Junior Year Box Set

I called most everyone and talked to each of them for less than a minute. The simple message was: ‘leave Pam alone, and Mona’s having a party Saturday night.’ Well, she hadn’t actually confirmed that she would, but I had volunteered her house. I was sure her parents wouldn’t mind. The one person who didn’t answer their phone was Yuri. I left him a message that warned him if he acted like a little jerk, Tracy would Tase him. I made a mental note to have someone remind him but got busy doing working off my to-do list.

The next item on my agenda was to go to Tom’s office and make phone calls under Frank’s supervision. I started with all my moneymaking ventures. Kendal gave me a full list of names, and I sat in the conference room and talked to every one of them. I was happy to see that all the firms I represented were comfortable with me, for now. Dakora and Jade warned me that I had a clause in my contract that if I were charged, they could cancel it. I had Kendal confirm that and passed the information on to Don Rigby and Roy Thompson. I knew for certain that their primary interest was making money. If Cal shot the golden goose, they would take a hit financially.

After I made those calls, I’d had enough of playing nice. I stepped into Ms. Dixon’s office to talk to her. I explained what I thought had happened with the letters that were sent out, and why I thought the contact information for the recipients had to have come from Rigby, Thompson and Associates’ files. I also explained the potential for me to lose income because of it.

“If we can prove that Cal Bell used company resources to hurt your business, we’ll have a major case against them. The problem is finding proof. I suspect they have a file or folder for each client on their server. Where I work, there’s software that shows who has accessed a file. The weakness in this kind of system is if there are hard copies of your records in the office. If that’s the case, they could be copied, and no one would be the wiser.

“As a client, you can demand to see who’s accessed your information. If they refuse, we can get a court order. At that point, I’d say your relationship will be severed, and you’ll get no further cooperation,” Ms. Dixon warned me.

“What should I do?” I asked.

“I would meet with them. If you want me to represent you at the meeting, I’d be willing. I think if they aren’t careful, they’ll have more problems than allowing Mr. Bell to access your information. This is a non-waivable conflict of interest. Mr. Bell should be ‘walled off’ from the rest of the firm,” she said.

“What do you mean by that?”

“In my opinion, Rigby, Thompson should require him to leave the office, remove his access to the computer network and physical files, insist on no contact with any attorneys of the firm, and provide him a separate paralegal who’s also not allowed any access.

“Where I work, we sign a contract that explicitly says that I can be terminated for what it appears Cal has done. The reason they need to do this, from a business perspective, is the serious consequences involved. Failure to protect your interest will result in professional misconduct charges being brought against the firm and/or Mr. Bell. It’s worse for someone who knowingly breached the precautions set in place. I know it’s common sense, but this kind of thing happens more than you think.

“They’re playing with fire here. It’s common to see attorneys who fail to protect their clients’ interests in situations like this suspended, fined or, in the worst cases, permanently disbarred from the practice of law, on top of sanctions such as dismissal of the case. Then the fun begins. Once they’ve been sanctioned, you file the civil suit. Of course, by then you’ve been damaged. It would be better for them to get their house in order,” Ms. Dixon said.

“How should we proceed?” I asked.

“That’s up to you, but I would suggest you let me have a private word with them before we burn any bridges,” she said.

“Can you give them a time frame, so that no more of my information is used against me?” I asked.

Ms. Dixon gave me a smile only a lawyer can. I felt the hairs go up on the back of my neck and was suddenly glad to have her on my side.

“I’ll let you use your best judgment,” I said, and she just nodded.

I gave her Bo’s phone number and address so she could follow up with him and went back to making calls.

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