“For our first argument—that Pierre called John to make the trade—we have the phone records as evidence. Mohan, were you able to get the recording of John’s call to his analyst Mike relaying that Pierre had just called him to make the trade?”

“Yes, yesterday,” Mohan said, a fifth-year associate on the case.

“What does it say?”

“It matches exactly what John told us in his interview.”

“Excellent. That’s huge,” Audrey said.

“For the second argument, everyone please look for a written authorization by Pierre. And continue to tag any documents showing that a higher level of supervision is being exercised over the account to ensure the trader makes appropriate trades on behalf of the client. Also, let’s do a thorough review of prior trades to find out Pierre’s trading history. Is he himself a risky trader? We want to argue that this trade was not excessive, consistent with past trades, and appropriate for Pierre. Mohan and Marcia, can you work with our expert witness on that?”

They nodded yes.

“Any emails or other documents in any way related to Pierre should be tagged. I still question why Pierre destroyed a twenty-year family friendship for a $200,000 trade, especially since I believe John that Pierre was the one who wanted to make the trade.”

“Two hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money,” Colette said.

“For me, yes, but Pierre’s a multi-millionaire. Hasn’t he had trades go bad before? Maybe we should look for that,” Audrey said.

“Would that actually help?” Colette asked. “Wouldn’t that hurt us because it would show that he has lost money on trades before and not sued?”

“That’s true,” Audrey said. “But we should be prepared for that argument in case the plaintiff raises it.” She looked at her notes. “Marcia, you were running some French news searches to see if there’s any talk of Pierre being in financial difficulties. Anything?”

“No,” Marcia said. “It seems to be the opposite. His company’s about to invest in some huge deal.”

“Are you seriously spending time trying to find another motive for his suit?” Colette asked. Audrey flushed. Mohan looked at Marcia with raised eyebrows. Audrey could only imagine what Genevieve was thinking.

“Yes,” Audrey said evenly. “If it is Pierre’s word against John’s, then it helps if we can find another motive, because that might impact Pierre’s credibility to our benefit. A jury might be less likely to believe him over John.” Winnie looked like she wanted to add something, but Audrey gave a tiny shake of her head, indicating not to get involved.

Colette raised her eyebrows. “You shouldn’t be using Marcia for that. She’s more valuable doing legal work, not following some hope that this is a soap opera drama.”