22 November 2011
My lawyer advised me to settle. 'Why did you need to set off the fire extinguisher?' he asked, genuinely curious. 'If you need to ask that question, you wouldn't understand the answer', I explained. I pondered whether a lawyer's life could really be as boring as I pictured it to be.
The previous week I'd caused a scene at Le Meridien restaurant and been asked to pay a significant bill. I had every intention of paying it, but liked to talk to my lawyer at every possible occasion nevertheless.
'Alexander, I'm talking to you.' 'I prefer "Zander"'. 'Since when?' 'Always have.' Sometimes I confused Alice just to find our dinner dates interesting enough to endure.
The fire extinguisher had been a step too far, I could see that now, sat in my lawyer's office in Farringdon.
Truth be told, Lloyd Matthews was only my Tier 1 lawyer. I didn't expose him to my worst misdemeanours. My Tier 2 lawyer was a sleazier and therefore more readily sullied law-bender. I often wondered who sorted out his own legal problems. Perhaps a Tier 3 lawyer. I made a mental note to ask him.
Lloyd waited patiently for me to resume.
(to be continued)
Arbitrage - Part I • Opuss № I