that pressurizes the vehicle required additional attention and took more time to close the hatch than anticipated.

Teams also uncovered issues with cameras due to cold weather and audio dropouts across communication channels. "As always, safety remains our top priority, for our astronauts, our workforce, our systems and the public," said NASA administrator Jared Isaacman in a post on X, and that NASA will only launch when the agency is ready.

Work now begins to fix the issues. NASA will require another wet dress rehearsal before giving the "GO" to put astronauts on board. "All in all, a very successful day for us on many fronts," said Blackwell-Thompson. "Then, on many others, we got some work we've got to go do."

The earliest launch window for another attempt is March 6. NASA has additional launch opportunities on March 7, 8, 9 and 11.

The crew of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen were released from quarantine and will remain in Houston, Texas. They'll re-enter quarantine about 14 days ahead of the next launch attempt and make the trip to the Kennedy Space Center six days before liftoff.

Artemis II is testing key systems of the Orion spacecraft, like its maneuverability and life support systems, ahead of the planned Artemis III mission that will take humans to the lunar surface. The Artemis II will mark the first time humans have returned to the moon since the final Apollo lunar mission in 1972.
Copyright 2026 NPR

A trial got underway Tuesday in a case alleging that Huntington Beach illegally dilutes the power of Latino voters with its at-large election system.

Cities across Orange County and elsewhere in California have faced similar challenges over the past decade. Most have settled out of court by adopting by-district elections, where voters only vote on a city council representative from their area, rather than requiring candidates to run citywide. A notable exception is Santa Monica — the city has been fighting a challenge to its at-large election system in court for nearly 10 years.

Now, Huntington Beach is following suit.

The case was brought by the nonprofit group Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and Victor Valladares, a Huntington Beach resident and Democratic Party activist. It’s being heard by Orange County Superior Court Judge Craig L. Griffin.

The argument against at-large city elections

The plaintiffs allege Latino voters can’t elect a candidate of their choice under the current system, in violation of the California Voting Rights Act. This alleged dilution of Latino voting power, they say, leads to poor representation and negative consequences for the city’s majority-Latino Oak View neighborhood.

“Their needs get ignored,” Kevin Shenkman, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, said during his opening statement Tuesday. “It is a natural result of the at-large election system.”

Latinos make up about 20% of the population in Huntington Beach. Under a draft map of electoral districts drawn up by demographer David Ely, a witness for the plaintiffs, the district that includes the Oak View neighborhood would be 40% Latino. Plaintiffs argued this would give residents more power to elect a city councilmember who represents their interests.

The city’s defense of at-large elections

In their opening argument, lawyers representing Huntington Beach argued that Latinos in Huntington Beach are spread across the city and politically diverse.

The city’s lawyers also argued that recent elections of Latino city council members, including MMA star Tito Ortiz in 2020 and Gracey Van Der Mark in 2022, prove the city’s current at-large election system doesn’t impede Latino residents’ ability to participate in the local political process.

“The system works, it’s not broken, and the evidence will show that at trial,” said Anthony Taylor, one of the attorneys representing Huntington Beach.

The trial is expected to last into next week.

Go deeper

• Why were AI-equipped police cameras installed in this majority Latino Huntington Beach neighborhood?
• Huntington Beach's controversial voter ID law is illegal
• Voting by district gives Latino candidates a boost in Orange County
• District elections mean big governing changes for many California cities