by David Cooper
“What will you do?” Neeta asked.
“Make the call I was going to make this morning. Pains me to admit it, but I think I’ve got to go legal.”
“Best of luck. I’ll leave you to it.”
Karen reached for her phone and made the call, only to be met with a discouraging message as the voicemail cut in.
“This is Alex Harris. I am now out of the office until…..”
Struggling not to panic, Karen listened to the rest of the message and dialled the mobile number listed on her phone contacts alongside the number for the work landline. This time her luck was in.
“Hello, Karen.”
“Hi, Alex. Where are you?”
“In the departure lounge at Heathrow.”
“Off somewhere nice?”
“South Africa. Two weeks.”
“Lucky you. I really needed your help.”
“Fire away. The flight’s not going to be called for another hour.”
Karen explained as Alex listened. He soon realised how serious the situation could become for Ripple if Avery’s activities went unchallenged.
“I’d be minded to make a formal threat first thing tomorrow, to get something on the record…..”
“Can’t I just take out an injunction?”
Alex winced at what was an all too common misunderstanding of legal process. But he gave Karen the benefit of the doubt. He was not minded to be unduly critical of a client who had become a firm friend with him and his wife Susie after a short lived mutual venture into national politics.
“You have to apply for one. It’s entirely up to the judge. If you ask this Avery bloke to undertake to stop what he’s doing, with good reason, and he ignores you or refuses without good reason, you’ll stand a much better chance of an injunction. That’s why you need to threaten him.”
“OK, I understand that.” Karen paused. “Can you recommend someone to act for me? If you weren’t going off on holiday, I’d want you to do it. You drafted Wayne’s contract.”
“I know just the man. Lennie Rose, at Thornbury and Summerson.”
“Is he any good?”
“I should hope so. I taught him.” Alex quickly explained his long forgotten times at the firm where he had first been admitted to partnership, twenty years previously, before leaving for a better quality of life in a smaller practice. Lennie Rose, the trainee solicitor who had shared the experience of Alex’s most prestigious court action there, had progressed through the ranks and become head of litigation at the only firm he had ever known.
“Thanks a lot. I’ll call him first thing tomorrow.”
“Best of luck. Enjoy your holiday, and give Susie my best wishes.”
“Will do.”
Wednesday 20 th March
Karen was back at her desk at midday, relieved that Lennie Rose had rearranged his morning schedule so that he could see her at ten o’clock. The text message that he had evidently received from Alex on the previous evening, alerting him to the new urgent instruction, had tipped the balance. He had promised to send Karen the first draft of his proposed formal letter to Avery, which would make the threat of court action and set out the full reasons behind it, by four o’clock that afternoon.
Lennie had carefully explained that two crucial legal factors would determine whether Karen ought to be granted an interim injunction to stop Avery poaching her clients, pending a full trial of the dispute. She would have to prove that there was a serious case to be tried, and then in turn that the balance of convenience favoured the grant of a temporary but immediate ban on the poaching.
“How does that work?”
“In broad terms, it goes like this. If you can convince the judge that your restraint clause is fair and reasonable, that’s half the battle won. I’m relieved your contract only says he can’t entice your clients away. That’s a good start for you. It shows how reasonable you were. If you’d tried to stop him representing any candidate who’d followed him of his own free will, I doubt you’d have got anywhere.”
“OK, I’m with you so far.”
“Thanks. So if you do get over that first hurdle, the interests of the established business should defeat those of the new business.” Lennie had dealt with the legal tests on many previous occasions, but was well aware that his new client would need an explanation. “We’ll argue that even if you were awarded damages a year from now, assuming you won the full trial, that wouldn’t be good enough.”
“Why’s that?” Karen asked.
“Because of the damage he could cause you in the short term. If he’s allowed to carry on like this, it’s never going to be put right by money alone in the long term. Not if your best clients had all been enticed away by then.”
“OK. What’s he going to argue?”
“I expect he’ll say that he set his new business up on the assumption that he could trade with anyone. Including your clients. But he signed up long ago to a contract term that stops him doing that. So it’s tough luck for him if the judge slaps an injunction on him until trial. There’s plenty more fish in the sea.”
“Not necessarily in the recruitment business.” Karen spoke from bitter recent experience. “But I take your point. He’s chosen to strike out on his own, so he has to live with any problems of his own making. Anything he hasn’t thought through properly.”
“Exactly. But don’t lose sight of the fact that interim applications are all on paper. Only documents and legal argument. You don’t give evidence in person until the full trial, and nor does he. If he’s going to tell lies, you might not catch him out before the trial.”
They had moved on to address the uncomfortable issue of what it would all cost. Karen had flinched at the inordinate short term expense that litigation would inflict upon her. But she had quickly realised that it was the lesser evil compared to the risk of Ripple being damaged beyond repair as a result of client poaching – ‘this might just be the thin end of the wedge’ – and was thankful that she had chosen to invest most of what she had inherited from her mother’s estate, never once expecting that the small emergencies for which she had tucked the funds away might actually take the shape of a single major emergency.
