Hunter handed the copy to Audrey, and she skimmed it. She said, “It’s in a different circuit, so it might not serve as precedent.”

“The court will look to it as the most recent discussion of the issue,” Colette said.

Audrey checked the date. It had been decided Friday. It wasn’t as bad as two weeks. She hadn’t checked for any case decisions over the weekend. The Malaburn and the Popflicks cases had kept her busy, and she’d had dinner with Jake. It was critical to know about the case, but now their legal argument was weaker. And she should’ve known about the case. She was falling behind. She couldn’t fall behind. So, she should be grateful for Colette’s help.

“We’ll have to see if we can distinguish the facts of that case from John’s situation,” Audrey said. “That’s the basic summary of the John Rothman case. We are confident we can defeat their class action motion because the facts for each broker’s case differ.”

“The courts have been pretty liberal in granting class actions lately. An article in the New York Law Journal highlighted the changing trend,” Colette said. More bad news. Well, she’s a Debbie Downer. Colette was really on top of this.

Audrey had not been aware of that trend, but she said, “Overall, we’re fairly confident that we’ll be able to show different facts. We definitely want to distinguish these cases because the plaintiff may be right in the James case.”

“Really?” Colette asked.

“In that case, plaintiffs allege that the broker was making unauthorized trades to increase his commissions. The Hen compliance department is investigating, but initial reports are not good.”

Colette raised an eyebrow and wrote more notes. Hunter’s assistant popped her head in to let him know that a client was on the line with an urgent matter. Hunter wrapped up the meeting.

The two women stepped out into the hushed hallway. Audrey hugged her binder to herself and looked up at Colette. Colette met her gaze as if appraising her.

“That was a quick run-through,” Audrey said. “Do you have any questions?”

“No,” Colette said. She said it quickly as if she didn’t allow herself questions.

“Well, then,” Audrey said, “the team meeting is every Tuesday, although we get together all the time. We just did the first document pull from the three brokers’ offices, so we’re all reviewing it now. I was about to review archives and electronic storage records, but I’ll leave that to you now.”

“Yes, I’ll handle that.” Colette turned to walk towards her office, but looked back over her shoulder. “Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?”