Supersonic

by Anouschka Zagorski

  “Agreed - many thanks for the reminder. Can I do anything else for you, Chloé?”

  “Yes. It’s about the waiver letter I gave you.”

  “I just sent it to you.”

  I checked my inbox. Jerome’s email had arrived a minute ago. I quickly read through the draft. “Great, thanks! That looks good - we can send it like this to the client at AB Bank with a short cover note.”

  “I’ll do that on your behalf. Are you going out for lunch?”

  “Yes. Jessica asked me to join her. I’ll be back in about an hour.”

  “Fine. See you later.”

  I hung up and checked my watch. 12.45. The girls would still be at school. I would not be able to reach them until late afternoon. I swivelled around on my chair and looked at the silver picture frames I had placed on the shelves behind me. Two little girls with laughing faces looked back at me. I started welling up. I missed them so much every minute I was away from them. How could I even consider handing them off for the weekend? I would manage to get the draft contract to Tracey in time. I sniffed and placed the frames on my desk so that the photos were now visible from the outside through the glass door. If Tracey passed by she would be able to see them. Just to ensure the message was clear.

  * * *

  Jessica was waiting by the lifts together with two young men wearing grey suits. She introduced me.

  “Chloé, this is David Byrd, my fiancé - I believe you already met briefly on your department tour this morning - and this is Mike Jones. He works with Frank Smith who was just made partner. He is involved in most of Tracey’s real estate finance deals, so we work together quite a bit.”

  We exchanged niceties and got into the lift. I looked them over inconspicuously. Their appearance was nearly identical - both had very short hair and wore round horn-rimmed glasses. The one Jessica had introduced as Mike was taller than her fiancé David. Like Jessica they were in their late twenties or thirty at most, which made them ten years my junior. That feeling of being in the wrong place arose in me again. Should I not be at lunch with Tracey or with my friend Patricia’s husband, Michael Stone who was also a partner in the banking group and whose office was a few doors down from mine? But nobody had asked me. Something was wrong.

  Mike led us into the nearest steak restaurant. I would have preferred sushi or a spicy Asian noodle soup but if you are the new kid in town you should first follow the others. Follow and observe. On our way Jessica had told me her life story. She was from Connecticut and had a German father. After finishing her law degree at Yale she came to Frankfurt to study German finance law. That was where she met and - as she embellished - fell in love with visiting professor David Byrd. He worked in the banking department of Pratt & Wonkey and organised a summer internship for her. At the end of the four weeks P&W offered her a full-time job - “naturally” at a lower salary than the European junior lawyers as she was “only” a U.S. qualified lawyer. When she hesitated, because she also had an offer from the well-known New York firm Rosenblatt, Weinstein & Stiller, David made her an offer she could not refuse: He proposed to her. She said yes and went back to the U.S. to sort out her working visa. Once in New York, she headed directly to Tiffany & Co. and purchased, with her parents’ credit card, a one-carat diamond engagement ring. A ring, which she had already decided upon at the tender age of thirteen.

  “Of course David reimbursed me afterwards - it wasn’t very romantic but it was so much cheaper than buying it here!” She proudly stretched out her left hand, displaying a shiny Lucida diamond ring and blew a kiss to David who had turned around upon hearing his name.

  “Oh wow! It’s blinding - I need my sunglasses!” I joked.

  We took the nearest unoccupied table. The others, even Jessica, ordered steaks with potatoes. I glanced at her in wonder. She was very slim. She noticed my look.

  “Actually I have to eat heartily otherwise I get too skinny.”

  “Lucky you!” I looked around and spotted the salad bar. “Oh good - I think I’m going to go for the salad.”

  “So, Chloé, where did you work before P&W?” Mike asked while we were waiting to order.

  “I was at Solomons for five years. I helped to build the banking practice, especially in the area of asset finance - you know, financing aircraft, ships, trains and so forth.”

  “She was a banking partner and is supposed to succeed Tracey next year! Then she will be my boss!” Jessica added with enthusiasm.

