Partners

It is one of the most elite of the prestigious Montgomery Street firms. Stafford, Parrish, and MacAllister, a blue-chip law firm, has never taken on any but the wealthiest corporate clients, the most pristine of cases. No firm is more "establishment"." And no one - not even its partners - suspects that staid, blue-blooded SP&M stands on the brink of financial ruin. Only one man, Austin Barrington - senior managing partner, himself a scion of old society - know that his beloved firm is about to go under. And it is Barrington's bold plan to save the firm by litigating the most sensational case in the partnership's history - a multiple plaintiff suit against a powerful corporation in which the legal fees could run to the millions - that sets in motion the shocking events of Partners.

For, as the headline-making case moves toward trial, it becomes clear that Barrington will stop at nothing to win - and that those around him will soon be drawn into an ever-tightening web of complicity.

KEVIN STONE - The best and brightest litigator in the firm, with an unbroken string of victories behind him, he finds his expertise - and ethics - strained to the breaking point by the demanding new case and by his growing attraction for his beautiful young colleague, Rachel Cannon.

RACHEL CANNON - Intelligent, ambitious, driven by secrets she believes she has locked securely away, she is determined to become SP&M's first female partner. Tapped to assist Stone and Barrington, she knows this case can make or break her career. What she doesn't know is how profoundly it will test her loyalties - and her deepest desires.

DAN CONTI - A life spent on the streets has sharpened the instincts of this hotheaded homicide detective - and all his experience and intuition tell him that the violent death of a plaintiff in this case was not the suicide it seems to be. But Conti, the loner, the outsider, has begun to care for Rachel Canon. And as he moves closer to a killer, he realizes his investigation might well cost Rachel the partnership she so desires . . . and maybe her life.

Here, in a novel where topics torn from today's headlines electrify virtually every page, is a compelling story that is more than sheer entertainment. For Partners is also about sexual discrimination in the law, intrigue in the courtroom, life behind the walls of a major San Francisco law firm, and the relentless quest by talented young lawyers to grab the golden ring of partnership - before someone else snatches it first.