Squire Wilson's Saga

I stood on the sand in my bare feet and stared out at the Pacific Ocean. The setting sun had turned Playa Hermosa the color of gold. Even the palm trees behind me had a golden hue. I closed my eyes for a moment and thought about how I'd come to be here. Just like the Grateful Dead sang: "What a long, strange trip it's been."

"Rene!"

"Mary Margaret!"

The two stylishly-dressed young women squealed and rushed to hug each other as the hostess at the restaurant watched in amusement. When they finished greeting one another, she led them to a table at the rear of the café. Even though it was still May, temperatures in Houston had already climbed to the high 80s, and the matching humidity made air conditioning a necessity.

I wonder how many hours in the gym it takes to get figures like they have? the hostess mused enviously as she seated her patrons.

"I was so glad to get your call, Mary Margaret," the shorter blonde woman gushed. "It's been ages since you've gotten down here."

"I know," the tall brunette replied. "Starting my own ad agency has taken way more time than I ever imagined. To be honest, I wouldn't be here today if I wasn't calling on a potential client. But since I did, I couldn't pass up a chance to see my old college roomie."

"Yeah, and I couldn't miss seeing my maid of honor again. It's been too long, girlfriend."

Their waiter interrupted them with two glasses of white wine, and after he'd taken their lunch orders, Mary Margaret cocked her head and asked, "So how's the legal profession treating you?"

A big smile came over Rene's face. "It's awesome! Baker, Norton & Vinson is the biggest law firm in the city, I'm making a great salary plus a massive bonus last year, and I'm well on my way to becoming a partner."

"Wow, and I thought I was doing well!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to brag. But what about you - how's your agency doing?"

The brunette smiled coyly. "Well as long as we're bragging here, my little agency is THE hot creative shop in Dallas. In fact," she said in a lower tone, "last night I signed a deal to handle all the advertising for the southwest region of one of the big oil companies. Our billings to them next year will be in the millions."

Rene nodded in approval. "I always knew you were going to be a star, girl."

The two ate their salads in silence for a few minutes, then Rene glanced curiously at her friend. "You haven't said anything about romance - how's your love life?"

Mary Margaret sighed. "Frankly, there's nothing much to talk about. The dating scene is getting pretty tiresome. Those hook-up services are useless - I'd have better luck finding a unicorn than someone like your hunky husband."

She noted the way Rene's eyes darted away momentarily. "Hey, what's going on, roomie? Are you and your hubby having troubles?"

Now the blonde woman was obviously uncomfortable. She heaved a sigh, took a swig from her wine glass, and then looked up at her friend. "I've been dying to tell someone, Mary Margaret, but you've got to promise to keep this strictly confidential."

"Of course. Now tell me what's going on."

Rene took a deep breath and then burst out in a low whisper, "I'm having an affair!"

"Really? I'm shocked: I thought you and Robert were the perfect couple." She leaned closer. "What happened - isn't the sex any good?"

Rene shook her head dismissively. "No, that's not the problem. It's just that, frankly" - she shrugged her shoulders - "Robert's turned into a real disappointment."

"Why?" Mary Margaret sat back in her chair, surprised at the vehemence of her friend's pronouncement.

"You remember I told you about that deal Robert had to become his old company's chief counsel, and then how it fell through? That was disappointing enough, but now he's decided to hang out his shingle and go into practice for himself."

Her friend frowned. "If he's that passionate about the law, why not go for it? Sounds like a pretty bold move to me."

"You wouldn't say that if you saw him. It's pathetic: he's working out of a tiny office he rents in a run-down strip mall. He hardly bills enough hours to cover his expenses, much less bring anything home. I'm the one who's supporting us."

Mary Margaret raised one eyebrow. "I seem to remember he was doing the same thing for you while you were finishing law school."

Rene shook her head impatiently. "Yeah, but that was different. I knew that I'd succeed as soon as I graduated - and I have!" She frowned. "But Robert is just beating his head against the wall. His law office isn't going to turn out any different than all the other shysters out there chasing ambulances to drum up business.

