His secretary allows me to pass through with a “he’s expecting you.” His office is the only one in the firm that puts mine to shame. Straight out of a movie set, he had his walls finished with mahogany paneling and a large chandelier dangles from the ceiling. A boar’s head hangs on the wall, a trophy from a recent hunting trip in Texas. This was with his big oil lobbyist friends to ensure that despite my defending Senator McCallan he was still in their corner. Needless to say, I wasn’t invited. The wall behind me has photos of him with every significant politician over the past two decades. Bushes, Clintons, Obama, you name it.

Two full walls of his office are floor-to-ceiling windows, tinted to his own specific requirements. He is not a fan of leaving his office, so he also has a twelve-person conference room table, bare bones as can be. No conference phone, no flat screen display for a computer: he runs his meetings old-school. If it can’t be solved with a pen, paper, and a sharp tongue, then it isn’t worth him getting involved.

“You wanted to see me, Kent.”

“Yes, Sarah, please take a seat.” He motions to a chair in front of the desk he sits behind.

“What’s up?” I say, trying to keep it casual, which I know he hates.

“Yes, well your recent behavior and performance here at the firm have been… erratic, to put it mildly. You come and go as you please, you don’t return calls, you miss meetings. Have you forgotten that as a named partner you don’t have the luxury of focusing on one case, one client at a time?” He ends with what sounds like a rhetorical question, yet he will make me answer it anyway. One of his many charming habits.

“No, Kent, I have not forgotten. It’s just that I am defending my own husband in a murder trial and as you can imagine—”

“That would be quite the conflict of interest? Cause you a tremendous amount of distress and distract you from your job? Yes, yes, I can imagine that. Which is why I wish you would have run it by me first.” He is in full father mode.

“You know with our agreement that I don’t have to run cases by you unless it is a corporate interest that conflicts with one of your clients. This is not a corporate case, and thus I am clear to take it as I see fit.”

“Yes, you certainly did have the right to do that. But the question is, should you have done it? You don’t think this might concern me as well? The other named half of the firm blowing off her duties, making us look unstable and flighty, anything but professional.”

“That was not my intent at—”