“And of course it might never come to this, if he sees the sense of giving the undertakings we’re asking for.” Lennie assured her. “Let’s get real. If you’ve only lost two paralegals, and one of them doesn’t have the common sense to check that he’s amended a template properly, you might not be missing out on big fees.”
“Fair enough.”
Lennie proved to be as good as his word. The draft letter reached Karen by mid-afternoon. She could see exactly what had gone into Lennie’s methodical approach. He had outlined how there was only one sensible conclusion to draw. The two paralegals must have defected as part of a concerted plan. The similarity of their termination emails could hardly be dismissed as pure coincidence. As she reached a drafting note that Lennie had included to explain one particular section of the letter, she realised that the suspicions that she and Dawn had harboured on the previous day were entirely justified.
‘Karen, I’ve just looked up the Companies House records for Isabel Dennis Limited. Avery changed its name yesterday, so it’s obvious that it’s all part of his plan. But he didn’t take enough care…’
Karen laughed bitterly as she read on. Evidently Avery had been in such a hurry to change the name of the company to that of his new trading style, via the Companies House online facility, that he had overlooked an embarrassing typing error. The official records of registered companies in England and Wales were now graced with the presence of “Wave Poofessional Recruitment Limited”.
‘I’m sure he’ll amend it straight away. But he’ll kick himself for missing it.’
The deadline that Lennie had set in the final paragraph for Avery’s formal undertaking to ‘cease and desist’, four o’clock on the following Monday afternoon, was as robust as she could have hoped. Karen was all set to reply to Lennie and give him the go-a
head to send the letter exactly as drafted, when she noticed another incoming email. The fact that it was titled ‘Your Restructuring’ left her in little doubt as to what it would contain.
‘Dear Ms Rutherford
I have carefully considered your company’s restructuring, and have decided that my interests in looking for a fresh opportunity are best served by parting company with you and placing my business with a new company, namely Wave Recruitment.
Please do not circulate my CV to anybody else. I am ending our business relationship right away.
Regards
Dale Rider’
Realising straight away that she was looking once more at variations on the same template, Karen’s initial reaction was to slump in her chair and smack her open palm to her forehead. Quickly recovering, she hit the Forward command and typed a covering message to Lennie.
‘Letter’s fine in principle, but there’s another one who’s just jumped ship. Can you work this one in too? Obviously so keen to get shot of me that he doesn’t stop and realise he’s used the word ‘company’ three times in the same sentence. Pathetic. I’m just about to call up his details.’
It was not remotely surprising to Karen, once the details appeared before her, that she had just lost yet another paralegal, this time someone who was looking for work in the residential conveyancing field.
“You bastard, Wayne.” Karen could control her rage no longer, muttering to herself as she forwarded the latest defector’s career credentials to Lennie. “You’ve got a bloody nerve. Biting the hand that once fed you. You’re going to regret this.”
Friday 22 nd March
Avery reached the final paragraph and pursed his lips, as if preparing to spit on the letter, then checked his impulsive reaction and read its closing words once more.
‘Unless we receive the accompanying copy of this letter by 4pm on Monday 25 March, duly countersigned to confirm that you have provided and will abide by the undertakings set out above and will immediately cease to solicit Ripple Birmingham’s clients, no further notice of the issue of proceedings will be given to you. Should it be necessary to commence court action, our clients will be seeking an immediate injunction against both Mr Avery and Wave Professional Recruitment Limited, as well as damages, an account of profits, interest and costs.’
He opened his briefcase and extracted the copy of Ripple’s detailed monthly management accounts covering the preceding period up to the end of February. It had always annoyed him that despite making him a director of the company, Karen had only ever provided him with a brief excerpt of Ripple’s month by month financial information. It did not remotely trouble his conscience that he had recently seized a chance to remove the complete version from Karen’s desk surreptitiously when one of her meetings had overrun, and to photocopy it once Dawn had headed out for her lunch break, before finding another opportunity to replace it undetected.
Reaching the bottom right hand corner of the last page, he grinned broadly.
“You can’t afford to sue me, you silly bitch. Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough.”
He put the letter and the accounts aside, and turned to a far more encouraging item of incoming post. The agents in charge of his intended new business premises, a small suite of rooms in a serviced office block in Brindleyplace, had confirmed that they would be ready for occupation on the Tuesday after Easter, just under two weeks away. Evidently he would be free to start moving in his personal effects as soon as he had signed the licence. He knew that it would not trouble him unduly to work from home until then.
Opening the next envelope, he read the schedule for his newly approved business and commercial insurance policy, and congratulated himself for his foresight in taking out cover for legal expenses, for defending claims as well as making them. Little would Karen know about the practical advantage this would give him, if she did choose to take court action.
