Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is a former criminal prosecutor who works at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York. But instead of practicing law, he has become the in-house "fixer", sweeping their clients' nasty details under the carpet. He has been called in by the firm's partner, Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack), to handle the situation that has arisen when the firm's top litigator, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), has an apparent breakdown while working on a multi-million dollar settlement class action suit.