Boston, MA, Hale & Dole White Shoes Law Firm.

On the door of the office, there is a metal nameplate with the identity of the partner: Robert Morley's office.

The intern pushed open the door and handed the document in his hand to Robert, who was sitting behind his desk with his back to the huge floor-to-ceiling window, intently flipping through an investigative report: "Mr. Morley, this is the information you want." ”

Robert took it and opened it and instructed, "Wait a minute, you go and call Renard and introduce him to Mr. Norwick, who has a case that needs to be helped by his private investigator." ”

"Okay, Mr. Jim Manz wants to see you." The intern listened to Robert's instructions and spoke.

Robert paused for a moment: "Jim? Do I have an appointment with him? ”

"yes, why don't you go and have fun together? I'm your employer, and then I'm going to see you......" Jim's voice rang out outside the door.

Seeing Jim's big face appear at the door, Robert immediately said to his intern: "OK, Noah, you go out first, thank you for sending the information, I will call you if I have other questions." ”

"Do you need me to help you and Mr. Manz prepare coffee...... the intern asked.

Robert looked at Jim Manz who walked in with a blank face, and said, "No, as a partner, I need to save money for the firm." ”

When the intern walked out and helped close the door, Jim walked straight to the floor-to-ceiling window behind his desk and took in the streetscape: "The view from this office looks so much better than your previous room that wasn't the size of my panties, Robert." ”

"You made me embarrassed in front of my interns, Jim, come on, this is my first day as a partner." Robert turned his back to Jim depressedly and spoke.

"Really?" Jim turned around, walked behind Robert, and patted his hands on his shoulders: "So you're a little unhappy?" On your first day as a partner? ”

"F*ck, Jim, you can't ......" Robert tilted his head, his tone very unpleasant, trying to remind himself, a friend who has known him for many years, to pay attention to the occasion when joking.

But before he could finish speaking, he saw this guy take out a business card and stuff it into his mouth to block the words behind him.

Robert reached out and took it, and the polished British-style business card read Kenneth Thomson, Chairman of the Board of Thomson Holdings International.

"I recommend you as an independent director of Thompson Holdings International, Mr. Thomson agreed, and he would like to talk to you next time he comes to Boston from Toronto, how about it? Does this gift make you feel better? Jim slowly paced back to the seat across from Robert and said with a smile:

"Seven years, seven years and you're a partner in a white shoe firm, and sometimes I think you're a real genius, Robert."

"Thank you, I think so too." Robert put away the business card and laughed as well.

How many friends would be as caring as Jim's bastard, those friends have prepared all kinds of gifts, maybe it's wine, maybe flowers, maybe even party, but only this bastard knows what he needs most, and then according to his needs, send a gift that really weighs enough.

Robert Morley, a lawyer who has just been promoted to partner in a large law firm, needs to hang up the title of independent director of several companies and take on a few important cases in order to demonstrate strong ability and aggressiveness in the industry, so that it will be of great help to him, whether he is co-opted by other firms, or invited by the government to enter the judiciary, or go further and pursue the position of managing partner.

But the title of an ordinary small company will only reduce the gold content, and it is best to have some companies with enough influence to be worthy of the identity of a partner of the white shoe firm, such as Thomson Holdings International, a large publishing organization in Canada, which is recommended by Jim at this time, and publishes a number of regional newspapers in the United States, with a total circulation of more than one million copies.

"You can already boast to everybody about this amazing speed, because it's just more than half a slower than the time I became an assistant to the editor-in-chief of National Review in three years." Jim snapped his fingers at him and said.

Roberto opened a drawer and threw him a box of cigars: "So you're just coming to my office, congratulating me with a present, and then irritating me with your perverted experience?" ”

"No, dear Mr. Loan Advisor, I'm more curious about where that case went?" Jim took the humidor, took a cigar out of it, sniffed it slowly on the tip of his nose, and asked.

Robert leaned back in his chair, put his hands on his lower abdomen, tilted his head slightly and thought about it: "The other party sent a letter of defense to the court, indicating that they will respond to the lawsuit, that's all, according to the normal situation, the next step is to wait for the court to allow, the lawyers on both sides enter the stage of collecting and disclosing evidence, just wait for the evidence to be collected, and the court will go to war." ”

"Which law firm helped the other party send the reply letter back?" Instead of using a cigar cutter, Jim bites off the cap with his teeth and spits it on the carpet.

