Chapter Twenty-six
Four days whirl by in a hurricane of study and reading.
I hedge my bets by selecting three modules instead of just the two I need to complete.
My thinking is that if I struggle with one, the other two will be options for submission.
My HU tutor is concerned that I’m pushing myself, but truly it’s no different from sitting the third year with everyone else.
I request all the reading assignments upfront for the syllabi and a list of written assignments for the term.
I download the lectures from previous years and live attend those that I can from the library office that Dax set up for me.
It all feels like things are back to normal but better, too.
Never have I been able to throw myself wholeheartedly into my learning.
My attention was always on the kids and work and the trouble waiting for me at home.
Studying was the lowest rung on my daily ladder, the one I skipped when the climb was too hard.
Being present makes all the difference and forces me to reflect on just how hard I’ve struggled over the last three years just to stay ahead. It’s a miracle, or a blessing of my weird memory, that I managed to achieve all I did. Admittedly, I’m a little proud.
Something I didn’t expect is the way the law team takes me under its wing.
Or the way they scan my lecture list for the day and take turns sitting in on live ones with me.
They even discuss them afterward, making sure I’ve absorbed the pertinent points, and offer specimens of cases that I can research for a better example of the topics we have discussed.
I don’t know if that is all of them, or if Dax asked for special treatment, but I appreciate it regardless.
Despite being alone in this, I’m not lonely.
“Hey, daydreamer.”
“Sandy!”
“Are you set for the two o’clock?”
I slide my laptop monitor to face us both and remove my headphones, turning up the volume to fill the room. I stand and shut the door so as not to disturb the other offices and then pull out a bag of gummies and two bottles of water from my desk drawer.
“Now I am.” We both laugh, and Sandy opens her bottle and takes a sip. “I didn’t think anyone was coming to this one?”
“Marty got called out and took Godfrey with him. Until he gets back, I’ve not got much to do.”
“Over-achiever,” I fake cough under my fist.
“Look who’s talking, Miss I-remember-everything-I-see.”
“…and hear.”
“Well, screw you too, lucky girl.” She laughs, nudging my shoulder. “If only we were all so fortunate, eh?”
“I know I’m blessed,” I tease, taking a drink.
Motion on the screen makes me sit a little straighter as the lecturer walks in.
Slamming my hand over my mouth and saving my laptop from an impromptu shower, I stare at the man walking to the podium.
Smiling bashfully up at the students and me is Martin Gallagher. Trevainne’s Senior Law Associate.
“Good morning,” he begins, introducing himself, but I’m too busy staring at Sandy for answers.
“Surprise!” she sings, waving her hands in the air.
“Marty’s a lecturer too?”
“Guest speaker. He does this a couple of times a year for Patty. His wife is the head of the course. I thought you knew?” My brain is telling me small world, but that simply suggests that Dax really pulled strings with Marty to get me a HU seat.
Why am I bothered by it? I wasn’t upset with him pulling strings via Dr Demetri.
“What? No! Wait, Patricia Gallagher?”
“Yes.”
“She’s my tutor!”
Sandy laughs, mischief in her eyes as she sympathises. “Well damn. Not sure if I should congratulate you or commiserate with you. Patty is a ball-buster. She’s crushed the brass balls on even the biggest ‘do–you-know-who-my- daddy-is’ nepo babies.”
Doesn’t sound like the woman I know. “She’s been lovely.”
Sandy leans in and shoulders my arm. “Yeahhh, just stay on your game, Jules. She gave me the chills.”
“You went to HU?” I always figured Sandy was from up north. I had no idea she studied at Harrison.
“Yep. Finished my LPC last year and, luckily, got my training contract with Trevainne right out the gate.”
“So, you have the inside gossip on all the professors?”
“Hell no! I’m like you. I collected my assignments and kept my head down. I know the professors who like to make sh—stuff harder on students for poops and giggles, though.”
I laugh. “You can say shit, Sandy. I’m from the Vale. I think I could probably teach you a word or two.”
Sandy shakes her head and grabs for a gummy.
“I’m trying so hard to stay professional.
