by David Cooper
“God, no.” Jackie laughed. “Not when half of them are geriatric and the other half are women. Why do you ask?”
“Oh, just another problem I have to put up with.” Craven explained how dreadful he had found the department’s traditional Friday pub session from two weeks earlier. “Last week I deliberately arranged a meeting so that I’d miss it. I’ve no idea how I’m going to find a way to tell them I don’t want to go tomorrow.”
Jackie thought for a moment.
“Come up to my office for the lunch hour, if you can stand the sight of me tucking into my Pot Noodle.” She saw Craven’s confused look. “That was a joke. Let’s have a chat about this place over lunch. Seriously, just tell them you’re doing something else. Even better, just tell them outright that you don’t like pubs, if that’s what you really mean. Surely they’d understand?”
“I suppose so…I mean, that’s really kind of you. Yes, I’ll do that.”
“OK, I’ll see you tomorrow at one.” Having replaced the file, Jackie left, smiling as she looked back. For a brief moment, Craven forgot his problems and felt a lot happier.
* * * * *
Earlier that morning, Karen had heard from not just one but two solicitor candidates that they no longer required the services of Ripple. One of them, a five year qualified education law expert by the name of Stephanie Russon, had given no reasons at all. The other, former local government lawyer Godfrey Nicholas, had at least taken the trouble to confirm that he was switching his allegiance to Wave Recruitment in his quest for a return to private practice. He had explained that he had been impressed with Wayne Avery’s description of the kind of doors that Avery knew all along he could open, but only after he had set up on his own. Karen had grimly noted, without replying, that the candidate had been on her books for around four months before his decision to defect, and that despite Avery’s proclaimed efforts there had not even been a glimmer of an interview for him.
She wondered whether the candidate, whom she noted to be in his mid fifties, might have been one of the virtually unemployable type who occasionally turned up. Perhaps, she thought, Avery had simply not tried to drum up interest in the candidate, deliberately or otherwise, before he had left. But she was in no doubt that Avery had wilfully breached his contract by enticing Nicholas away.
After the bloodletting that she had put herself through with Lennie on the previous day, she felt all the more determined to take nothing lying down and to fight back against the further attacks. It was time to return some fire via the defensive marketing exercise that she could put off no longer. She called Dawn and Neeta into her office to look through a proposed mailshot, and tell her if they thought they could improve it.
‘To all loyal clients of the Ripple Birmingham legal division, candidates and firms alike.
This is a very difficult letter to write. I never thought for one moment that I might ever be faced with the need to contact you like this.
Ripple has now been part of the commercial legal sector in this city for nearly ten years. During this time I have made many good friends in the profession, and I would like to think that I have done my utmost for my candidates, and the firms to whom I have introduced them, and will continue to do so regardless of the ongoing recession.
Just over three years ago, I brought Wayne Avery into my practice. He was young and inexperienced, but he showed a certain flair for the recruitment industry, and I thought that one day he might show enough promise to progress a lot higher.
Regrettably he has chosen to bite the hand that once fed him. Having suddenly left Ripple of his own free will, he has deliberately set out to entice my candidates away and exploit the connections I have built up with law firms over many years. And in doing so, he has broken his contract.
Last week I went to court to try and put a stop to this. I could not sit idly by and watch my life’s work wantonly destroyed right in front of me.
To my dismay, I was not granted the immediate injunction that I had sought. However, I am determined to rise above this setback, and pursue the grant of the injunction against him at a full trial.
I hasten to add that as far as I am concerned, I have done nothing to deserve this cowardly attack on my business. So I cannot and will not take it lying down.
While I continue my pursuit for justice, may I invite you all to ask yourselves where your best interests lie. As candidates, when you are looking for your dream job, is it really sensible to trust this vital task to someone who can hardly claim the experience to back up his airy promises about what he can find you? And as employers, when you want someone who will strike all the right notes, is it any more sensible to risk your precious time and resources being wasted by not having the right people put forward?
Please think about it. I have served you all for many years and hope to be able to continue doing so. Life changing career decisions are far too important to be trusted to someone who may profess the gift of the gab but cannot profess either the experience to back it up, or the integrity that is such a crucial element of the whole process.
All my best wishes.’
As Karen waited for her colleagues to tell her what they thought, Neeta scribbled a few notes, while Dawn focused on one passage and bore a pensive expression. Neeta was the first to speak.
“OK, just a few suggestions. I know you’re trying to make this come over like some kind of press release, but I’m not sure about the opening sentence. Wouldn’t you be better off cutting it out, and just letting it start with ‘Dear’ and a first name? Much more personal that way.”
“Fair point. Anything else?”
“Yes, just below. I’d miss out what you’ve said about the recession. You don’t want too much of this to be negative. And I wouldn’t say that you brought him into the practice, either. Sounds as if he was coming in as a partner. Why not just say ‘Ripple offered Wayne Avery a job’? Then there’s…”
“Sorry to interrupt, Neeta, but I think I can push that one further – a job at a junior level.” Karen marked the amendment on her copy. “You were saying?”
