by Susan Rieger
Dr. Durkheim would like the Persian rug; in exchange, he offers to relinquish his interest in all art owned by the couple.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours,
SANGER & BOOTH
Maria Mather Meiklejohn and Daniel E. Durkheim
New Settlement Offer: Custody & Support
Custody
Physical Custody: sole to Maria Meiklejohn
Legal Custody: joint to Maria Meiklejohn & Daniel Durkheim
Child Support
Daniel Durkheim to pay $60,000/year for seven (7) years (through high school); Maria Meiklejohn to pay school tuition and fees
Daniel Durkheim to pay $18,000/year at end of seven (7) years until Jane’s graduation from college or 23rd birthday, whichever event is earlier
College Costs
Daniel Durkheim to pay college tuition, room, and board for four (4) years
Maria Meiklejohn to pay books and other expenses
Ordinary Alimony or Spousal Support
Daniel Durkheim to pay $60,000/year to Maria Meiklejohn for seven (7) years from signing or terminating event
Terminating events: remarriage; Maria Meiklejohn has a salary of at least $50,000
Rehabilitation Alimony
Daniel Durkheim to pay $30,000/year to Maria Meiklejohn for three (3) years in law school tuition at Mather Law School, or $14,000/year for three (3) years at the University of Narragansett Law School
Terminating event: nonattendance at law school
Reimbursement Alimony
No reimbursement alimony
Medical Insurance
Maria Meiklejohn to pay $3,200 for COBRA account on Daniel Durkheim’s policy
Terminating events: alternative health insurance coverage available from law school or employment
New Offer: Comparison with Counteroffer
Account New Annual Counter Annual
Child Support (HS; 7 years) $60,000 $72,000
Child Support (college) $18,000 $24,000
Alimony $60,000 $60,000
Rehabilitation Alimony $30,000 $30,000
Reimbursement Alimony 0 $10,000
October 1, 1999
SANGER & BOOTH
Maria Mather Meiklejohn and Daniel E. Durkheim
New Settlement Offer: Retirement Funds, Investments & Property
Daniel Durkheim’s TIAA-CREF Retirement Accounts: $600,000
Counteroffer: Daniel Durkheim to receive $300,000; Maria Meiklejohn to receive $300,000
New Offer: Daniel Durkheim to keep $600,000
Daniel Durkheim’s 401(k) Plan: $300,000
Counteroffer: Daniel Durkheim to receive $150,000; Maria Meiklejohn to receive $150,000
New Offer: Daniel Durkheim to keep $300,000
Stock Market Investments: $700,000
Counteroffer: Daniel Durkheim to receive $350,000; Maria Meiklejohn to receive $350,000
New Offer: Daniel Durkheim to receive $100,000; Maria Meiklejohn to receive $600,000
Treasury Bills: $90,000
Counteroffer: Maria Meiklejohn to receive $45,000; Daniel Durkheim to receive $45,000
New Offer: Daniel Durkheim to receive $90,000
Joint Savings Account: Originally $80,000; Now $16,000
Counteroffer: Maria Meiklejohn to receive $32,000; Daniel Durkheim to receive $48,000
Equal Division with recognition of Daniel Durkheim’s $16,000 inheritance
New Offer: Daniel Durkheim to receive $16,000
Family Residence: Current Value: $525,000; Net Equity: $240,000
Counteroffer: Daniel Durkheim to receive $120,000; Maria Meiklejohn to receive $120,000
Maria Meiklejohn to receive her share from stock market investments if house kept by Daniel Durkheim
New Offer: Daniel Durkheim to receive home; Upon sale or at end of 7 years, Maria Meiklejohn to receive $120,000
New Offer: Comparison with Counteroffer
Account DD New MMM New DD Counter MMM Counter
TIAA-CREF 600,000 0 300,000 300,000
401(k) Plan 300,000 0 150,000 150,000
Stocks 100,000 600,000 350,000 350,000
T Bills 90,000 0 45,000 45,000
Savings 16,000 0 16,000 0
TOTAL 1,106,000 600,000 861,000 845,000
The total amount in retirement funds and savings is $1,706,000. In the original offer, Dr. Durkheim would have received only $16,000 more than Ms. Meiklejohn. Under this offer, Dr. Durkheim would receive $506,000 more than Ms. Meiklejohn, and $245,000 more than under the original offer.