"The truth is it's embarrassing any time anyone in my firm - or anybody else, for that matter - asks me about him." She stared off into the distance. "I used to think together we were going to go far and really amount to something in life. But honestly, I've left him behind and he's never going to catch up." She sighed. "I've outgrown him, Mary Margaret. It's time to move on."

Mary Margaret sat silently, digesting her lunch and her friend's revelation. After a few moments she took another sip of wine and looked inquiringly at her friend. "So who is the 'other man' in your life?"

Rene leaned forward and whispered. "It's my boss at Baker, Norton. He's already a partner, and the word in the hallways is he's all set to become a senior partner when old man Baker retires."

"Sounds like you're aiming high. How long has this affair been going on?"

"I guess about six months now. But listen, it's about more than just sex. He's crazy about me; he wants to marry me as soon as he can dump his wife."

"Hmm, so you both have an inconvenient spouse."

"Yeah, but Vance has a pre-nup with his, so getting out of the marriage won't be too costly for him."

"And what about you and Robert - are you going to divorce him?"

Rene's face soured. "That's the problem: we never even thought about a pre-nup. As things are now, if we split I'd probably wind up paying alimony to Robert, and I won't stand for that. I have no intention of continuing to finance his pathetic little law firm for the rest of my life."

Mary Margaret shook her head. "You know you're playing a dangerous game, girlfriend. Texas isn't a no-fault state. If he catches you two in the sack, he's likely to collect a lot more than just alimony from you."

Rene looked at her friend in exasperation. "Refresh my memory: which one of us has the law degree?" Then she smiled to take the sting out of her sarcasm. "Anyway, I'll figure something out."

Unfortunately, I didn't learn about my wife's conversation until much later, too late to do anything about it. All I knew for sure that May morning was that neither my personal nor my professional life was going the way I'd planned it.

I was in a gloomy mood when I pulled into the little strip mall and parked my car in one of my allotted spaces at the curb. As I locked the car door, I noticed a For Lease sign plastered across the window of one of the stores at the other end of the center. Wasn't that where that little crafts and candles store was? Damn, I guess they didn't make it. I shook my head, hoping a similar fate wasn't in store for my legal practice.

Walking up to the door to my office, I brushed my fingers over the sign affixed to the wall:

Attorney-at-Law

The sign was plastic, but it looked a little like bronze. Maybe someday I'll have one etched in marble.

Everything was quiet inside, but then it was 7:00 a.m., so what did I expect? I'd always been in the habit of getting to work early - no reason to change now. I checked my phone, but no prospective clients had left any messages. I sighed and slumped down in my chair.

Reaching into my desk drawer, I pulled out a folder of paperwork on a contract I was preparing for a client. It was pretty straightforward, but there was no reason not to check it over again, just to be sure. I've got the time, that's for sure.

After a few minutes, however, I dropped my pen on the desk and leaned back in my chair with a sigh. If only things had worked out at Allied . . .

I'd been working as the operations manager at Allied Fluid Dynamics, a major regional supplier of components for oil and gas pipelines. I was doing well: making good money and in line to take on greater responsibilities. Then Ben Masterson, the company president, called me into his office with an interesting proposition. "Robert, Phil Larson came to see me yesterday. He wanted to give me advance notice that he's planning to retire in a few years, and that Allied will be needing to find a new general counsel."

I hadn't heard that bit of news. Phil was a little old-school in his dress and manners, but he kept the company's legal affairs on the straight and narrow - not always an easy task in the rough-and-tumble oil industry. He and I weren't close, but I respected him.

Ben wasn't through. "Phil also had a little advice for me. He told me we had three options for replacing him. The first would be to outsource everything - turn all our legal work over to some outside law firm. If we do that, he told me, it'll cost us a fortune, and it will take them at least two or three years to learn the business well enough to become effective.

"The second option he suggested was hiring some sharp attorney and teaching him the business. That won't be easy to do, and once again, there'll be a long learning curve.

"Finally, Phil said, we could find someone in house who knows our business inside and out and send him to law school."