It’s crazy, but I didn’t notice how much I swore until I got this job and couldn’t, you know?
” She pulls the gummy apart with her teeth, stretching it out.
“Ohhh hold up.” She chews fast and covers her mouth to speak. “Martin’s getting started—”
We settle down and listen to Martin discussing the ins and outs of contract law.
He discusses contractual intention, agreement, and consideration.
From the simplest of contracts (think posters offering compensation for finding a lost pet) to contracts of incorporation, and all the way to contracts governing laws themselves.
He debates Express and Implied Terms and when it’s beneficial to make clauses flexible or ironclad.
The pit falls between Offers and Invitations to Treat and expectations regarding termination or breaches of these contracts.
I listen raptly to the examples he discusses, inviting the other students to weigh in with their theories or interpretations of specific or infamous contractual breaches. I almost wish I were there. By the time he wraps up, my head is full and my notebook empty.
“A bit of a gloss over the key aspects, for sure, but a strong introduction overall,” Sandy critiques. “I won’t ask if you caught it all, but I want to know if you absorbed it. Any questions?” Sandy asks.
“Not really,” I mumble, thinking over the lecture. There was a model that caught my attention, one that seemed remarkably similar to Dax’s situation here at Trevainne. “There is one thing. Marty mentioned an example that got me thinking.”
“Oohkaay?”
“The inheritance of a business. The one where, regardless of it being a family-run business, the governance contract stipulates that the business passes to a nominated person.”
Sandy grins. “You caught that, huh?”
“He was talking about Trevainne, wasn’t he?”
“He was,” she confirms but doesn’t elaborate.
“That’s why Dax runs it now, despite not being a Trevainne.”
“Correct.”
Despite noticing her reluctance to expand into detail, I can’t stop myself from asking for more. “What’s the deal with that? Was it always that way? Did nepotism just win out for years until Dax or…”
“The contract was drawn up and enforced around nineteen years ago when Theodore Trevainne was still in charge. Until then, it had been an eldest son to the eldest son thing.” Sandy leans in and drops her voice to a whisper.
“Now, no one quite knows why he chose to change it, maybe because he only had daughters, but the contract stipulates that the company would pass forward in trust to a nominated successor. The remaining family—uncles, a brother, and so on, put up a fight. Still, the most Theo would bend to their bitching was to create a board of governors to aid in the overseeing of the company. Mostly, they are impotent. They get a stipend payment to attend a couple of meetings a year and get an update on the business’s successes, failures, and upcoming projects.
Their power lies in the ability to veto those projects and demand investigation should they deem the numbers or plans detrimental to the name, ethos, or success of Trevainne.
They cannot hire or fire; they have no access to funds; and they can never assume the position of head of Trevainne.
They’re literally just a means of guidance. ”
“Then why have them at all?”
“They supported Celeste when she took over the helm upon her father’s death. When she refused the company, they stepped in to oversee it until she nominated a new owner.”
“And she chose Dax?”
“She did, but only after changing her mind and taking over herself. She had big plans for this place, and Dax is doing his best to follow them through.”
“So, Dax will leave it to Sylvie when she comes of age or when he finishes what he set out to do?”
Sandy shifts in her chair, standing up and stretching out. She turns her back to me before answering. “I guess so. Something like that anyway.”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
“From what I hear, you’d be more likely to find out the answer to that question than I would.” She points at her chest. “Lowly assistant, remember.”
“Okay, I guess I’ll ask him.”
Her eyebrows shoot upward, but she steels her expression just as quickly. “Any other questions?”
“Not really. Just a thank you for sitting with me today.”
Sandy grins. “Don’t thank me yet, Jules, your first assignment for Marty—should you choose to accept it—is here.” She drops a piece of paper on my desk and waves a quick goodbye before slipping out of the room, presumably heading back to the office next door. I pick up the paper and read it.
Take a standard Trevainne contract and identify any clauses, language, or exceptions that might be a cause for concern, considered flawed, exploitable, or detrimental to Trevainne. For each one you find, offer an alternative/correction, and explain your thinking using examples wherever possible.
Oh, and consider it extra credit.
~ Marty