Eleven-year-old Mark Sway is the protagonist of The Client. He is thrust into the drama involving the mob, the FBI, and the murder of Senator Boyette after witnessing the suicide of mob lawyer Jerome “Romey” Clifford. Wise beyond his years, Mark excels at street smarts and plotting his way out of dangers. With his keen survival skills, he is often capable of outmaneuvering adults. Even still, Mark is a child with a traumatic past. His father had alcoholism, and his single-mother Dianne is too consumed with working to provide for her children, so she is not very present in their lives. Mark feels as though he needs to be his own father because he watches over his younger brother, Ricky, and provides emotional support for his mother. His traumatic past and accelerated maturation also means he prioritizes his family’s safety above all else.

As a result of his lack of adult figures in his life, Mark relies on television and movies to inform his understanding of the world. Whenever he encounters a troubling moment, he thinks back on the movies he has seen and tries to remember what characters in those instances did to survive. For example, a recurrent thought that Mark has throughout The Client is his experience with mob movies and how in pop culture “the mob never forgets” and will often kill informants (130).