
After some time scavenging the courts for clients, Todd, Mark, and Zola start to realize that their “law firm” is not a good idea and people are starting to figure out that they are illegitimate lawyers. Todd, Mark, and Zola soon thereafter set up an unlicensed law firm and all three pose as lawyers, even though they are unlicensed, and hunt for clients in the DC courts and hospitals. Todd and Mark get a job at a bar called “The Rooster Bar” and move into the apartment above the bar.

They all decide to stop attending class and they don’t alert any of their professors or fellow students. The trio realize that their future at FBLS is bleak and won’t provide them with a fulfilling life in the upcoming years. A few hours later, Gordon gets drunk and sneaks out of the apartment and commits suicide by jumping off of a bridge, leaving Todd, Mark, and Zola to figure out what to do about the law school scheme. The diagram shows that Rackley runs many schools and ensures that the students of these schools are stuck in extreme student debt, while Rackley is gaining millions of dollars from his scheme. When Todd and Mark come over, they find that Gordon has created a diagram depicting Hinds Rackley, the man who owns FBLS, and all of the other schools that he owns. Zola asks Todd and Mark if they can come over to his apartment and help control Gordon, who is acting insane. Zola Maal’s boyfriend, Gordon Tanner, starts to become mentally unstable because he stops taking his medication for his bipolar disorder. FBLS also does not adequately prepare its students for the Bar exam, which is a standardized test that ensures that individuals coming out of law school are able to perform well so that they can start practicing law. Their school is known as a “diploma mill” meaning it is an institution of higher education that provides a sub-par academic experience and a diploma for a hefty cost.

All three characters are students at an illegitimate law school the school provides them very little opportunity for success, while subjecting their students to take out hundreds of thousands of dollars of loans that they need to pay back with at high interest. These three are third-year law school students at Foggy Bottom Law School (FBLS), an institution in the heart of DC. “The Rooster Bar” follows the journey of Todd Lucero, Mark Frazier, and Zola Maal. Written in 2017 and inspired by an article in The Atlantic entitled “The Law School Scam,” Grisham writes this book to reflect a law school scandal similar to what The Atlantic wrote about. John Grisham’s “The Rooster Bar” is a complex novel involving a legal scandal at a law school in Washington, DC.
