Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2015 04:05:28 +0000 (UTC)
From: Tom The Writer <tomthewriter@ymail.com>
Subject: Confessions of a New Lawyer

The Prologue

Law school is no easy endeavor. The rigors associated with the study of
law, legal proceedings, learning to set precedence, and simply, general
philosophy is neither for the faint of heart nor the undisciplined. Even
before any of this, one must be accepted into an institution with both a
solid name and earned prestige which will assure a successful career.

Hard work was something that Buckley was all too familiar with; not only
did he know it, he lived it his entire life. From youth, Buckley was
groomed to be a revered litigator.  He had come from a prestigious family
whose pedigree stretched back to the oldest tomes of American wealth.  His
father was a wildly successful investment banker, and his mother was a
retired university provost who still sat on the board of several powerful
corporations.  For Buckley, failure was never an option.

Deep down inside, Buckley was always resentful of his parents, or more
specifically his father. Buckley's father, Richard, though successful now,
was born into money. Until his mid twenties, his father did not have to
work for anything as everything was laid at his feet. For Buckley, however,
that was not the case; nothing he ever did pleased his father and nothing
was ever handed to him.

So enter our protagonistBuckley.  He is a mere three weeks away from having
earned his Juris Doctorate (law degree) from the prestigious Harvard Law.
His path, from the schools he attended as a child to this very moment, was
prescribed to him by his parents to ensure his future of one day becoming
the managing partner at one of New York's most prominent law firms and
upholding the family name. To them, nothing was more important than an
untarnished name and a pristine reputation.  What his parents didn't know
was what Buckley had to do to stay on this perfect course. His father,
though wise and well respected, was also abusive and temperamental. Because
of this, Buckley learned at a young age to not disappoint him. Throughout
high school and college, Buckley did whatever it took to make sure that he
stayed in his father's good graces. Once, when he struggled in his college
English class, instead of getting a tutor he paid someone to write all of
his papers. In another instance, when he was about to be impeached from his
student government office, he put contact lens solution in the President's
drink making him so sick that he couldn`t file the paperwork in time.
Buckley was not always proud of his actions but he did what he thought he
had to do in order to appease his parents.

Now as he prepares for graduation, he has already secured interviews at
Mildredge Finley and Schmidt, the Swatley Group, and Smith & Wright Law -
three of New York's oldest and most well-respected legal firms. Buckley's
passion was for malpractice litigation, and his permorance in mock trials
showed that he had the potential to be really good at it. He understood the
research, was good at the snooping, and had just what it takes to get a
witness to cry on the stand to gain sympathy from the jurors. His talent
was evident, grades were remarkable, and his dominating presence was
resounding, but for top law firms like the one he was interviewing at
sometimes that isn't enough.  All that stood between him and a successful
career was him finding the right firm to take a chance on him.

His first interview at Mildredge Finley and Schmidt had gone ok, but he got
the impression that the managing partner was not interested in hiring
another malpractice lawyer. His second interview with the Swatley Group was
much better. He had all the right answers to their questions; he was even
extended an offer, but everyone there, from the partner down to the mail
boy, boring – not in a superficial kind of way, but he could tell that
they didn't have any personality and that there entire life was confined to
the four walls of the office building. Buckley could tell this wasn't the
place for him.

He arrived at Smith& Wright Law's downtown Manhattan office at 10:45 which
gave him 15 minutes to prepare for the interview that was about to take
place. He took the elevator up to the 36th floor and left his name with the
secretary. The secretary was a blond woman, no older than 26 or 27. She
wore a tight fitting dress, which complimented her large breasts and firm
ass. This caught Buckley's eye when she stood to greet him. Buckley was so
busy completing his last year of law school and searching for a job that he
neglected to realize how much pent up sexual frustration he had.

"Mr. Dickson" she called snapping him out of his trance. He rose to
approach the beautiful receptionist, nervous to not show the growing bulge
in his pants. "The partners will see you now." She continued. "Right this
way" she said as she grabbed her badge and scanned it to unlock glass doors
that lead into the main part of the office.

