Who is Jan Schlichtmann from A Civil Action and what is their importance?

Jan Schlichtmann is a flamboyant, somewhat egotistical, personal injury lawyer, who grew up in a small working-class community in Massachusetts, not particularly enamored with the legal profession. In fact, when his father suggested this as a potential profession for him, Schlichtmann responded that a lawyer was little different from a plumber, both being hired to "fix" things in people's lives, whether these were wills and divorces or leaky pipes and faucets.