How is the character of Block described in “Block, the Corn Merchant – The Dismissal of the Lawyer”? What was his position prior to his trial?

"Block, the Corn Merchant" is a little man. Before he divested all his holdings, he tells K., so as to focus himself entirely on his case, he was a successful grain merchant. When he meets K., he has illegally employed five petty lawyers, called hucksters, to his cause.