But next there was the small task of putting right his embarrassing typing error. He logged onto the Companies House website and downloaded the standard form to notify a corporate name change, and before long his mistake had been erased.
* * * * *
It was a major relief to Paul Craven that his offer letter from Bastable & Co had finally arrived. He had worried endlessly over the previous three days, fearing that Rufus Squire might have had second thoughts. Right up until the letter arrived, he had agonised over whether to call the firm and ask when it would be with him. His fear of doing the wrong thing had prevailed, and he had chosen to let it lie.
‘Further to today’s interview, I write to confirm our offer of employment with the firm, as a legal executive in our litigation department, with effect from Tuesday 2nd April…’
Craven was puzzled by the opening phrase. The letter read as if it had been written on the actual date of the interview, but it was clearly dated 21st March. Perhaps it had been sitting on Squire’s desk and forgotten about, he thought.
‘Your supervisor will be Caroline Shore…’
The sentence only added to his bewilderment. He knew that this was the associate who would shortly be off on maternity leave. And yet Squire had not added any explanation of what would happen once she had left. He made a note to raise the point with Squire when he first reported for duty.
‘We will issue you with a formal employment contract that you must sign on your first day, and we will provide the rest of our new recruits’ document pack on that occasion too. As explained, we are overhauling all of our commercial stationery and standard forms in anticipation of our merger with Lewis Hackett…’
Craven asked himself what might happen if, for any reason, he found any of the contents of the employment contract not to his liking. He made the effort to banish the thought from his mind as he read on.
‘Finally, as requested, please leave all communication with Wayne Avery entirely in our hands. It is important that proper procedures are followed here.
‘I look forward to welcoming you to the firm on 2nd April…’
The warning not to contact Avery still made no sense in Craven’s mind. But he accepted that he should do as Squire had asked, and hoped that the text message he had sent to thank Avery immediately after the interview would not land him in any trouble.
‘CC. Wayne Avery.’
He noticed the very last words on the second page of Squire’s letter, and accepted that they were consistent with what he had just read. He settled down to the task of writing his acceptance letter. Once he had finished the letter and signed it, his thoughts turned to the holiday he had arranged for the pre-Easter week, a solo trip to the English Heritage castles at Scarborough and Middleham in North Yorkshire, which would also provide him with the opportunity to call in at his mother’s nursing home in Leeds.
Slowly but surely, he was beginning to feel more at peace, now that the damaging blow of his redundancy was almost completely healed. Just as long as his inner demons left him alone.
Monday 25 th March
‘Karen,
The deadline’s expired and he hasn’t answered at all. Completely ignored it. Do you want to push the button? I’ve cleared the decks at my end to get everything going as soon as you give me the word.
Regards
Lennie’
Karen had dreaded the news that Lennie’s email had conveyed. A restless weekend had left her well aware that she was caught between a rock and a hard place. She was in no doubt that launching into full blown court proceedings would be both expensive and uncertain, and she fully understood Lennie’s advice that the English courts did not always dispense justice. But the option of meekly turning a blind eye to the cowardly attack on the business she had patiently built up and nurtured for almost ten years was far from attractive.
She reached for a notepad and a pen, and jotted down some random thoughts.
‘Income poor in short term, uncertain in medium term, despite saving on Wayne’s severance.
Debts already becoming more of a burden.<
br />
Do not want to go overdrawn, or start borrowing. Not over three paralegals who I might never have been able to place anyway.
Use the inheritance?’
Ten minutes passed by before Karen sent her reply.
‘Lennie,
I can’t face this at the moment. It’s all too much for me to take on board right now. Let me give it another day’s thought…’
The response came back within ten minutes. Lennie reminded Karen that it was important to show a sense of urgency if she was to stand any chance of obtaining an interim injunction, especially when Avery had chosen to ignore the letter and its deadline rather than ask for time to consider his position.
An hour later, Karen’s phone rang.
“Hi Karen, Fiona Bingham. How are you?”
Karen remembered the new instruction from six days earlier.
“I’m OK, just about. You too?” They quickly finished their exchange of pleasantries and turned to business. “Is the ad good to go, Fiona?”
“Just about. Couple of minor tweaks.” Karen’s advert for a divorce lawyer seeking a new challenge was soon ready for publication. “But that’s not the only reason I called you. What’s going on with Wayne Avery?”
“What do you mean?” For a dreadful moment Karen wondered if she was about to lose a law firm client, over and above the three paralegal candidates.
“I’ve been on the receiving end of one of his mailshots. Most of it’s nothing but hot air. But you’re not going to like how he’s promoting himself at your expense.”
“Go on.” Karen felt a chill.
“He says he’s striking out on his own, after four years as the powerhouse behind Ripple Birmingham.”
“Cheeky bastard. He’s just coasted for the best part of a year. At my expense.”