1. People avoid being different. After Michael graduates law school, he immediately gets a job for a big firm, making lots of money and on his way to living the good life. This was what 99% of his graduating class did. As lawyers, they are “expected” by society to follow this path. To avoid breaking these standards, Michael forgets his concience and focuses on his job as a lawyer. It is not until the hostage episode that Michael decides to break the norm and become a poverty lawyer.

2. People want revenge. Devon Hardy, the homeless man who holds Michael hostage, doesn’t want money. He doesn’t seem to want anything, in fact. Michael later learns that his law firm, Drake and Sweeney, evicted the man less than a month earlier. According to the law, the eviction was illegal and immoral. Devon just wanted to relay a message about the eviction. Michael decides to sue his former firm for the illegal eviction and take care of the legal business that Devon Hardy didn’t have the ability to do.

3.  Power always triumphs over weakness. In the book, Michael learns that the poor are heavily prosecuted by the law. The poor have no voice, so they are easily defeated in legal battles.  The laws against them are often unfair to begin with,  and coupled with the factr that they are weak legally, means that the poor basically have no voice. This is one injustice Michael seeks to correct.