“One more change in the paragraph below. I’m not sure about ‘having suddenly left’. How about ‘he suddenly left Ripple of his own free will, then deliberately…’ I think that’s more eye catching.”
“OK, that sounds good.” Karen made the alteration. “How about you, Dawn?”
“Well…this might sound a bit silly, but you know where you’ve put this comment about not wanting the cowardly attack? I was just thinking of the flowers man again…”
“What about him?”
“Um…how about saying something like ‘this craven conflict is not of my making?’ Just a thought.”
“Yes, that’s really good.” All three of them looked at each other before Karen annotated her copy once more. “What made you come up with that?”
“Well, apart from the play on his name, I thought it was a bit dramatic, in a good sense. You know how much I like reading Shakespeare and all that.”
Neeta thought for a moment before speaking up.
“I take it this won’t make Wayne start ranting about defamation of character, if one of his cronies leaks him a copy?”
“Good point, but right now I just don’t care. I dread to think what he’s been saying about me over the last few weeks. He deserves everything coming to him. If only…”
Karen caught herself before she accidentally let slip any comment about Rufus Squire. However much he might deserve to be tarred with the same brush as Avery, should the long forgotten affair ever come to light again, it was still not something she felt she could share with her two close colleagues then and there, however sympathetic they would surely be.
Friday 19 th April
“Coming along this week, Paul?”
Craven glanced towards his open door and saw Roger Blake standing in the threshold. Blake had no idea that his eager look and his gesture towards the exit were not merely wasted but totally unwelcome too. Craven’s plan had be
en to call Jackie Browning and make sure that she was still expecting him, then leave his office for hers before Blake or any of his other colleagues could try to coax him along for the Friday pub gathering. But he had not bargained for a long phone call from a client, particularly not one on a technical mechanical issue that had strongly captured his interest when he had first read into the file. By the time the call was over, it was too late.
“No, I’m not.” Craven would have left it at that, and he was oblivious to Blake’s raised eyebrows in response. Unfortunately, Blake did not simply let it drop.
“What is it this week? Not another meeting?” The question was friendly in tone, but Craven took it badly.
“I’m not going to tell you.” Blake was startled at the blunt response. It dawned on Craven that he ought to say something else, however much he felt that his private lunch with Jackie was no one else’s business. He remembered what Jackie had said to him on the previous day. “I really don’t like pubs anyway. I never have done.”
However reasonable a point Craven thought he was making, he only managed to leave Blake lost in disbelief.
“Oh…OK, suit yourself then.” Blake looked at his watch and went off without another word, rolling his eyes. Craven did not notice the gesture and bent back over his desk to finish writing a note of the phone call, then set off in the direction of the property department without any concern for the poor impression he had given.
Half an hour later, over a shared lunch break in far quieter surroundings, Craven had learned a whole lot more about the firm’s history and its place in the local legal sector than anyone else had properly explained to him during the previous three weeks.
“So that’s what it’s all about, as far as I can see.” Jackie was almost at the end of her summary. “A long standing traditional firm. Comfortable for years in the middle rankings. If my department had its way, we’d just stay right there and enjoy the quality of life. Trouble is, the corporate boys wanted to get on the expansion trail, and dear old Rufus from your department obviously wants more feathers in his cap than the West Midlands Professionals’ committee, so he’s backing them every step of the way. That’s what’s driven the Lewis Hackett merger. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there’s more of that to come. Big is beautiful, and all that.”
“I can’t understand it.” Craven replied. “I found it bad enough when I was made redundant. At least that involved someone else taking over most of my old firm so that it wouldn’t have to shut down. But all this business of getting bigger and more crowded, just because it’s what everyone else is doing? It’s not my idea.”
“How come you’ve ended up here, then?”
“Not much choice. Months on the dole, interviews getting nowhere, and suddenly this one comes up when I least expected it.” Craven would normally have kept a story of that kind very much to himself, but Jackie’s sympathy made all the difference. Ten more minutes passed by before she looked at a nearby clock and pointed to a file.
“I suppose I’d better get back to this title report. Anything planned for the weekend?”
Craven thought for a moment. It was not often that someone relatively unknown to him asked the question. He rarely liked to share too much information about his narrow range of outside interests.
“Er…just odd jobs and reading, as far as I can see.” It never occurred to him to ask the same question in return, but Jackie spared him the trouble.
“My sister’s coming up tomorrow with her four year old. Guaranteed bedlam and chaos. At least it saves me having to rattle around in that big house on my own all weekend.”
“Oh, you mean…” For a moment, thinking of the kindness that had unexpectedly come his way, Craven was on the verge of asking Jackie outright if she was in a relationship. At the last minute, he bit the question back. “OK then, I’d better go back myself. I suppose everyone else will still be in the pub.”
“At least I’ve spared you that ordeal. Mandatory fun, as my husband would describe it.”
“Your husband?” Craven turned red, fearing that he had accidentally made another social blunder. “I thought you said…” He tailed off. Noticing his look of embarrassment, Jackie came quickly to his rescue.
