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.
This is the first part of this new work. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Please send me a message at TomTheWriter@ymail.com with comments, questions, or ideas and I will try to respond to each message. Also visit my new site at http://tomthewriter.weebly.com/ for some all of my stories.
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