A Sad Tale

There is a man, a lawyer in his mid-thirties probably, but he looks older. He is slightly overweight and he is losing his hair. He wants to get back in shape at some point, but every time he looked at his receding hairline and progressively growing midriff in the past ten years he said to himself: "I don't have time. I work too hard. Once I make partner it will be different." Last year the partners at his medium-sized law firm in Manhattan decided that he was not ready to be one of them. He is still holding out hope though; if only he could prove that he is the most zealous, most hardworking, most eager, most everything - then they would let him be one of them.

Another deal - another chance. It is 9:30 pm, he gets some documents from the other party's lawyers. Those lawyers annoy him. One of them (a guy barely older than him) is a partner. He thinks that this partner is not nearly as good as him. The other one is some young woman with a foreign name he can't pronounce. He does not like to talk to anyone other than partners, he thinks that is a waste of his time. The previous night this woman called him and there was a baby crying in the background and he could tell she was not fully listening to him. How unprofessional, he thought.

After getting the documents, he reviews them. This is NOT ACCEPTABLE! - he says it outloud. His client will be very happy with him if he pushes back, but they also wanted to close the deal that day. By now it is 11:20 p.m. He MUST do something. He leaves messages to the other partner, even the young woman lawyer. He can't get through to anyone. He feels like the fate of the deal now rests on his shoulders. He sends documents to the other lawyers, their client and his client at 1:05 a.m. He wants a response as soon as possible. Then he sits and waits. 10 minutes pass by. He researches some hair growth products on the internet. 45 minutes pass by. No response. Nobody truly cares but him. He feels lonely and unappreciated. At around 2:00 a.m. he gives up and decides to go home. He sends a last email with his cell phone number and instructions that in any case there should be a call FIRST THING in the morning.

He is up at the crack of dawn. It was a restless night. He kept listening for the buzzer of his blackberry hoping that someone, anyone would acknowledge him. He ends up getting out of bed and checking it at 7:00 a.m. Nothing. He goes to the office. A couple of hours later he finally gets an email from his client, but it is addressed to everyone. The call does not happen till 11 a.m. so he is aware that to the others it might seem like his late night emails and phone messages had been in vain. This makes him uncomfortable for a moment, but then he brushes away those thoughts and assertively marches in to the office of a junior associate he never particularly liked to give him some proofreading to do for the Labor Day weekend.