She tilted her head slightly, as if she would signal no, but stopped. “My client, as you can imagine, would like to protect her assets. She was the one who put in the work and doesn’t feel her ex is entitled to anything at all. We have offered him one percent; he has countered with fifty-one, which would give him full control over Mrs. Soto’s artistic work, and this is out of the question. The man has done nothing to improve or contribute to my client’s business, and—not that it matters—Mrs. Soto writes under a pen name and has very rarely spoken about her husband in any public manner. She is not damaging nor enhancing his reputation, and therefore he should not benefit from hers.”
“What about thanking him in acknowledgments?” one of the partners, Donna Pere, asked. She and Donna had a good bit of history. They met at Santa Clara Law when Renee was in law school and Donna was teaching a summer course on ethics. They stayed in touch, and when Renee needed an internship, Donna brought her on at the firm she worked for. Rhoads PC enticed Donna with a job in Seattle, which opened the door for Renee to return home. The interview had gone well, and Donna had raved about her ability, but the wait to hear whether the firm would hire her kept her on her toes. It took two months for the board to decide her fate.
“Only if he can make the claim that she included him in ‘Many thanks to my family.’ If the judge agrees, we’re going to see a lot of people coming out of the woodwork to sue for royalties.”
“Sounded like an open-and-shut case when you signed on,” Lex pointed out. Renee wanted to ask him what he knew about open-and-shut cases, but she held her tongue. Another time, another place for outbursts such as those. Instead, she smiled, nodded, and shut the binder, hoping to convey she was done talking.
Lex then asked, “Anyone have anything we should know about?” He made eye contact with each senior and junior partner sitting at the table. All were quiet until he came to Donna, who sat upright. She cleared her throat and looked down at her notes.
“A friend of a friend asked me to look into a civil case as a favor. There was a car accident over the summer in which the driver ended up paralyzed. The parents of the driver want to sue the bartender that served their daughter alcohol, saying they never checked her ID. They admit she was already drunk when she entered the establishment and contend the liquor served made her more impaired, and therefore she shouldn’t have been served nor allowed to leave without someone taking her keys or a car being called for her.”
“Was she with friends?” Renee asked.
“She was.”
“Are they being sued?” Renee shocked herself with her question. One reason she went into law was to fight for injustices. She thought she would practice criminal law and spend her life defending the innocent, but after one of her internships, family law had captured her attention.
“They aren’t,” Donna responded.
“If the young woman had friends with her, why didn’t one of them drive?” Lex asked. Renee wanted to know the same thing.
“A joyride gone bad?” The way Donna spoke made it sound like a question and like there was more to the story, and it seemed Lex felt the same way.
“Let it go; it sounds like a loss for us.” Lex stood and abruptly ended the conversation. “Happy Thanksgiving,” he said in a cheery voice. “By the way, Christmas bonuses will come earlier than normal this year.”
She gathered her things in her arm and held them precariously as she read the messages on her phone. Emails from clients complaining about missing child support payments or spousal support. There was a hint of desperation in each email, and her heart went out to her clients. The holidays were upon them, and people counted on those monthly payments. She also had a slew of text messages, mostly from Brooklyn, who was, per her typed words, OMG SO EXCITED TO SEE YOU! The message made Renee smile. Once she was in Cape Harbor, she could relax and let the stress of work drift out into the ocean. Four days of nothing but her friends, shopping, wedding talk, and Christmas decorating were exactly what she needed.
She stopped at her secretary’s desk. Ester Singer had been with Rennie since she started at Rhoads, and she insisted Ester come with her when she was promoted to junior partner. Ester looked up as Renee approached and, as coyly as possible, slid the ad she was perusing under her keyboard.
“Any good sales?” Renee asked. She never wanted to be that boss, the one who chided their employees for taking mental health breaks, and yes, she considered looking at Black Friday ads a mental health break.