I tentatively opened the door. The managing partner was sitting at his desk with a stack of papers near his right hand. He looked up. 'What have you been doing?' he asked.
'Mr. Carpenter,' I began in the most respectful voice I could muster.
'I thought you were going to have a memo about the status of the Gallagher Corporation holdings in the Folsom case ready for me before you left the office yesterday. I have a deposition scheduled in an hour and a half and want to be able to sort out how Mrs. Folsom finagled her way into a majority position.'
My mouth dropped open. 'Uh, I left the memo on your secretary's desk two days ago.'
Mr. Carpenter picked up the phone. 'Sharon! Do you have a memo about Gallagher Corporation from Tami Taylor on your desk?'
The lawyer glared past me at the door, which opened in a few seconds. The secretary entered and walked gingerly past me. She handed Mr. Carpenter the memo without looking at me.
'Here it is. It was placed in another file by mistake.'
Mr. Carpenter didn't say anything but grabbed it and began reading it. He grunted several times. I sat still.
'Where is the documentation supporting your opinion?' he asked.
'In the file in the library.'
'Get it,' he said.
I fled from the office and returned to the library. Julie was there.
'What's going on?' she asked when she saw my face. 'Is it Vinny or Zach?'
'Neither. Mr. Carpenter's secretary misplaced that memo I wrote about Gallagher Corporation. She found it, but he wants the documents and research.' I riffled through the folders looking for the correct one. 'Is being a lawyer worth the stress?'
'Oh, yes. Of course, I don't have a clue myself, but if I believed differently, I would be on my way to the beach this morning.'
I grabbed the folder and returned to Mr. Carpenter's office. Sharon didn't look up as I passed her desk.
'Here it is,' I said, handing it to him. 'I'm sorry for the mix-up.'
'It's not your fault,' he said with a wave of his hand. 'How are the documents organized in the file?'
'Reverse chronological. I flagged the ones that are particularly helpful with red tabs.'
Mr. Carpenter flipped through the file and grunted again. 'Good work,' he said. 'Next week I'll have another case for you to work on. It has similar issues.'
'Yes sir.'
I left his office. It wasn't even 8:30 a.m., yet I felt drained. When I returned to the library, Julie was talking to Vince.
'He wants to see you,' she said when I entered the room. 'I'm doing the best I can to entertain him, but I can tell he's getting bored.'
Vince looked at me. 'Are you available for lunch today?'
'I'm not sure. I've been putting out a fire with Mr. Carpenter.'
'What kind of fire?' Vince asked a bit too loudly.
'It's not that,' I responded quickly. 'It has to do with a divorce case.'
'What?' Julie interjected. 'Are you working on something together?'
I looked at Vince and shook my head.
'Out with it,' Julie said, sitting up straighter in her chair. 'We're all equal here, except that you're ten times smarter than the rabbi and me put together.'
'It's controversial,' Vince replied.
I wanted to reach out and put my hand over Vince's mouth.
'And unverified,' he added.
'Julie,' I said, 'I'm not going to discuss this with you.' I looked at Vince. 'And neither is he. End of the discussion.'
'Is it about Moses Jones and the Prescott girl who was murdered?' Julie asked.
I stared at her in shock.
'You left the folder in here a few days ago.' She shrugged. 'I couldn't help glancing through it, reading the newspaper articles, deciphering your notes.'
'That's wrong! You had no business-'
'We're in the same firm,' Julie said, shrugging again. 'Secrets don't exist.'
Before I could respond, the library door opened. It was Zach. Everyone turned and stared at him. He stopped in his tracks.
'What's going on in here?' he asked.
'Tami and her investigation into Moses Jones' involvement in the Prescott murder,' Julie said. 'I busted her, and she's acting immature about it. Did she try to hide it from you as her supervising attorney?'
Zach surveyed the room. 'Tami and Vince, let me talk to Julie for a few minutes,' he said.
Vince and I stepped into the hallway.
'What's he going to do?' I asked.
'Not much. She's right.'
'What?' I blurted out. 'How can you say that? I thought you were on my side.'
'I am, but client confidentiality doesn't restrict the flow of communication among employees of the firm. There is no basis for hiding information from one another.'
I couldn't believe Vince's position.
'So, you think I should summon Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Braddock to the conference room and confront them with the facts I've uncovered?'
'No, but there's no legal reason why they couldn't order you to disclose your research. Everything you've done originated as work product for a client of the firm. When I came into work this morning, the sign in front of the building read `Braddock, Appleby, and Carpenter.' This is their law firm, and in our employment contract we agreed that the work we performed this summer belonged to them. That's one reason I urged you to reconsider the scope of your investigation. '
I stepped back against the wall. 'I might as well quit and go back to north Georgia for the rest of the summer. There's no way I'm going to ever think like a lawyer.'
'I disagree,' Vince responded in a matter-of-fact voice. 'You know how to focus on the most important aspect of any legal matter.'
'Which is?'
'The determination of the truth. If you try the Jones case in front of Judge Cannon, that's one of the first instructions he'll give the jury. It's the practical effects of what you're doing outside the scope of the case that are spinning out of control.'
'Thanks a lot…' I began.
Before I could continue, the library door opened, and Zach motioned for us to come inside. 'I think we're on the same page,' he said as soon as we returned.
I waited for a more complete explanation.
'You should have asked for my help,' Julie said. 'We've worked well together on our other projects.'
Vince didn't say anything. I looked at the other three people in the room. 'Is that a solution?' I asked.
'Yes,' Zach replied. 'You don't have to ask Julie to help, but she's available. As your supervising attorney, I'll leave that decision up to you. Did you check the criminal court schedule for the rest of the summer?'
'No, but I'll do it right now.'
'Let me know.'
Zach left with Vince right behind him. I sat down across from Julie.
'What did Zach say to you?' I asked.
'That it was unprofessional to snoop in your file. Why didn't you tell me the connection between Moses Jones and the disappearance of the Prescott girl?'
'I didn't want you to get all worked up about it.'
'And start running my mouth?'
'Yes.'
'I wouldn't do anything to prejudice our client. The rules of ethics-'
