What Is a "Rainmaker"? Understanding the Legal Slang Behind the New Series
Here's what the namesake of the John Grisham novel-turned-TV show means.
There’s a new legal drama coming to USA Network, and like the cable network’s previous smash hit, Suits, it gets its name from a bit of legal slang. The Rainmaker, an adaptation of the best-selling 1995 John Grisham novel that had previously been adapted into a Matt Damon-led film in 1997, will be making its debut on August 15, 2025, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on USA Network.
The Rainmaker follows Rudy Baylor, a recent law school grad who takes a job at an ambulance-chasing firm that’s anything but prestigious; it soon has him face-to-face with Leo Drummond, a powerful lawyer defending an insurance company that allegedly denied Baylor’s client life-saving coverage. It’s the type of David vs. Goliath case that makes for great entertainment, and it’s the sort of case that could be very lucrative — what’s known as a rainmaker.
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What is a "rainmaker"?
While a rainmaker has a more straightforward definition of a person who produces (or attempts to produce) rain by artificial means, it’s a piece of legal lingo as well.
A rainmaker is somebody who brings in a really big payday — “makes it rain,” so to speak. A lawyer who wins a huge case that brings in hundreds of thousands (or millions) of dollars in damages would be a rainmaker, and indeed it’s the dream of many an upstart young lawyer to become a rainmaker. To win the big case against all the odds and make a bunch of money for their client and for themselves. The term might also apply to the case itself.
The cast at the center of Grisham’s novel — as well as the Francis Ford Coppola-directed film and the upcoming TV show — has the potential.
“You know what a rainmaker is, kid? The bucks are gonna be falling from the sky,” Rudy’s associate Deck Shiffler, played by Danny DeVito in the '97 movie, says of the case.
The term appears in the first trailer for the upcoming USA series, too.
"If you want to screw the people who screwed our client, what are you willing to do to be a rainmaker?" asks Lana Parrilla's tough lawyer, Bruiser Stone.
In the USA series, Milo Callaghan (Rivals, Dune: Prophecy) plays Rudy, while John Slattery (Mad Men) plays Leo Drummond. Madison Iseman, Lana Parrilla, P.J. Byrne, Robyn Cara, Dan Fogler, and Wade Briggs also star.
The Rainmaker premieres on USA on August 15, 2025, at 10 p.m. ET/PT. You can stream tons of great crime TV shows on Peacock while waiting for The Rainmaker to make its debut on USA Network.
