Page 38 of Partner Pursuit
“We aren’t aware of that one,” Hunter said, and Audrey appreciated that Hunter said “we.” “How recent is it?”
“In the past two weeks.” Colette handed a document to Hunter. Audrey noted that she’d only broughtonecopy.
I missed a case within the last two weeks.She rubbed her suddenly sweaty hands on her skirt underthe table.
Hunter read the case. “Not good,” he said,frowning.
She hoped he wasn’t saying “not good” about her research. She was known for her research skills—for finding that winning case. Colette was looking veryself-satisfied.
Hunter handed the copy to Audrey, and she skimmed it. She said, “It’s in a different circuit, so it might not serve as precedent.”
“The court will look to it as the most recent discussion of the issue,” Colettesaid.
Audrey checked the date. It had been decided Friday. It wasn’t as bad as two weeks. She hadn’t checked for any case decisions over the weekend. The Malaburn and the Popflicks cases had kept her busy, and she’d had dinner with Jake. It was critical to know about the case, but now their legal argument was weaker. And she should’ve known about the case. She was falling behind. She couldn’t fall behind. So, she should be grateful for Colette’shelp.
“We’ll have to see if we can distinguish the facts of that case from John’s situation,” Audrey said. “That’s the basic summary of the John Rothman case. We are confident we can defeat their class action motion because the facts for each broker’s case differ.”
“The courts have been pretty liberal in granting class actions lately. An article in theNew York Law Journalhighlighted the changing trend,” Colette said. More bad news. Well, she’s a Debbie Downer. Colette was really on top ofthis.
Audrey had not been aware of that trend, but she said, “Overall, we’re fairly confident that we’ll be able to show different facts. We definitely want to distinguish these cases because the plaintiff may be right in the Jamescase.”
“Really?” Colette asked.
“In that case, plaintiffs allege that the broker was making unauthorized trades to increase his commissions. The Hen compliance department is investigating, but initial reports arenotgood.”
Colette raised an eyebrow and wrote more notes. Hunter’s assistant popped her head in to let him know that a client was on the line with an urgent matter. Hunter wrapped up the meeting.
The two women stepped out into the hushed hallway. Audrey hugged her binder to herself and looked up at Colette. Colette met her gaze as if appraisingher.
“That was a quickrun-through,” Audrey said. “Do you have any questions?”
“No,” Colette said. She said it quickly as if she didn’t allow herselfquestions.
“Well, then,” Audrey said, “the team meeting is every Tuesday, although we get together all the time. We just did the first document pull from the three brokers’ offices, so we’re all reviewing it now. I was about to review archives and electronic storage records, but I’ll leave that toyounow.”
“Yes, I’ll handle that.” Colette turned to walk towards her office, but looked back over her shoulder. “Was there anything else you wanted todiscuss?”
“No, glad it’s all clear,” Audrey said. Clearly, they were not going to be “buddy buddy” on this case. And not only were they not going to be buddies, Colette seemed to want to score points against her. Some help this was. She’d rather run defensive discovery herself than deal with this. No, she had to be positive. Colette had found an important case. She should have checked before the meeting. She had to be more on top of her game. She walked down the hushed corridors to her office, passing the portraits of various male partners onthewall.
Chapter Fifteen
Audrey couldn’t believe she was on her way to work atseven-thirtyon a Wednesday morning. She was really stressed if she wasn’t able to sleep in the morning. When she’d woken up early, she’d decided to go to a yoga class to see if that would help. Winnie swore by yoga and her dermatologist had recommended yoga (but not hot yoga) to reduce stress. She’d complained that her skin flushed when giving client presentations. That wasn’t the image she wanted to project as a candidate for partner at her law firm, especially competing against Tim and flawless Colette. And what with working for Malaburn again, she needed a new mechanism to counter getting stressed. And she did feel more relaxed, although very sore. Apparently, it countered stress by making her too sore to bestressed.
As she let herself out of the door, she looked up to see Jake. My note with the briefs is supposed to arrive later today. He’ll probably just wave and walk by quickly.
“Do you go to work at this hour?” Jake asked.Making conversation,good.
“Not usually. I just woke up early. Do you?” Audrey asked. He looked dressedforwork.
“No. But I’m not off to the office immediately. My sister has some early team meeting at the hospital, so I’m picking up my niece and nephew to bring them todaycare.”
“That soundslikefun.”
“Want to come? You can meet my sister and her kids. She thinks that two adults for two kids isoptimal.”
“Sure,” Audrey said.Yes! Here’s a chance to hang out, and I’m not even expected at the office untilnine-thirty.“I’m sorry again I had to work onSaturday.”
“Life of a lawyer. I get it,”Jakesaid.
