The recognition of nonhuman entities as "persons" in law with accompanying rights has been applied to both the corporation and, more recently, the enviroment. This theory underpins two novels by Richard Powers: Gain (1998), which traces the origin story of a soap company, and The Overstory (2018), with its attention to the inner lives and connectedness of trees. This project uses the lens of legal personhood to examine both works simultaneously, exploring where they converge and diverge in their representation of this status and its literary implications. Grounded in twentieth century legal history, it dissects how fiction imagines—and might provide a step toward resolving—the tensions riddling the "truth" of nonhuman personhood, especially relating to the problem of legal representation and responsibility.