I nodded. "You know, Ben, that last option actually makes a lot of sense. Our business is pretty unique - I bet it would take less time to learn to practice law - or at least the areas we need - than to figure out all the ins and outs of this crazy industry."

Ben grinned at me. "I hoped you would say that, because the guy Phil recommended was you."

"Me? I'm an operations manager. I could never do what Phil does!"

"That's not what Phil thinks. He told me he thought you'd be perfect, said you had 'an affinity for the law.'"

Ben must have read the look on my face because he stopped me before I could object. "Of course the company would pay all tuition and expenses for your education. We'd want you to take courses at night and keep things together in Operations. It would be a lot to tackle, but if you do it, you'll be walking into a top-level management job at a lot younger age than you could reasonably expect otherwise. What do you think?"

"I think I owe Phil Larson a punch in the mouth," I shot back with a laugh. "Seriously, Ben, this is not something I've ever even thought about. No matter what, I need to go home and talk it over with my wife."

He couldn't argue with that, so I went home and told Rene about the opportunity. To my surprise, she was all for it. "This is great, hon!" she enthused. "You'll jump-shift out of that boring middle-management job and straight into the executive suite. And if they put you on the Board of Directors like Phil, you'll probably get some major stock options."

"Maybe, but this would put me way outside my comfort zone. The idea of going back to school is pretty daunting."

"Oh, don't worry about that. You're plenty smart enough to handle the coursework. And besides, you'll really only have to focus on contracts and regulations - definitely no criminal law. Anyway, I've just been through all that stuff, so I can help you if you get stuck. Come on, Hon, this is the chance of a lifetime - you've got to do it!"

"All right, if you're up for it, so am I."

"Wonderful!" she squealed. "My friends will be so jealous!"

And thus I embarked on my legal career. When I registered for the University of Houston Law Center's part-time program, I found out I'd be going year-round for four years. I'd be attending courses at night taking ten credits per semester, all while keeping up my work at Allied. Plus, Masterson told me, I'd have to find and train a successor to take over my operations job.

It was a man-killing load, and a number of times I questioned my sanity. All too often I got by on too little sleep and too much coffee. Even worse, I had almost no time to spend with Rene. As it turned out, that was going to happen anyway.

When she'd graduated from law school, Rene had been hired by Baker, Norton and Vinson, the biggest law firm in Houston. She was now working as many hours per week as I was, including my school work. There were weeks when we saw each other for only a couple of hours. But every time we did, we agreed that the pain and separation would all be worth it in the end. Most of those discussions took place after we'd screwed each other into exhaustion.

Despite my doubts and occasional brushes with burn-out, I made it through, and the pride I felt on graduation day was proof I'd made the right decision. Of course there was still one more hurdle: the bar exam. So the Monday after graduation I was back in the classroom prepping for the grueling twelve-hour-long test over two days. Three months later, seeing my name on the list of those who'd passed, I was over the moon.

When Ben Masterson called me into his office the following Monday, I was charged up and eager to take on my new duties. Yet despite my excitement, I couldn't help noticing Ben's unsmiling expression when I sat down in front of his desk.

"Robert," he said in a somber voice, "I don't know any other way to handle this except to tell you straight out. Over the weekend, the board of directors met and voted to accept an offer from Kinder Morgan to acquire us. They want to move forward with the takeover right away, so next week Allied will become their fully-owned subsidiary."

I was stunned - I hadn't heard even a whisper of such a possibility. "What does this mean for all of us?"

"I'm going to retire, and so are most of the other directors. By next week K-M will have a new management team here to take over day-to-day operations."

I gripped the edge of his desk to steady myself. "How will this affect my role?"

He couldn't look me in the eye. "I'm sorry, Robert. Kinder Morgan subsidiaries don't have their own legal counsel."

"So I'm . . . fired?"

He winced. "No, of course not. The job of General Counsel becomes redundant, but you'll have the opportunity to move back to operations manager. Of course, you'll have to let young Stearns go."

I thought about the bright-eyed engineer I'd been grooming to succeed me. And she just got married. "I can't do that, Ben, not after the last four years. Keep Stearns and let me go."

