Who is James Gordon from A Civil Action and what is their importance?

James is a personal friend of Schlichtmann as well as his chief financial adviser and "number cruncher." Out of loyalty to Schlichtmann, and believing that the Woburn case has the potential to be a "rainmaker," Gordon engages in a great deal of creative accounting, bill paying, and negotiating loans with the Bank of Boston, in order to keep Schlichtmann and his firm alive through the course of the litigation.