October 1, 1999
TRAYNOR, HAND, WYZANSKI
222 CHURCH STREET
NEW SALEM, NARRAGANSETT 06555
(393) 876-5678
MEMORANDUM
Attorney Work Product
From: Joe Salerno
To: The Firm
RE: Farrow Allerton
Date: October 4, 1999
Attachments: Notice of Farrow Allerton’s Two New Partners
Listen up, folks, Farrow Allerton is on the move. Three new women partners in the last month, providing the firm with gender and ethnic cover, not to say talent and brains. We should have hired Caroline and Susanna (and of course retained Fiona). I bet we could have gotten them. Who’s in charge of recruitment here, anyway? Anyone? I believe Caroline is Jim Rosental’s sister-in-law. We’re not going to make it in the new century if all we do is cosset the Octopus.
TRAYNOR, HAND, WYZANSKI
222 CHURCH STREET
NEW SALEM, NARRAGANSETT 06555
(393) 876-5678
MEMORANDUM
Attorney Work Product
From: Sophie Diehl
To: David Greaves
RE: The Durkheim Separation Agreement
Date: October 7, 1999
Attachments: Letter from Mamie Booth, October 1, 1999
New Durkheim Settlement Offer: Custody & Support
New Durkheim Settlement Offer: Retirement, Investment, Property
Draft Letter to Mamie Booth
Dr. Durkheim’s new lawyer, Mamie Booth, has put forward a reasonable offer. I met with Ms. Meiklejohn this afternoon, and we came up with a response. Please look it over and let me know what you think. I don’t know that he’ll keep paying alimony and support once Jane has gone to college (always dicey, so Felix tells me), but we should be okay for the next seven years.
Fiona Redux
* * *
From: Sophie Diehl
To: Maggie Pfeiffer
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 15:24:19
Subject: Fiona Redux 10/8/99 3:24 PM
Dear Maggie,
I was having lunch with two friends from the AG’s office at Golightly’s (always a mistake, I now think), when who should drop by the table, on her way out, but Fiona, all glammed up. She must have gotten a whopping raise; her clothes were beautiful and expensive. Louboutin shoes. Bottega Veneta bag. Great haircut too, not a local job. “Sophie,” she said, “I understand you’re now the lead lawyer on the new Octo-pus bond offering. Just kidding. Please give my best to everyone.” She winked and was gone. My friends looked at me in amazement. I just said, “Inside joke.”
I wonder if she’s going to keep ambushing me every time we run into each other. I wish there was someone at the firm I could talk to about it, but there isn’t. Even Joe has told me to suck it up, though of course he puts it in terms of “knocking Brearley out of me.” At least he’s consistent. He doesn’t mind women behaving badly. David, on the other hand, has trouble with it; he doesn’t like being challenged or crossed by a woman, all the apologies and expressions of regret to the contrary. He wants us to suck it up like men and suck up like women. I may have to tell him one of these days. It’s not a good way to be. So 20th century.
I’m going out for an ice cream.
xoxoxo
Sophie
You Won’t Believe This
* * *
From: Sophie Diehl
&nbs
p; To: Maggie Pfeiffer
Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 17:14:16
Subject: You Won’t Believe This 10/9/99 5:14 PM
Dear Mags,
You won’t believe this. I just got delivery of two dozen white roses. From Fiona. Isn’t white the sign of a truce? Flowers are never ironic, are they? The thorns don’t appear to be dipped in poison, and the note mentioned “lunch sometime.” I think she was sorry for her jab at Golightly’s the other day. I can’t tell you how much they lifted my spirits.