  “And how come you are only an associate now?” David asked.

  “Well, initially, I was actually discussing Partnership with P&W, then a position as counsel - for some internal political reasons neither were possible at this time,” I replied. “That then turned into the package senior associate with concrete partnership prospects. Tracey is supposed to show me the ropes for a year until she moves back to London so that I can take over afterwards.”

  David frowned. “Aren’t they planning to move house this summer?”

  “Her husband and children are moving next month,” Jessica confirmed. “I guess she’ll commute.”

  “I didn’t know that. Interesting. Wow. I couldn’t be separated from my children - I’d go crazy! But then I guess she’ll follow her family soon.”

  “You’ve got kids? How many?” Mike interrupted me.

  “Two girls - Marie just turned five and Noëlle turns eight soon.”

  “Really? How do you do manage that with this job?”

  I raised my hands. “I don’t manage it alone - I have childcare. But I do admit, it’s like juggling: As long as all the balls stay in the air it somehow works.”

  “And your husband?”

  “My hopefully soon ex-husband has moved back to France and only sees the children during their school holidays. We split up two years ago. I have a boyfriend but he has a demanding job himself - he is an Otorhinolaryngologist.”

  “A what?” Mike looked puzzled.

  “Oto-rhino-laryn-gologist: an ear, nose and throat doctor. He’s busy running his own surgery, so he can’t take any time off to allow me to work. It is up to me to figure out how to manage being a working mum. But I am used to it - I didn’t stay at home for very long after they were born and I’ve always worked full time.” I took a fork full of lettuce.

  David added, chewing: “Except that full time in our job means day and night! You don’t get to be a Partner without working your butt off.”

  I started to shift uncomfortably on my chair. This started to sound like an interrogation.

  “Yes, that’s true, of course. To be honest, I don’t know either how I manage or have ever managed. It’s hard and I am constantly sleep deprived but, somehow, it works. Maybe I am just a bad mother.” My attempt at humour worked as they all laughed. But it wasn’t a joke. Trying to cope with all my duties, both at work and at home, never seemed possible and it seemed that something always slipped.

  “However, I just spent several months on sabbatical where I had a lot of time with my children, that was fantastic. Although, I must admit, I did start to miss work after a while!” That prompted some more laughter. “The girls are at school until mid afternoon so there isn’t that much quality time during the week anyway. Our weekends are sacred though.”

  “Oh dear,” Jessica sighed. “I don’t think I have had a weekend off since I joined Tracey’s team.”

  “I am not surprised.” I gave her an account of Tracey’s instructions regarding the amendment of the AB Bank loan agreement. Mike and David took the opportunity to discuss the latest news on the impending football world cup, which, maybe unsurprisingly, they were more interested in than the moaning of a single mother.

  Jessica was horrified. “What? I thought I was going to have to do that! I was with her in the conference call, with the client, and before he could say anything she offered to have the draft ready on Mo
nday. The client said mid-week would be fine but she insisted. But that’s so silly! It’s a job for a junior lawyer plus you haven’t even started properly yet!”

  “I know. But she asked me, so I’ll do it. I did the waiver letter, too.”

  “No - that’s ludicrous!”

  “I’m telling you, and I got it back with every word moved to a different place.”

  “That’s normal - Tracey always does that to my work. But in your case I would have thought she wouldn’t check at all!”

  “What can I say? I guess we need some time to get to know each other.”

  Jessica frowned. “Still, it’s weird. Look, just send me an email if you need any help at all. I check my blackberry regularly over the weekend - firstly, because Tracey expects that and secondly, we have several clients who work on Sundays.”

  “That’s really kind of you. I should be able to manage, but it’s good to know.”

  I felt grateful for her solidarity. But something felt wrong. It started to dawn on me that this job was quite different to what I had expected and, to a large extent, had been promised. I could either leave or make the best of it.

  I was annoyed with myself. How could I have let this happen?

