“Honey, I’m sorry. I feel horrible putting you through this.”
“I know, and I feel horrible making you feel guilty when you’re trying to figure this out. I know you’re in a really hard spot. I get it. I really do.” Judy sighed heavily, turning to her, her head inclined. “Is it horrible if I say that I wish this case never came in in the first place?”
“No, that is definitely not horrible. That is what I thought about a million times. I wish they never fired him in the first place, just for my sake. It’s all about me, right? Not my friend who lost his job and his wife. Not his daughter who has cancer.”
“Right.” Judy smiled wryly. “We’re lawyers, so it’s always about us.”
“Exactly.” Mary felt a wave of love for her friend, who understood everything about her, even her weird sense of humor. “We will always be friends.”
Judy swallowed hard. “I know, but it’s different when you don’t work together.”
“No it isn’t,” Mary said gently.
“Yes it is, you don’t see each other as often. You don’t go out for lunch together. You say you’ll see each other but you don’t.”
“We will, we would.”
“You say that.”
“But it’s true.”
Judy sighed heavily. “So you’re really considering leaving.”
“I don’t know, I guess I am. I guess I have to.” Mary hurt inside, and the wrench in her chest was becoming familiar.
“What does Anthony think?”
Mary cringed. “I didn’t talk to him about it yet. I only thought about it in the middle of the night, and he was asleep. I just thought to myself, ‘what if the settlement doesn’t work out,’ ‘what if push comes to shove,’ and here we are.”
Judy pushed her. “You would go out on your own then?”
Mary blinked, getting an idea. “Well, I wouldn’t have to be completely on my own, now would I?”
“What do you mean?”
“Girl. Come with me.”
“Ha!” Judy burst into laughter. “Are you serious?”
“Why not?” Mary said, trying to wrap her mind around the idea. “I have tons of work, Judy. I have a very solid client base. If I have to go, you could come with me. It would be great.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Judy said, putting up a restraining hand. “Mare, are you forgetting? We have been in business together, way back when. Remember when we tried to start a practice after we left Stalling & Webb?”
“Oh, right.” Mary had forgotten, or more likely, blocked it out. “You mean, how our impulsive decision to flee our big firm led us to hang out our own shingle—”
“—and set up shop and wait for a phone to ring? Which it didn’t?”
“Well, look at the bright side, we did a lot of pro bono work.”
Judy grinned. “We could have saved the world. And also starved.”
“Oh, that.”
“Yes, that.” Judy laughed.
Mary got serious. “But that was then and this is now. Times are different. I have business. I don’t have to wait for a phone to ring anymore. In fact, there are days when I don’t answer the phone because I don’t want another case.”
“Really?” Judy’s eyes narrowed, a skeptical Delft blue.
“Honestly. You know how many cases I have, ongoing, right now? Take a guess.”
“Well, twelve active cases is a lot,” Judy began, thinking aloud. “And you need a base of about fifty ongoing cases, whether they are superactive or not.”
“Agreed.” Mary folded her arms, self-satisfied. “So guess.”
“Sixty?”
“Try a hundred and twenty.”
“What?” Judy’s eyes rounded with amazement. “Are you serious? What are the billings?”
“About $1 million a year.”
“That’s as much as Bennie!”
“Tell me about it. It was more than her, last fiscal year.” Mary had been astounded herself, when she realized how much her practice had grown. “And I’m already paying overhead because we split it, so that’s payroll, rent, fixtures of about four hundred grand a year, so I take home three hundred grand after taxes.”
“Wow, I make one hundred fifty.”
“I’ll give you a raise,” Mary said, meaning it.
“You’re serious?” Judy burst into laughter.
“Totally. That’s why my client base is so important, that’s what I tried to tell her. I don’t get the big cases, but I get the volume and they keep coming. Everybody has contract disputes, wills drafted, construction disputes, slip and fall, basic med mal, and now special education, which is a wonderful practice.”
“The stuff you’re doing lately, for kids with special needs?”
“Yes, I love it, and you would too. These kids are not being served, getting the interventions they need, and you get to do some good.”
“Really.”
“You make a difference in a kid’s life, just like Rachel. It’s not a special needs case, but it’s the same feeling for me, inside. You see the good you’re doing. You actually effect change.”
“Really,” Judy repeated, though her tone turned positive, if not excited.
“Yes, and from a business point of view, it’s awesome because in Pennsylvania, if you win a special-education case, your fees get reimbursed by the district. That’s true for the Philadelphia School District and for the suburban school districts. You never have to worry about getting paid. And they pay your going rate. It’s truly doing good and doing good.”
“It sounds win-win.”
“Exactly,” Mary said, getting excited herself. “And how much better is that than no-win? Litigation can be so no-win. Even if you settle, both sides are unhappy; that’s even the mark of a good settlement.”
“Honestly, yes!” Judy brightened.
“Sometimes you get tired of banging your head against a wall, don’t you? Bennie loves to fight, but I don’t. I thought I didn’t like being a lawyer, but that wasn’t right. I just didn’t like practicing the type of law I was practicing.” Mary felt her heart lift, hearing herself say aloud something she’d been thinking for a long time. “And I’m happy now. I’m happy at work for the first time ever.”
Judy’s expression darkened. “So why blow it up?”
“I don’t think of it that way.”
“I know.” Judy made a face. “But everyone else will. Bennie does, Marshall does. I told her, and she started crying. And wait’ll Anne and John get back. They’re going to freak.”
“I know and I hate that.” Mary felt the weight of guilt, but reminded herself of her purpose. “But I have to do what I have to do. Right?”
“Right. So what will I work on, if I came with you?”
“Well, the types of matters I said.”
“How about the special-ed cases?”
“I don’t have a lot of them yet because I’m just starting in the practice and that bar is pretty tight. But I’m starting to get referrals. I feel like in three to five years, that will be the majority of my practice, but it isn’t yet.”
“Are you ever in federal court?”
“Not really, no. There’s more state-court issues, contract issues, or arbitration, and it’s a lot of horse trading. In fact, I don’t really get into court that much. In fact, I avoid it.” Mary could see Judy’s shoulders deflate. “Look, I admit, it’s not really the kind of work you’re used to. But you would like it.”