Updates from Garrison

The workday was kind of weird - Sabrina and Gemma were just as annoyed as you and Eric when they saw the amount of work piled up in your queue after just a couple of days. They did get the doughnuts though, so the four of you enjoyed that as you got to work. There wasn’t much banter going on between you though as you tried to drive headlong into the pile to put as big a dent in it as you could.

It didn’t help that you were being interrupted every twenty minutes or so as different partners, both Senior and Junior, stopped by to congratulate you on your win. Many of them you’d only ever emailed with and never spoken to. A few you didn’t even know the names of. And then there were the associates giving you kudos as well… while handing off more work.

Thankfully, the day got broken up by Garrison showing up right before your lunch and inviting you all out to his favourite pizza place. It was a quick walk a couple of blocks over, still downtown, and you all settled in and followed his suggestion to order the calzones since they were apparently a speciality. Once the waiter had delivered the drinks to your table he leaned back and sighed.

“Well,” he said. “You four already know you did a good job, but let me tell you, Judge Mathews continued to sing your praises when we went out for drinks yesterday afternoon. But, that doesn’t mean you four ran a perfect defence. Taking a moment after a big case, especially a trial case, for some controlled critical analysis is important - you can’t dwell on past cases, but using them for a learning opportunity is helpful. So tell me what you think you could have done differently, or better.”

The four of you glanced at each other nervously, and eventually, Sabrina slowly opened her mouth and nodded. “Well,” she said. “I think we had the details of the case pretty well in hand. We put in all the work we could, and the only things we were surprised by was information that simply wasn’t available to us because of how the packages were set up. But we could have probably done more research on our opponents - we didn’t know who they were, or what they were capable of, or even a basic reputation.”

“Reputation is something that a lawyer cultivates,” Garrison nodded. “Everyone thinks of lawyers as sharks, but realistically there are all kinds of lawyers - a basic real estate attorney doing the filings for housing purchases doesn’t need to be a shark, and it would even hurt them to act that way because they need to have a reputation for being detail-oriented, fast workers and adaptable. Lots of people want divorce attorneys who will ‘ruin’ the other side, but some folks will be more interested in an attorney who is just going to get things done and not milk them dry for as many billable hours as possible.”

“We also didn’t know what their experience was, though,” you said. “Samantha and Thomas gave off ‘went to State finals’ vibes and came in too confident, while Tucker seemed used to getting by on charisma.”

Garrison nodded again. “From what I understand, Thomas lost to Samantha at their State mock trial finals in high school. What did you think of the other two, though?”

“Amanda was the odd woman out in their team dynamic because she was more reasonable,” Gemma said. “She wanted to cut a workable deal early but her team wouldn’t let her. She’s probably the one on the team who I would want to hire if I was starting a firm from scratch.”

“Interesting thought,” Garrison said. “Did any of you speak to Maeve?”

“She’s the smartest of the bunch,” you said. “I talked with her and Amanda over the Monday lunch. I have no clue what sort of law she wants to get into, or if she even wants to be a lawyer still, but I got the feeling that she got ostracised early in their internship by Tucker, Samantha and Thomas so she didn’t offer them any help; the way she was asking questions after though makes me think she probably built an entire case based on her own work and just chatting with Amanda.”

“Could you have beaten her?” Garrison asked.

“Yes,” Sabrina said. “But not like we did the others. It would have been a reasonable settlement, and she would have probably brought it before we ever went to trial. In the real world, we would have needed to present it to our clients and let them know we couldn’t guarantee a win and leave it with them that we were confident but it was still a gamble.”

“Interesting thoughts,” Garrison said. “And you’re right, Sabrina. ‘Playing the man’ is sometimes just as strong as working your case - favours, reputation, and even intimidation tactics are part of influencing people in law, business and politics. To be fair to you, we did keep you all apart on purpose, so you didn’t exactly have a chance to do some opposition research on each other. But let’s get back to the actual case - what could you have executed better?”

The four of you slowly started to examine the facts of the case with Garrison’s input this time as he asked probing questions. Your meals got delivered and you all groaned as you took your first delicious bites, but got back to the conversation. Throughout the meal, you found a few small holes that your opponents could have poked holes in your strategy, but more often than not you, Gemma, Sabrina and Eric had answers to Garrison’s questions. By the end, he was smiling proudly, and he paid the check before you all stood up to head back to work.

“Excellent job, folks,” he said. “I said this yesterday, I believe, but you did us proud and - on a personal note - you have all continued to inspire me to take a firmer hand in our intern program in the coming years. Judge Mathews let me know he’d be writing up those letters of recommendation and sending them along sometime this afternoon or tomorrow morning, so I’ll make sure I get them to you. And, as long as nothing untoward happens in the next few weeks, you’ll be receiving a similar letter from me, backed by all our Senior Partners - your initiative and help with the whole Joy situation impressed a lot of people.”

“Thank you, sir, but that, uh, brings up a different thing,” Sabrina said as you all stepped out onto the sidewalk from the restaurant. “What’s going on with the lawsuit?”

Garrison sighed a little. “No movement yet, Sabrina,” he said. “But don’t worry - we’ve got your back.”

Knowing that Garrison and an entire law firm were behind your girlfriend was good, but it didn’t help the uneasy feeling in your stomach. Killjoy was still working her evil magic.

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