Buckley had been to many legal offices, but this one took the cake. It was
located in an upscale part of New York; the office was expertly styled with
a mix of modern and luxury flair. As he walked past the cubicles, he could
only marvel at how large they were and the state of the art computers,
phones, and tablets that everyone had. He could tell that this firm spared
no expense on its office or associates.

The led him to conference room that had a breathtaking view of the
city. When he turned back around, she had already left. Moments later
entered two gentlemen. The first gentleman was tall, at least 6'2", with
spiky hair, blue eyes, a very apparent tan, and a muscular build that
Buckley could see through his finely tailored Italian suit. The other
gentleman was slightly shorter at 6' even. His hair was longer and swooped
over in the front; he had broad shoulders and a killer smile.

"Hi, my name is Charles Rhodes" said the first gentleman as he extended his
hand to greet Buckley "And I am Michael Chris" stated the other
gentleman. "We are two of the partners here at Wright Law and will be
conducting your evaluation today." Buckley shook their hands and responded,
"Nice to meet you both. I am Buckley Dickson."

As Buckley introduced himself, he could see that Charles and Michael were
looking him over. Both partners' eyes roamed his entire body in a way that
left him almost feeling violated. He was sure that this was some sort of
intimidation technique meant to test him.Although he tried to remain
composed, Buckley was a bit taken aback.

These two gentlemen couldn't have been a day over 32 and had to be two of
the youngest partners he had ever met especially considering the reputation
of this well-known legal firm. He was also a bit taken by the title
evaluation, why had they said that as opposed to interview.

"Do you go by Buckley or Buck?" Michael asked.

"I generally go by Buckley."

"That just sounds so stiff, don't you think Charles?"

"Yeah!" Charles responded. "We are a bit more casual here. Don't let our
corporate environment fool you; we have a very informal style of work
here. Do you mind if we call you Buck instead?"

Confused, Buckley responded "Uhm... Sure. That should be fine I guess."

"You guess or you know?" asked Charles mockingly.

"Yes, that is fine" he quickly corrected.

"Did you have any trouble finding the place?" Michael asked.

"No, it was quite easy to get here." Buckley replied.

"Great! So tell us, what questions can we answer for you?"

Again Buckley was confused. Why were they asking him what questions he had?
Why weren't they asking him questions instead?

"Well, I was hoping to that you all could share with me how your firm has
been able to consistently set record precedence even through tougher
regulations and governmental oversight." Buckley asked.

"Honestly, we are just good at what we do. We work hard for our clients,
but once we win - and we ALWAYS win - we play even harder to reward
ourselves. I think it is the incentive of the reward that pushes our staff
to get the best outcomes." Michael stated

Although vague, that answered made since to Buckley. "I am also fascinated
by your commitment to the community. I know last year alone, associates
from your firm completed over 50,000 hours of community service and 25
pro-bono cases. Is that something that the firm seeks to continue this
year?"

Charles spoke up. "Here at Smith & Wright Law, one of our founding partners
Philip Wright was a man of principal but also believed in openness. He
believed that a project was a project - whether you got paid for it or
not. He didn't believe in labeling people or things, and that philosophy
still holds today. If there is something you want to, do go and do it! This
is a judgment free zone and we want everyone to be comfortable and have
fun." He looked over at Michael as he finished his sentence. "Any more
questions?"

"Not right now" Buckley responded "but I'll likely think of something as we
continue the interview."

"Great! I hope that wasn't too painful. Let's take a quick tour around the
building." Michael said as he and Charles stood to exit the room. Confused
and still waiting on the formal interview to begin, Buckley stood and
followed the gentlemen.

The office was quite large. Initially thinking that they only owned the
single floor, he soon learned that, to the contrary, they owned 7 floors in
that building including the top floor. The floor he was on was where all
the entry level associates sat. The floor below housed all of their
services like mail, IT, catering, etc. The floor above was all conference
space; there were tons of beautiful conference rooms to entertain
clients. The two floors above that were the executive suites. The tour on
this floor was brief as it was mostly offices and lobbies. The final floor
that they toured was called the playpen.

