BOSTON: JULY 1986

Jan Schlichtmann, a lawyer was awakened by a telephone call at eight-thirty on a

Saturday morning in mid-July. The man identified himself as an officer of Baybank South Shore,
where Schlitchmann had an automobile loan that was several months in arrears. Unless
Schiltchmann was prepared to pay the amount due it came to $9,203 the bank intended to
repossess the car, a black Porsche.
He told the bankers to speak with James Gordon, the man who handles his financial
affairs.
Later, his phone rang again. This time the voice on the other end identifies himself as a
Suffolk County sheriff, who was two blocks away from his house. He had come to repossess the
Porsche.
Schlitchtmann is a lawyer who is handling a controversial case, Anne Anderson et. Al. v.
W.R. Grace & Co., et.al.
Schlitchmann walked on, struck suddenly by the precariousness of ones position in life.
In a technical sense he was close to being homeless himself. His condominium association had
just filed a lawsuit against him for failing to make a single maintenance payment in the last six
months. He was also in arrears on his first, second and third mortgage. The few dollars that came
into the firm of Schiltmann, Conway and Crowley each week were the result of old business,
fees on cases long since settled. There had been no payment for more than four months on
twenty five thousand dollars of credit-card debt. Heller Financial, a leasing company, had
threatened to repossess the law firms computer terminals by August 1. If he lost this case,
Schitchmann would be sunk deeply into debt that it would take five years for him to climb back
again.
But money was the least of Schichtmanns worries. Oddly, for a man of lavish tastes, he
didnt care that much about money. He was much more frightened of having staked too much of
himself on this one case. He was afraid that if he lost it if hed been that wrong he would lose
something far greater than money. That in some mysterious way, all the confidence he had in
himself, this ambition and his talent would drain away.