Speaking of Fiona, her new firm, Farrow Allerton, hired two more women partners, bringing their total to 5, out of 15. Joe sent a caustic memo about it to everyone, partners and associates. David must be steamed. We are falling behind. Maybe Judge Howard was right about Fiona being warped by Traynor, Hand’s patriarchy. I always thought Farrow Allerton was stodgier than THW, but maybe not. They don’t do any criminal work, not even white-collar, which is of course a strike against them, but they do represent several big foundations. What am I doing? Being an idiot, that’s what. As if they might recruit me. I have no experience and no connections in this town. Shoulder to the wheel, Sophie girl.
I think I’ll go cook something; it will make myself feel a productive member of society. Did I say the flowers were from Pettigrew and perfect long-stemmers?
Love and kisses,
Sophie
TRAYNOR, HAND, WYZANSKI
222 CHURCH STREET
NEW SALEM, NARRAGANSETT 06555
(393) 876-5678
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
October 11, 1999
Mary Booth
Sanger & Booth
300 Church Street
New Salem, Narragansett 06555
Dear Mamie,
I write on behalf of Maria Meiklejohn. She has asked me to make a counteroffer offsetting some of the skimpier provisions in the new offer your client Dr. Daniel Durkheim has put forward, including: (1) reducing the proposed child support by $12,000 a year; (2) reducing college child support payments by $6,000 a year; (3) cutting all reimbursement alimony ($10,000 a year); (4) imposing college costs in excess of tuition and room and board on Ms. Meiklejohn; (5) postponing payment of Ms. Meiklejohn’s share of the net equity in the family residence for seven years without including future value or paying interest; (6) removing the escalator clauses for alimony and tuition; and (7) retaining all of Dr. Durkheim’s retirement funds.
Ms. Meiklejohn proposes: (1) In return for waiving her interest in the family residence and her share of its current net equity ($120,000), Dr. Durkheim will release to Ms. Meiklejohn the $16,000 in the bank account and pay her $100,000 on the signing of the agreement. The latter amount can be taken from Dr. Durkheim’s proposed share of the stock funds or from another non-retirement (i.e., liquid) source, his choice. (2) Dr. Durkheim will pay all of Jane’s college expenses, including books, fees, and living expenses, as well as tuition, room, and board. Ms. Meiklejohn will pay all of Jane’s school costs until she finishes high school. (3) Dr. Durkheim shall provide and pay for medical insurance for Ms. Meiklejohn as long as she is receiving alimony. (4) Dr. Durkheim shall purchase life insurance of $740,000 (twice his current income) payable to Ms. Meiklejohn until Jane completes college. The rest of Dr. Durkheim’s offer is accepted with one condition.
Ms. Meiklejohn’s counteroffer is premised on Dr. Durkheim’s agreement, in the event of Ms. Meiklejohn’s death prior to Jane’s 18th birthday, that he and Jane’s maternal grandfather, Bruce Meiklejohn, will share legal custody and that Mr. Meiklejohn will have physical custody, with Jane living with her grandfather on the same terms she lived with her mother. This condition is nonnegotiable and conforms to the recommendation in the evaluation conducted by Dr. Rachel Fischer of the Mather Child Study Center at the request of Jane’s parents. Ms. Meiklejohn will not sign an agreement which doesn’t have this condition; she is prepared to litigate the separation and dissolution if agreement is not possible, and she is prepared to ask the court to appoint legal counsel for Jane. Let me know whether these terms are agreeable to Dr. Durkheim. If so, I will draft the agreement.
Yours,
Anne Sophie Diehl
Narragansett Statutes
Title 33 of the Narragansett Code, Sections 801ff.
Dissolution of Marriage, Annulment, and Legal Separation
Sec. 808. Counsel for minor children. Duties.
(a) The court may appoint counsel for any minor child or children of either or both parties at any time if the court deems it to be in the best interests of the child or children. The court may appoint counsel on its own motion, or at the request of either of the parties or of the legal guardian of any child or at the request of any child who is of sufficient age and capable of making a reasonable request.
(b) Counsel for the child or children may be appointed in any case before the court when the court finds that the custody, care, education, visitation, or support of a minor child is in actual controversy.
