The Pelican Brief

The Pelican Brief is legal/suspense thriller written by John Grisham in 1992. The hardcover edition (ISBN 0385421982) was published by Doubleday in that same year. Two paperback editions were published, both by Dell Publishing and both in 1993.

The Pelican Brief was adapted into a feature film in 1993, directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.

List of characters

• Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) - Second year law student; author of the brief
• Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington) - reporter for the Washington Post
• Fletcher Coal (Tony Goldwyn) - White House Chief of Staff; unofficial head of power
• Khamel "Sam" (Stanley Tucci) - international assassin
• Thomas Callahan (Sam Shepard) - law school professor; romantically involved with Darby Shaw
• Gavin Verheek (John Heard) - FBI lawyer; friend to Thomas Callahan
• F. Denton Voyles (James Sikking) - Director of the FBI
• Bob Gminski (William Atherton) - CIA Chief
• The President (Robert Culp) - elected U.S. President; delegates many administrative duties to Fletcher Coal
• Justice Rosenberg (Hume Cronyn) - eldest, most controversial Supreme Court Justice
• Justice Jensen (John Grisham's novels:

|- |The Firm||The Pelican Brief |- |A Time to Kill||The Client |- |The Chamber||The Rainmaker |- |The Runaway Jury||The Partner |- |The Street Lawyer||The Testament |- |The Brethren||A Painted House |- |Skipping Christmas||The Summons |- |The Bleachers||The King of Torts |- |The Last Juror |- | colspan=2 align=center|As of 2004 |}