  2. Indecent Proposal

  “Thank you for coming, Ms. Krakowski.” Dr. Richard Keel, Managing Partner of Pratt & Wonkey (Germany), greeted me at the door to the conference room. He led me inside and waved his hand in the direction of four people sitting on the far side of a large conference table. “I guess you know Michael Stone and Gunther White, and these are Tracey Taylor and Francis Mayer. Tracey heads the English banking law team and Mr. Mayer is head of real estate finance.”

  I made my rounds, shaking each person’s hand with a polite smile and took the chair on the opposite side of the conference table. Indeed, I already know the first two gentlemen.

  I had met Michael Stone ten years before as an associate in the Frankfurt office of Howard Hewitt, the largest law firm in the UK at the time, and now, in the world. Somewhat stiff and grumpy at first, he turned out to be reliable and collegiate, with an intelligent sarcasm and a dry sense of humour. I had been all the more surprised when he unerringly and confidently started to court Patricia, a lively, somewhat naïve and party-loving Irish secretary. He got her pregnant within a few months and, finally, the week before the birth of their first son, married her at a short registry office ceremony in her home town of Limerick in the southwest of Ireland - at which he spent all night drinking whisky with his jovial father-in-law. Patricia O’Reilly - pronounced Pet-ri-sha, not Puh-tree-see-ah - had become a good friend and favourite drinking mate of mine shortly after my arrival in Frankfurt. Both single and new in town, we went on a discovery tour of the bars and their male patrons. Like me Patricia was fond of having one or two cocktails too many but as she could not hold her drink, I regularly had to take her home. The next morning she would show little remorse, quiz me to ensure that she’d done nothing that she would be too ashamed of (which was usually the case) and be ready to make plans for the next night out. Therefore, it was, not least to herself, a surprising reversal of fortune that less than one year later she, of all women, was the wife of the conservative lawyer Dr. Michael Stone, who wasn’t at all her usual surfer and ski instructor type. Ultimately she was grateful to have someone who, as she said, kept her on the straight and narrow and who made her feel secure. She could have easily ended up unhappy with some random tennis coach.

  “Would you like some water?” Michael Stone pulled me back from my thoughts.

  “Yes, please. Thank you.” I gave Michael a conspiratorial smile. He ignored it. It had primarily been his doing that I had been invited to this interview.

  While Michael got up to get another water bottle from the sideboard, and the others passed around the coffee pot, I looked at Gunther White. He was in charge of Asset Finance - my area of expertise. I had encountered him in the past as opposing counsel on transactions or at industry-sponsored conferences. He seemed to be an unassuming man who neither exuded the air of, nor tried to look like, a partner in a big law firm. On the other hand, all three men present had one thing in common: they wore ill-fitting suits and unimaginative ties. They also looked a bit crumpled - as if they had been working all night and had not been home to take a shower and change clothes. The dark circles under their eyes confirmed my impression.

  In contrast, Tracey looked neat in her starched white blouse. She was not wearing any visible make-up. Her skin had the sort of pink shade of pale that would probably never tan. She wore her strawberry blonde hair in a plait. Large grey pearl earrings dangled from her slightly protruding ears, which emphasised her Buddha-like earlobes. She scrutinized me with her pale blue eyes, their blonde lashes hardly visible through her narrow steel-rimmed glasses. I had noticed her looking me up and down initially and sitting down very quickly after greeting me. She was shorter and rounder than me and even though I was only wearing plain black Chloé palazzo pants, a short black Chanel-style jacket (a brilliant item from Zara) with a white Petit Bateau T-Shirt and black Jimmy Choo slingbacks, I could sense her discomfort. Maybe I should have chosen differently to the limited edition Louis Vuitton Vienna handbag, but it was the only black bag I possessed. Also, it gave me that extra bit of confidence that women have when they own such a desired object. In order to achieve that purpose, men spend even more money - on the golden Montblanc fountain pen, the newest Rolex watch, the Porsche.

