Schlichtmann’s firm received 40 percent of the settlement. In the past, a payday of this sort would have been cause for celebration, dinner out for the entire staff at an expensive restaurant, bonuses all around, and a night of drinking and revelry. But there was no party that night. The entire fee would have to go directly to Gordon, who would use it to pay Woburn bills. The money would disappear as soon as it arrived.

Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action, loc. 2063