Chapter 2 Summary

Chapter 2 begins by taking the reader out to a beach house on the Gulf Coast where we meet four men - the CEOs of the Big Four, the tobacco companies at the center of a litigation boom that has seen smokers suing the tobacco companies. Although the companies are sued separately, they have all joined to create The Fund - the pool of secret money that is used to build the best defense cases to avoid the massive payouts that the plaintiffs are looking for.

Rankin Fitch, who administers The Fund, has gathered the men together. Fitch has won eight trials without a loss. Fitch updates the men on the progress of the case, reassuring a nervous D. Martin Jankle, CEO of Pynex, the defendant in the latest bout of litigation. Chapter 2 also introduces Wendall Rohr, the plaintiff's attorney, and gives some background...