  Tracey cleared her throat.

  “Thanks for coming, Chloé. I understand you have just taken a year out after having been partner at Solomons for nearly five years. I think we would like to understand the background to this?”

  “Yes, of course. There are actually two questions. One is why I left Solomons and the other is why I took time out. As for Solomons I was quite happy there, at first, and built up my practice from scratch within a relatively short period of time but then the management changed and I got very frustrated with the internal politics. As for the time out, that decision was a personal one. My husband and I separated and that was very hard for my children. I wanted and needed to look after them. Whilst it was, I admit, perhaps not the cleverest decision, from a career perspective, it certainly was a good one as far as my children are concerned.”

  “I can sympathise with that,” Keel interjected. “And it is very admirable. The good thing is you still have your reputation in the legal market and that is exactly what we appreciate here.”

  I rewarded him with a smile. “I agree - my time out did not make much difference. Firstly, I stayed in touch with my most important business contacts and secondly, last year was a quiet one for the asset finance market so I have not missed any big transactions.”

  “That is correct,” White nodded. “Our team has been busier on real estate financings than on aircraft financings. Furthermore, the number of film financing transactions, which is also part of Ms. Krakowski’s expertise, has dwindled since the introduction of the new media funds laws. These investment fund structures were lucrative for the investors as they enabled substantial savings on their tax bill. Sooner or later the tax authorities were bound to put a stop to those.”

  “Yes, unfortunately!” I added. “That was an incredible deal flow!”

  “Then I do not quite understand what type of work you intend to do here,” Francis Mayer commented. I looked at him properly for the first time. Despite his comment, he did not seem hostile. He had asked the question with honest astonishment.

  Michael beat me to it.

  “Ms. Krakowski is to replace Tracey when she returns to London,” he explained impatiently. “This saves us having to get expensive secondee partners from London every few years. She is a German national and an English qualified lawyer with over ten years’ experience in the German market and all kinds of banking transactions. This is perfect for us.”

  “Well, that�
��s nice. I am the head of the banking department here in Frankfurt and I am only now being informed of this,” Mayer replied.

  “If you read your emails, Mr. Mayer, you would have known about this for quite a while,” Michael quipped.

  “Do not worry, Mr. Mayer,” Keel reassured, shooting a glance at Michael. “Of course all decisions require your consent - there is no question about that. I must admit though, to my shame, that I have not read your CV, Ms. Krakowski. Could you please summarise your professional career for us?”

  The tension created by the verbal exchange between Mayer and Michael subsided noticeably. Apparently Keel was used to mediating between them. Michael leaned back in his chair, folding his arms and biting his lips. Mayer raised his eyebrows and looked out of the window. Tracey was busy typing an email on her blackberry with her thumbs. Only Keel and White smiled at me encouragingly.

  “I will try to be concise,” I replied, and meant it. It was a long and unusual story. It is a well-known interview technique to let the candidate talk. On the other hand, all lawyers love the sound of their own voice. I wanted both to sell myself as well as possible and to give those present plenty of opportunity to talk. I took a sip of water from the glass in front of me and began: “I studied two years’ German law when I finished school before moving to London University for the undergraduate law degree course. After that, I did a postgraduate degree in Oxford, followed by Bar School. When I was called to the Bar, I got a pupillage and then tenancy in commercial chambers in the Middle Temple in London. Two years later, I moved to Frankfurt to work at Howard Hewitt in the Asset Finance and Banking department. That is where I met Dr. Stone.” I turned to Michael who nodded slowly. Then I looked at the other four each in turn to see if I still had their attention.

  “Five years later, I was offered non-equity partnership at Howard Hewitt,” I continued. “At the same time I received the partnership offer from Solomons to build their banking law practice in Frankfurt. I decided to accept that offer as I regarded it as a greater challenge and a unique opportunity to do things in my own way. After two years, I became an equity partner at Solomons. Three years after that, I left Solomons, took some time out and, now, here I am.”