Seeing Jim's demeanor, Robert said depressedly, "You can't be like a gentleman?" I can't believe that a bastard like you could be Mr. Buckley's assistant back then, why could he put up with you! ”

"Because I dared to go to the Soviet Union to investigate and research, and to help the magazine become an indispensable reading material for all American politicians, I was just a magazine editor, but I did the CIA's job, and that's why Mr. Barkley valued me." Jim smiled arrogantly: "It was I who used the 150,000-word investigation report to tell those politicians in the United States who don't even know where Moscow is, that the Soviets are not living in dire straits all day long as the intelligence from the CIA said, so don't make those idiotic remarks, otherwise you will be a laughing stock." ”

"Well, stop bragging, I've helped you find out, it's a small law firm near Stanford University, founded in 1979, and it's just a nobody in California, and it doesn't have any strength at all." Robert asked Jim to stop bragging, but in fact, he still waited for Jim to finish speaking, and did not interrupt halfway, from his personal heart, he admired this bastard very much, when the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union was at its most tense, this guy went to the Soviet Union, secretly lived with the most ordinary Soviet people for almost a year, helped Buckley complete the investigation report, and the others did not even have the courage to raise their hands to sign up, not to mention going to the Soviet Union.

Robert took a cigar and played with it: "Do you think that Actor company has a lot of money and hires white-shoe elites as corporate legal consultants like Lotus?" ”

"After the other party responds to the lawsuit, it seems that we can't meet in private, right?" Jim didn't answer, but slowly roasted his cigar over the fire and continued to ask.

"It's best to meet, when both parties are accompanied by lawyers, to avoid being caught by the other party and used to make trouble."

"I understand that they seem to train a bunch of low-level women, the kind of cheap prostitutes, and then they also work with organizations like the Stanford Women's Advancement Association, and you're sure those wouldn't be a problem if they go to court? You know that women are mostly troublesome, except for prostitutes. Jim shoved the lit cigar into his mouth and said in a vulgar tone.

Robert shrugged: "Don't talk about cooperating with a women's organization, even if you cooperate with the president, you can't change the fact that the rights of the Lotus company are violated, the interface is the same, the function is the same, you still have a special edition in your hand, all of which prove that they knew they were plagiarizing from the beginning, and when they enter the stage where the court allows lawyers on both sides to collect evidence, I will ask my colleagues in California to help get detailed evidence from Stanford University, rest assured, the only thing you need to worry about is that they had better not suddenly get a large investment, Otherwise, it will become the kind of situation with Moore Company, where the two sides have spent millions of yuan in lawyer fees for three or five years, and in the end it is really unacceptable that both parties are losing money, and only the cruel reality that the lawyer has made a windfall, the lawyer takes their money, and the two sides take the initiative to settle. ”

"I've done some PR work, those computer magazines, newspapers haven't been reporting on Actor for a while, and I pay double as much as they pay for PR, so they won't appear in any professional magazines or newspapers in the future, so as to avoid being seen by investors to the greatest extent and reduce this possibility." Jim thought for a moment and asked:

"How long will the court issue documents that allow lawyers on both sides to gather evidence in this case?"

"Inside information, a week, specially helped you speed up, this is the benefit of hiring a large firm, it is worth the money, the whole state of Massachusetts knows that the current judge of the state court, before serving as a judge, was a partner of the firm, if a small law firm in California that is not well known came to Boston and won the court, it would be impossible for the firm to establish itself in Boston for a hundred years, and you chose us because of this."

"What happens if there are big companies that disrupt the game, I mean Microsoft, MicroPort, Baolan and other big software companies, use Actors as puppets and hide themselves behind the scenes?"

"Pulling, most likely pulling for years and then reconciling, in the state courts, in the circuit court stage, we can't lose."

"That is, there is still a possibility of losing?"

"Jim, the United States is a three-tier court system, 99% of cases can be resolved at the level of circuit courts, in the Massachusetts state court, the second district circuit court in the United States, we are always undefeated, 70% of the judges in these two courts, clerks have internship or work experience in our Hale & Dole law firm, and even if this case ends up in the U.S. Supreme Court, our influence on Washington is not comparable to the connections of those computer nerds in California."

"The worst-case scenario is to pull and then reconcile, right?"

"Yes, definitely not worse."

"Very well, I will persuade Mr. Buckley to ask him to allow me to publish an article in National Review under the title of assistant editor-in-chief that I have not used for many years." After receiving Robert's affirmative answer, Jim spewed out a pale blue smoke, and in the haze, there was a sinister smile on his face:

"Don't think I'm not influential in the software industry, those nerdy nouveau riche can fucking drool over Lotus."

The second more ~~

(End of chapter)