Papa
* * *
From: Sophie Diehl
To: Maggie Pfeiffer
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 01:47:16
Subject: Papa 10/19/99 1:47 AM
Dearest Mags,
Long long day. Papa came up to New Salem to see me. He looks fine, not like someone dying, though he’s thinner and limps a bit. He needs a new knee. The old one has never been quite right since his car accident, or as we say in the family, his alleged accident. I took him around the office and had him meet David and Joe and anyone who went to Columbia College. Turns out, we’ve got three of them, including, unbelievably, Proctor, who went there during WWII, as part of Naval Officer Training. If ever there was a Yale or Mather man, it was Proctor (viz, the Proctor Observatory at Mather). They were very sweet together. Proctor’s very proud that Columbia employs the last great English Marxist historian and makes all its students read Thucydides. Intellectual independence is a big thing with him even though he has trouble voting for a Democrat. Papa didn’t wear a tie, but he did wear his navy suit.
Afterward, I took him down to the court. I had a motion to argue in my never-ending Trilling case. Fruit of the forbidden tree. Somebody must have spread the word that my father had come to see me in action. Everyone teased me, including a sort-of-old colleague from my clerking days, Will Jacobsen, who’s now an assistant U.S. attorney; he was hanging out with the ADA (pal? girlfriend?) who was arguing against me. When I clerked for Judge Howard on the 13th Circuit, he clerked for Judge Lintilhac. He’s improved with age. I thought he was a bit of a dork then; not anymore. During the argument, Judge Stuessy kept calling me “Counselor”; then he’d wink. I almost laughed out loud. As you well know, no one who’s ever known me for more than 10 minutes has ever called me anything but Sophie. The ADA, Lily Dion, wasn’t too pleased, but hey, she had all the law on her side. Papa said I was first-rate, even though he could see I had a desperate argument. He doesn’t know the half of it. Mr. Trilling is going down for a long time. I can’t get him to plead. “So what if he’s dead,” he always says. “No one misses him. I did the world a favor.” I keep trying to explain to him the disgraceful lack of gratitude in the criminal courts.
Off to lunch at Golightly’s (there’s no place else to go!). I told him that I had a divorce client who’d been served there. “That is reprehensible,” he said. He then wanted to know how I’d got roped into “so low” a case, so I gave him a rundown, right down to Fiona’s sudden (or at least unannounced) flight last month and our war of the roses. I asked him if he remembered a student back in ’68 or ’69 named Daniel Durkheim. “Ah, Sophie girl,” he said, “I don’t remember anyone from those years. All I did those springs is take garbage out of Low Library. I don’t even think we had graduations in those years.”
I had to work that afternoon, and he had made plans to see a colleague at Mather. We met up at my place for dinner. I cooked. Spaghetti carbonara. “Like Maman’s,” he said, an undeserved compliment. We drank a bottle
of wine, and he talked about his cancer, his work, his marriage. He was not exactly frank, but he wasn’t dishonest. Gran has leukemia, but the doc assured her she’ll die of something else. I love English doctors. No icing the cake.
We walked to the station so he could catch the 10:18 train. It was the best time with him in 15 years. I went home and cried, and then watched Two for the Road, so I could cry some more.
Did you get a part in The Rivals?
Love,
Sophie
P.S. Word back as I was leaving the office at 6 pm from Ms. Meiklejohn’s husband’s lawyers. WE HAVE A DEAL. I am now a bona fide divorce lawyer.
The Rivals
* * *
From: Maggie Pfeiffer
To: Sophie Diehl
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 22:14:37
Subject: The Rivals 10/20/99 10:14 PM
Dear Sophie,
I’ve had two callbacks for The Rivals, and I’m Languishing like mad. I do hope I get it. It’s a delicious play. I like comedy better than tragedy or, in an era without tragedies, drama. It’s more difficult, more complicated—it’s harder to make someone laugh than cry—
but so much more satisfying. I’m not funny myself, but I think I can play funny.
I’m so glad you had a good time with your father. He can be wonder-ful when he puts his mind and his back into it. It was easier for your mother to be a good parent, even though she’s French. She was determined not to be her mother. Your father, on the other hand, took the lessons of bad parenting differently. He simply wanted his mother dead. Both your grandmothers were/are godawful. In some way, both your parents are miracles.
