Chapter 28 Claire
Claire
“Hey, honey, how’re you holding up?” Yolanda asked as soon as they were connected on video. Unlike Claire, Yolanda was put together—cream-colored silk blouse, matching gold necklace and earrings, and I’m-a-powerful-woman red lipstick. She sat in her spacious office with Central Park views; Yolanda had been promoted to partner in Windsor his client list included big hitters in the tech world like Intelligentsia. He had also been the one who recognized Claire’s talent for project management in her very first year out of law school. It was under Bill’s wing that she’d been given the opportunities to rise to such high esteem at the firm.
“Not Bill, but he’s not the only partner involved in the merger. Mitch Tahir is putting up a huge stink about your bailing on his deal, and it’s making the firm nervous that they’ll lose him as a client.”
“They didn’t defend me? They didn’t tell Mitch why I left?”
“It’s a personal matter. It’s up to you whether to disclose it to Intelligentsia.”
“Shit.” Claire pounded her fist on the bed. “I’ll email him right after we’re done.”
But it wasn’t only that. Claire—like all attorneys in the harshly competitive world of Big Law—knew that showing any sign of weakness would be interpreted as a character flaw. Like right now: Her career was in jeopardy because her boyfriend had dared to get in an accident. She was supposed to be able to handle both flawlessly, as a sign of someone good under pressure. It was inhumane.
Claire clenched her jaw as she thought of how she’d bent over backward for the firm. No, she’d done the equivalent of legal triple backflips—getting up in the middle of the night to lead calls with Intelligentsia subsidiaries based in India, waking up early to coordinate with the European law firms working on regulatory approvals, and sometimes not going home at all and dozing for just a couple of hours in a sleeping bag under her desk so she could be available for crucial, time-sensitive documents that had to be reviewed and turned around as soon as they hit her inbox.
“I didn’t bail, ” Claire said.
“I know,” Yolanda said.
And that was the crux of it. Facts didn’t matter. Reasonability didn’t matter. In the cutthroat world of prestigious international law firms, the partners lived in terror that their high-paying clients would leave them. Hence, the beginnings of talk about Claire and her departure during the apex of the biggest corporate deal for the year for Windsor & Black.
All of her hard work for a decade could spiral down the drain in the span of a few days. She was this close to making partner. But it had hinged on successfully leading Intelligentsia’s billion-dollar acquisition of Einstein Corp.
Claire swallowed. “Are they trying to replace me?”
“Mia Kova? is gunning for your role.”
“She’s not even on this deal!”
“She’s a shark.”
“And she smells my blood in the water.” Claire slid all the way down into the covers. Her computer fell off her lap and face-planted onto the bed.
“Claire?”
She righted the laptop, the camera now showing a close-up of her squished face half blocked by the duvet. “I wish you could run the deal for me.”
“Me, too,” Yolanda said. “But I’m a specialist, not a general corporate maestro like you. They wouldn’t let me helm the Intelligentsia merger even if I begged. I’ll do what I can for you among the partnership, though. Not sure how much they’ll listen, since I’m a brand-new junior partner. But you know that Bill and I will stand up for you.”
Claire closed her eyes, wanting to just go to sleep instead of deal with another problem.
But being an attorney in Big Law meant you had to be “on” all the time. You had to be superhuman, with thick armor to block any emotions that might try to attack you. And she had worked too hard and for too long to lie down without a fight when she was on the cusp of finally grabbing the brass ring of partnership.
She opened her eyes, pushed away the covers, and sat up.
“I guess I’d better log in, then, email Mitch, and catch up on what’s going on,” Claire said.
“You shouldn’t have to,” Yolanda said.
“Agreed. But shouldn’t have to is different from don’t have to. ”