Grasping For The Light: Chapter 2

      

         It’s Monday morning and I’m lazily gazing out my office windows towards Lake Michigan while enjoying my second cup of coffee.  With the promotion to Director of Pro Bono came an office upgrade, a bigger desk, and a full lake view.  I feel uncharacteristically calm.  This is largely on account of it being one of Patrick’s work-from-home weeks.  After learning of Declan’s confessions to Ms. Feelings at daycare, mainly that Dec felt we both worked too much, Patrick demanded concessions from Ernst & Young.  The primary one being that he only be required to be present at client sites every other week.  On his home week, Patrick manages daycare drop-offs and pick ups.  Leaving me time to fit in early morning jogs or pilates classes before work.  Yet another reason I haven’t pushed him to find his own place. 

This morning I ran past the shops and restaurants on Southport for a little over two miles before turning back toward home.  As I ran I reminisced about fun family dinners or drinks out with friends.  Things that, sadly, I haven’t partaken in much lately.  I guess it’s hard to embrace and make the best of my soon-to-be divorcee status while still living with my husband. 

My self-contemplation is broken by two loud, insistent knocks on my office door.  

“Come in,” I say half-heartedly.  

I swivel around as the imposing six-foot-four figure of Tom Gaines unabashedly invades my solitude.  Since Tom is responsible for securing my cushy new position, I sit up straighter in my chair and smooth out the wrinkles in my black and white sheath dress. 

“Good morning, Tom.  To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”  I say cheerfully.

Tom takes a seat across from my hand-selected modern walnut desk.  Never one to waste time with niceties, he cuts right to the chase.  “Shaw, I have a meeting with the executive committee tomorrow and need an update on the status of our pro bono efforts.  Give me an overview of your pending cases.”

“Well...let’s see,”  I stammer.  “I can try to recall the current statuses from memory, but it might be more useful if I put this together in a more thorough email that you can refer to during your meeting.”

“Yes, I’ll want that too,” he concedes, “but I’d also like to go through them with you now.”

My blood pressure goes through the roof as I try my best to recall all the cases I’m currently overseeing.  “Well, I’m supervising a fourth-year Labor & Employment associate on a racial discrimination case.  We have a pre-mediation conference scheduled for next Tuesday.  I staffed a seventh-year Litigation associate and a junior partner on that civil case where a woman is suing her former partner for allegedly knowingly infecting her with an STD.  We talked about that when it came in,” I remind Tom.  He nods, but doesn’t comment.  I continue frantically combing my mental case files.

“Oh, and I have two junior Corporate associates working on company formation documents for small, minority-owned businesses.  And a partner in the Appellate practice is working with a mid-level associate on an appeal involving a person convicted of unlawfully possessing a firearm in a school zone.  There is some question about how ‘school zone’ is defined in the statue.”

Tom looks unimpressed.  “Yes, I believe we’ve already discussed all of those cases at some length.  Have you taken on anything recently?”

I nervously shift in my chair.  “Well, no,” I admit.  “The remaining associates who’ve expressed interest in being staffed on pro bono matters are all fully utilized at the moment.  I don’t want to commit to taking cases we can’t properly staff.”

I can tell Tom is disappointed so I rush to salvage the situation.  “But the summer months are coming up which are traditionally slow for our paying clients.  No company exec wants to get entangled in a big case before his annual beach vacation.  So I thought I’d take on a couple more matters next month.”

Tom’s unconvinced.  “I understand your strategy Shaw, but remember I convinced the executive board to create your position right after we secured our client’s acquittal on first-degree murder charges.  That’s the kind of high profile win they are expecting to hear about.  They can’t issue self-congratulatory press releases about run of the mill employment and appellate victories.  We need a new murder trial and we need it fast.  Go see our new friend Judge Tyler and see if he is looking to upgrade the representation of one of his more innocent-looking clients.  You and Ethan can work it until some of our younger associates free up.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.  No need to bother Ethan.  He’s a big-time partner now, you know.  He only deigned to work a pro bono case when he needed it for promotion.”  

Tom raises an eyebrow.  “So there is still friction between you and Mr. Colopy, eh?  I thought that was resolved when Judge Tyler found Tammy not guilty of killing her daughter.”  Over the last year, Tom has tried every trick in the book to get to the bottom of what happened between me and Ethan.  Unsurprisingly, I have yet to divulge to my supervisor that I walked in on my former partner-in-crime partnering with my husband in an entirely different sense.  

When I don’t take the bait, Tom continues, “Fine.  Choose a different attorney to help you then.  Just get us a juicy case.”

“Okay,” I agree reluctantly.  My hesitation draws Tom’s ire.  

“What’s the problem?  You loved trying the Sanford case.  What are you dragging your feet for?”

“This is just a new position for me, Tom.  I don’t want to over-promise and underperform.”  While that’s mostly true, what I don’t voice is my reluctance to tackle another murder case given my own parents’ violent end.  

Tom nods.  “I get that, Shaw.  But the executive committee is only going to fund this little venture if it keeps generating positive publicity for the firm.  We need at least one high profile criminal case per year.  Capeesh?”

“Understood,” I concede.

Having gotten what he wanted, Tom rises to leave.  “Good.  Then stop by Judge Tyler’s chambers tomorrow and see if you can’t get me something more enticing than ‘assault by STD’ to report to the committee.”