Charles explained, "These are the floors we come to to... to uhm... to
unwind. After a hard day's work sometimes you need to let off a little
steam!" We have exercise equipment up here, video game systems, pool and
Ping-Pong tables, a fully stocked fridge with snacks and beer, and then on
the next two floors we have recreation rooms. We won't be going up there
today however."

"What are the recreation rooms for?" asked Buckley.

Before they could answer, a gentleman walked past the wearing only a
towel. "Hey Mike! Is that one of the new recruits?" he asked as he passed.

"Hopefully" Michael responded quickly before turning back to Buckley to
say. "different activities, all work and no play makes for a boring day!"

Buckley was a little taken aback by that encounter. He hadn't expected to
see any folks walking around in a Manhattan law office in just a towel, but
he attributed it to him having just taken a shower from the exercise
equipment.

They ended the tour and returned to the conference room. They had also
stopped at the cafe to grab a meal. Buckley looked down at his watch and
realized that 3 hours had passed in the blink of an eye.

"So I think that's about it. Is there anything else that we can answer for
you?" Charles asked.

Dumbfounded, Buckley asked, "Is this the end of the interview?"

Charles nodded yes.

"You don't have any questions for me?"

"Did you see a nice desk that you would like?" Michael asked.

"So I got the job?"

"Sorry! Was that part not clear? I apologize. Yes Buckley, we would like to
offer you a position here at Smith & Wright Law as a Senior Associate
within our Malpractice practice."

"But you barely know anything about me..."

"Buckley Dickson, age 27 and number 4 in your class at Harvard Law."
Michael began. "Parents- James Buckley, an investment banker, and Rachel
Grant-Buckley, retired academia and prominent business woman. Three
internships completed, each at a prestigious firm, one international case -
which you won. You are passionate about malpractice, but are more
passionate about getting the first batch of donuts from Walley's Donut's at
4:47 am."

Charles continued, "You also interviewed at two of our competitors. You
must understand Buck, we are lawyers at the end of the day. We have to do
our research well before we even arrive at the courthouse. We know more
about you than you would like us to and we had already made our decision
before you even arrived. The only question was whether or not you were a
fit for our firm. We believe that you are, but do you?"

"I'm honored to have this opportunity to...," Buckley began to respond.

Charles interrupted, "I told you that we are very casual here. You can save
you formal speech for another time. We know you are honored because this is
a once in a lifetime opportunity to work for a world renowned legal firm
and blah, blah, blah.  What we need to know right now Buck is if you want
in or not?" Charles said candidly.

"Right Buck!  At this point the only question is, will you accept the
offer?" Michael finished.

"Can I have some time to think about it? Buckley asked as they began
walking to the door to leave.

"You may have as much time as you need Buck to make a decision...as long as
we have that decision before those elevator doors open.  If you don't know
by know if you want to work here, then quite frankly, we don't want you,"
Michael calmly replied.

The thought of walking out of this building, his final interview, empty
handed and jobless scared him. Even more, the thought of him having to tell
his father that he had failed to secure a job at either of Manhattan's most
prominent legal firms gave him the kick in the butt that he needed.

"I'll take it!" Buckley said impulsively.

The two partners looked at each other and nodded. "Great!" Charles
began. "You start June 6th" he said as the elevator door began to close in
front of him. Right before the door was fully closed, Buckley could have
sworn that he saw Michael wink at him.

Walking out of their office, Buckley couldn't believe what had just
happened. In an instant he had accepted an offer to a firm that could
potentially change his life. Never had he had such a candid conversation
with someone so high up in a law firm. Oddly, he wasn't as intrigued by
that as he was by all the unanswered questions that he still had like why
were there half naked associates walking around and why there were three
"recreation floors" and most importantly why had Michael winked at him on
his way out.

Buckley could already tell that this was going to be some interesting
employment.


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