A side thing I really, really enjoy about the Murderbot universe is its lawyers.
For one thing, Martha Wells refers to "corporate solicitors", not "attorneys" nor "counsel". In one book (can't remember which), Pin-Lee refers to her General Counsel which is the apex of in-house practice.
Pin-Lee is close to perfectly written, she is strategic, sharp as a razor, pugnacious and ever so slightly too aggressive for everyone else's comfort, of course is a workaholic and is almost always up to her eyeballs in documents and drafting.
In Fugitive Telemetry, the second that Mensah even suggests displeasure at Indah Pin-Lee has begun her legal research, is preparing to advise and is champing at the bit to draw up a legal fireball. And she is not happy when the tack changes, but of course takes instructions and backs down. (I myself have never hissed when the opportunity to really go someone evaporates, but I have certainly felt it.)
And Pin-Lee is much more than a brain on legs. She cares very strongly about and for her team: in Exit Strategy she's well aware how dangerous a situation she, Ratthi and Gurathin are in, tries (not well admittedly) to buoy the others up and is sensibly cautious when Murderbot approaches her. When Murderbot returns to Preservation Space she's the one who makes sure that not only does it know it's free to leave again if it wants but that it has the means to do so (with the hard currency and fake IDs). She swears, drinks, parties and loves watching gruesome I-told-you-so media about hostile fauna.
She's sized up Murderbot and totally runs rings around it in her own domain - one of the funniest things for me in Network Effect (besides "no hugging") was the revelation that she'd written its contract with PresAux so as to try and keep it safe from itself. To its outrage.
The court system is never explained (with no apparent government, how are Corporate Rim judges appointed and their decisions enforced? Is there any appeal system? My guess would be that it's essentially treaty-based with each participating polity enacting the necessary legislation and the corporations entering into some behemoth multipartite Deed the breach of which brings the wrath of all the counterparties raining down...but that's circular, because - I'll stop myself here on the basis that very few lawyers will be reading this!) I'll buy it though as equivalent to the tech hand-waving. It's something that doesn't get explained because Murderbot doesn't need to know or care about the details for it and the story to get the benefit.
Pin-Lee, my unexpected sci-fi hero!