"I thought you might say that, Robert." He shook his head sadly. "This merger is going to be good for the company and a lot of our people - but not everyone. I'm really sorry."

He stood up to let me know the meeting was over. "If you'll go see HR, they'll help you make all the arrangements." He held out his hand, and I reluctantly shook it. "I really am sorry, Robert. This is not what I envisioned when we set out on this path four years ago."

And just like that, I was unemployed. They gave me six months' severance pay and benefits, but that was pretty cold comfort when I thought about my great expectations.

Rene was devastated when I told her the news. "How can they do that to you, especially after all the extra hours you put in at their request? It's just not right!"

I agreed, but there was nothing I could say to make her or myself feel any better. It was "just business," and I was just collateral damage.

"Are you going to start looking for work in the petroleum industry?" she asked. "You've still got a lot of contacts there, don't you?"

"Not anymore. I've been so buried in law school that I've lost touch with a lot of my old colleagues. Besides, the price of crude oil has taken a real hit this year, so there's not a lot of hiring going on."

"Then what are you going to do?"

"I didn't spend the last four years of my life in law school just to throw it away. I'm going to start looking for legal jobs."

"Don't be silly, hon. Baker, Norton wouldn't hire you - they only take new grads. The other big firms are the same way. Unless you've got special legal expertise or some major clients to bring with you, your chances of joining one of them are pretty dim."

"Then I'll start my own firm if I have to," I said stubbornly.

She let the conversation die, probably hoping I'd drop the idea once I'd had a chance to mull it over. But two weeks later, when she learned I'd used my severance check to sign a lease on office space in a strip mall, she became openly negative. "That place is an embarrassment, Robert. You'll never build up a respectable clientele working at that address."

"You just watch me," I vowed.

Looking back, I think that's when our marriage really started going downhill. Rene tried to hide her dismay at my quixotic plan, but she openly resented taking on a larger share of our living expenses. I didn't like it either, but I couldn't convince her the situation was temporary.

Moreover, she was clearly embarrassed when friends and colleagues asked about my endeavor. She'd talk about it only in vague terms and quickly try to change the subject. It practically took a subpoena for her to give out my new office address.

Our friends were sympathetic, but it was easy to hear the reservation in their voices. As a result, I retreated even further so I could avoid the inevitable "How's the practice going?" questions.

Rene's star, in contrast, continued to rise. She was billing ever more hours and getting involved with major clients in the process. Whenever we ran into people from Baker, Norton, all they could talk about was how well Rene was doing and how good her prospects for a partnership looked. This meant that we weren't feeling any money pressure despite my loss of income. On the other hand, her success - combined with her resentment of me - resulted in her spending more and more time at the office.

And that was the state of things in late May when Hurricane Maddy hit.

I'd been reviewing one of my few active cases when I heard the front door open. I hurried out of my office to see a young, well-dressed African-American woman. She looked to be in her early twenties, and the jacket and skirt she wore revealed a slim, athletic figure. I remember wondering if she might have run track in college. But the most remarkable thing about her was her hair. She wore it long and natural, and it hung down below her shoulders, framing her pretty, caramel-colored face in an ebony flow.

Please let her be a paying client, I thought as I introduced myself and ushered her into my spartan office. When we were seated, I assumed my most professional expression and said, "Now, how can I help you today, Ms. . . .?"

She promptly reached across the desk to shake hands with me and her face broke into a smile that seemed to raise the ambient light level in the room. "I'm Madison Armstrong, but everyone calls me Maddy. I'm not looking for your help - I'm here to help you."

Before I could respond, she took a folder of papers she'd brought with her and slid it across the desk. "I've just completed my first year at the University of Houston Law Center, with top marks, as you'll see. Now I'm ready to spend the summer as your legal intern."

That was not what I was expecting. To give myself a little time before I let her down, I opened her folder and glanced over it. She has done well: honor society as an undergraduate, high LSAT scores, top ten percent in her first-year law class. Then I realized something was wrong.

"Aren't you a little late to be looking for an internship? And with grades like these, shouldn't you be interviewing with one of the big law firms downtown?"