“He’s away on duty. You wouldn’t have known, of course. Adam’s a senior Army medic. Last ever tour in Afghanistan. Back in ten weeks and all set to start planning life on the outside. Not that he’ll ever give up the military slang.” She noticed Craven’s blank look. “Mandatory fun. Being given orders to have a good time. Sounds almost like your departmental Friday afternoons.”
“Oh, I see…” As Craven stood up and headed to the door, Jackie noticed that he was still looking shamefaced, and chipped in again.
“You must come over some time when Adam’s back. You’d like him.”
“Er…thanks, that would be nice. And thanks again for asking me up here today.”
Jackie’s phone rang and she sent him on his way with a friendly wave. She could not have known how much of a shock that her casual reference to her husband had given, as Craven’s mind frantically raced over whether he might have spoken out of turn.
* * * * *
“Hi Susie, it’s Karen. How are you?”
“Fine thanks, you too?” Susie Harris had been expecting to find Alex on the end of the phone, to confirm when he would be back home from a London conference. Realising that the caller was Karen came as no great surprise, but her evident high spirits were still in marked contrast to her state of mind over the previous weekend.
“Yes, really good. Is Alex in yet? I was only ringing to thank him for the big favour he’s just done me.”
“No, not back from London yet. Shall I get him to call you?”
“Yes please. I’m sure you’ll be interested in my news too. Remember last weekend, when I told you my case was due back in court today? All because Avery was trying to stop me from carrying on, unless I could show that Ripple was good for the costs?”
“Yes, I remember. What happened?”
“I won. The judge threw his application out. I even got an order for my costs of today’s hearing to be paid straight away.”
“Well done.”
“It really put one across that weasel faced git who’s acting for Wayne. That Wagstaff bloke. He turned up on his own without his barrister. Must have thought his argument was cut and dried. You know, Ripple’s got no obvious substance to it, might go bust soon, only fair that I should ring fence some funds for Wayne’s costs.” Karen paused for breath and gave a mocking laugh. “Little did he know about my secret weapon.”
“What was that?” Susie was intrigued.
“My new barrister. The one Alex recommended. She just laid into everything he’d said, tore it to shreds without even raising her voice. Told the judge it would be totally unfair to try and bar me out like that when Ripple was only in trouble because of Avery’s backstabbing. Nothing but dirty tricks on his part, when he knows damned well that my claim’s on the moral high ground.”
“Interesting. This wasn’t the Common Purpose judge again, then?”
“No, this was Judge Marian Banks, the one who should have heard us last week. I even got the impression at one point that she’d have given me the injunction if she’d dealt with it. She certainly slapped Wagstaff down when he tried to get the last word in about my inheritance. I got such a filthy look from him at the end. I’d have given him the finger, if Soraya hadn’t calmed me down.”
“Soraya? So Alex put Lennie onto Soraya Howard? Can’t say I’m surprised, knowing what I do. She’s a real rising star.”
Karen paused.
“No, not Howard. Something like…”
“Sorry, my mistake. I shouldn’t forget that female barristers always practise under their maiden names. It’s Soraya Modaresi. Her husband’s one of my ex-students. Small world. We see them socially now and again.”
“Yes, that’s right. Anyway, I was so impressed that I told Lennie I wanted her on the case straight
away. All the way to trial. I never want to see that pompous old buffer Hopkinson or any of his kind ever again.”
“Can’t say I blame you, from what you told us last week. Glad to know you’re back on form again.”
“Five hundred per cent better. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m really looking forward to the trial now.” A brief moment of doubt flickered across Karen’s mind, as she thought that Wagstaff would probably already be plotting with Avery to try to regain the upper hand, and wondered if her former lover turned bitter enemy Rufus Squire would be joining in their manoeuvres. But she quickly banished the thought and changed the subject.
Monday 22 nd April
Lennie was all set to click on Send, and serve Karen’s Particulars of Claim upon BLH four hours ahead of the court’s deadline, when he paused. Should he submit it without comment, or flag up another issue at the same time?
He was not remotely troubled by the steps he had taken three days earlier, at Karen’s insistence, to dispense with Gilbert Hopkinson’s services for once and for all and engage Soraya in his place. Having called Hopkinson’s clerk to find out what progress had been made in the drafting exercise, Lennie was displeased to hear that Hopkinson had not even made a start, despite the court’s deadline. The clerk was in no position to argue when Lennie told him that he was withdrawing all further instructions.
In marked contrast, sacrificing precious weekend hours after Lennie had confirmed that she would be retained all the way to trial, Soraya had managed to produce draft Particulars for a final review before Lennie had arrived at his desk on the Monday morning. In turn, Karen had been just as quick to approve and sign the draft, and the initiative was once more in her hands.
Karen’s case for damages and an injunction, as now officially defined for the court record, was still based primarily upon the paralegals’ concerted defections from Ripple to Wave Recruitment. Regardless of the fact that she had been denied an interim order to stop Avery poaching any more clients, the allegations would still be a cornerstone of her case at trial, when every witness would face cross-examination under oath.
