Falling for the Lawyer - By Anna Clifton Page 0,27
Marie. She clearly adored JP and didn’t care who knew it. And reading Alex’s expression JP gave her a wink out of Marie’s eyeshot, yet he had no idea his tiny gesture was like a blow to her heart.
“So are you back to stay?” Marie pressed.
“At this stage.”
“Now don’t go committing yourself, will you,” she teased. “You’re a hard one to pin down. Although I hear a certain English princess by the name of Caroline almost managed to do it.”
Almost imperceptibly JP flashed his eyes at Alex before switching them away. But his glance had not been fleeting enough to stop Alex nose-diving into burning curiosity about the mysterious Caroline, mentioned once again as an important part of JP’s life.
Marie and JP chatted about the centre, its funding position, who’d moved on and who was still there. Meanwhile, a handful of lone individuals wandered in uncertainly; Marie would smile acknowledgement and ask each one to take a seat in the waiting area. JP asked Marie whether it would be all right if Alex sat in on the appointments.
“Yes, no worries at all. I’ll clear it with the punters first. If they have any issues Alex can come out and have a cuppa with me.”
There was no need for a cuppa though. None of the clients objected to Alex sitting in on the interviews. And for the next two hours she sat next to JP, transfixed as he probed, questioned, advised, lectured and reassured.
Sometimes he would give them legal advice or dictate letters and file notes for the day solicitors to follow through on. But mostly he spent his time skillfully drilling down to the client’s core problems, and often their problems had very little to do with the law.
Alex was impressed. JP’s extraordinary gift for dealing with his staff at Griffen Murphy spilled over into his dealings with the clients at the legal centre too. He was able to put them at ease at once, meet them on their own level and give them advice in a way they were sure to be able to understand and take away with them. In fact he was so natural she was sure the clients had no idea they’d just received advice from one of the country’s top litigation lawyers.
Alex was still pondering that professional side to JP as she sat beside him in his car. He was heading in the general direction of her parents’ suburb according to her directions but at that moment he turned and caught her looking at him.
“What’s up?” he asked gently.
“That was an amazing experience. Thanks so much for taking me.”
“No problem.”
“You don’t really understand how bad things can get for some people until they start telling you their stories.”
“And unless you’re their lawyer or their priest you’re not likely to hear those stories anyway.”
“But the legal issues were often quite small compared to the rest of their problems.”
“That’s the way it is, whether it’s a mum and dad type client or a large corporation. The legal issues always have to be taken in context. If you deal with them in isolation you can do a lot of damage.”
“You were great with those people. You really helped.”
JP gave out a loud guffaw.
“What?”
“I’ve hardly helped them at all. Those poor individuals are so plagued by debt, addictions and violence that nothing I do will have a lasting impact upon them. All you can do is offer them a way forward in the hope they won’t do something rash instead.”
“That’s very cynical.”
“Not cynical, just realistic. You’ve been cosseted like a princess in a tower. You’ve no idea what real hardship is.”
“Just because I’ve never experienced hardship doesn’t mean I don’t care about people who have.”
“I know that. If you didn’t care you wouldn’t have been social justice captain at school. But it can’t end there. You’re out in the big, bad world now and following up on those early instincts is more important than ever. Take Marie for instance. She was the medalist in her year at law school and could have written her own job description in any law firm in the country. Instead she’s sacrificed a huge salary because she wants to help people in trouble.”
“What are you suggesting? That everyone should be helping the poor and down-and-outs on a full time basis?”
“Of course not. That’d be counterproductive. The best thing for the poor in any country is a strong economy fueled by business and backed up with a strong education and social security system.”
“So what are