Sex and the Billionaire Crime Boss

Ch. 9: The Real Deal

"Why now?" I ask him.

My grandfather stares at me across his desk. I don't know why he's stalling. He had to have expected this question.

"Why now?"

"Yes. Why now, after 25 years, did you contact me?"

"I already explained that."

"You sent me two short emails, and we had a brief phone conversation. All I know is that, one, you want this law firm to continue when you are no longer practicing law and you'd prefer that a member of your family carry it forward, and two, my grandmother is dying and apparently wants to reconcile with me." I pause. "Although reconcile is perhaps not the correct word, since I have never even met her. Or you, before right now."

He leans back in his chair, studies me. "You get right to the point."

"Why waste time?"

"I like that." He straightens, and I see determination in his eyes. I don't like it much that I recognize the expression in them, the intensity. I'm not at the point yet where I feel comfortable having anything I am be a reflection of this man. I don't know if I ever will be.

"Hadley, regarding the firm, I'm offering you an opportunity to build a practice in your area of specialty, run that department with autonomy, and, in two years, if you are still here and you want it, I'll make you a full partner. You will own 49% of the firm."

"You retain control."

"It's my firm. I built it." I see a flicker now of not just determination but carefully controlled anger in those eyes.

Actually, I'm taken aback by the number. I was expecting him to try to entice me with an equity share, but a much smaller one than that.

"You have other partners."

He nods. "Contract partners. They have no equity. It helps with retention to reward good work and years of service with the title Partner. It's on their business cards. It gives them credibility with clients, and respect in the legal community."

It's a practice I'm familiar with, and one many of my friends who jumped at the Big Law carrot after law school graduation have bemoaned to me over a few beers. Not everyone gets to be an equity partner these days.

What Andrew Reese is offering me is, as he described it, an outstanding opportunity.

"The thing is," I tell him, "you've put me at a disadvantage by having this meeting with me just hours before introducing me to the entire office at noon today."

"I always put my opponents at a disadvantage."

"You see me as an opponent?"

"I see you as someone who can potentially provide something I very much want. And I'll use whatever tactics I need to in order to get my way."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"So if there are any terms you specifically need to clear the air with before moving forward, now would be a good time to discuss them with me. I assume you came to this meeting prepared."

"I did. Although I would have preferred meeting with you over the weekend in a more . . . informal setting."

"That wasn't possible," he says, without further explanation.

"Fine." I pull my chair closer, and we hash it out. Surprisingly, I get pretty much everything I want. The only place we butt heads a bit is over control of the cases the firm accepts for the new criminal law section.

"Initially, we should accept everything from traffic citations up to serious felonies," I explain. "This will of course include securities fraud and other white collar crimes, and those may end up being where most of our business comes from, given the current practice areas of the firm. We may decide to narrow our focus later, but for now we need to establish a presence in the criminal law arena."