Thriller set in the murky world of corporate law. Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is an in-house 'fixer' at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York. A former criminal prosecutor, Clayton takes care of his employer's dirtiest work at the behest of the firm's co-founder Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack), to whom Clayton feels a deep loyalty. He arranges top-flight legal services & skirts through loopholes for their ethically questionable clients. Though burned out, disillusioned & hardly content with his job as a fixer, his messy private life has left him inextricably tied to the firm. Meanwhile, litigator Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) finds her entire company's future hinging on the outcome of a multi-billion dollar settlement overseen by Clayton's friend, star lawyer Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson). When Edens snaps & decides to blow the whistle on the questionable case, sabotaging the defence, Clayton finds himself in the centre of a conspiratorial maelstrom where he must decide between his loyalty & his conscience.