Trial of an Experienced Lawyer!

The pure blood continued his search for that proverbial grape fruit after his first brush with an interview. In the process his meticulous research and par excellent timing landed him with another interview. This time the opportunity was with a smaller office of arguably the second best law firm of this country.

 

Having learnt his lesson from the earlier experience, he was careful to dot the i’s and cross t’s and scan every comma, semi-colon and full stop before taking the final print. The almost endless printouts in the waste paper bin, evidence of the high degree of precision in his presentation, were enough to raise a mini environmental concern. With the final print on bond paper, he could wipe the sweat off his brow.

 

On D-day, there was torrential downpour soon after the pure blood got into the public bus. Although he thanked his stars that his clothes were saved, nonetheless the bumper to bumper traffic was slowly getting on his nerves. The half hour journey had prolonged to more than an hour, what with the waterlogged roads and endless vehicles - he wondered what the government was doing to fulfill its election promises of clean drains and widening of road space for smooth travel. When his stop was approaching he was horrified at the knee deep water on the road. Some part of his mind which was still calm tried to explore workable solutions. Just then he spotted an empty auto rickshaw a little ahead where the water level seemed much lower. He gathered all his vocal strength and hailed it (the passenger beside him jumped in utter shock!). In a flash the pure blood was off the bus and had hopped into the auto with very minimal damage to his immaculate attire.

 

The auto carried the pure blood to the relative safety of the prospective firm’s office, which took some time to be located, considering the not so friendly neighbourhood coupled with the inclement weather. Once protected from the natural ‘calamity’, he took out his wrist watch from this waist pocket. He could not believe what he saw – nothing short of a man-made ‘calamity’ to him. He was not only behind time, not 5 or 10 minutes, but 45 minutes beyond the scheduled time. For a few seconds he froze, but fortunately regained his composure and decided to go ahead and still give it a shot.

 

He slowly pushed open the heavy glass door and entered. With his voice quivering a bit, he informed the front desk his name and purpose. The middle-aged sharp-looking bespectacled receptionist gave him a surprised look and his heart sank. ‘Not sure if you’re lucky, Mr. so and so (interviewer being a partner) has not yet returned from his morning meeting’. The simultaneous feeling of disbelief and relief made a weird combination on his countenance. He was asked to wait in the adjacent library.

 

As the thunderstorm raged outside, with every passing minute the pure blood’s anxiousness slowly began to show on his expressive face. He grew restless as minutes turned to hours. After 2 hours and a couple of inquiries for any message regarding his interview, the receptionist at last ushered him to the partner’s room.

 

The relatively young looking partner’s volley of questions was directed towards the pure blood’s general legal knowledge. It was turning into more of bookish knowledge until he was asked to apply them to the transactions captured in his CV. This was also not difficult as the pure blood’s high natural curiosity had ensured his application skills were considerably sharpened.

 

Impressed with the pure blood’s interaction, the partner referred him to the other partner in that office, the senior and more thoroughbred of the two. With a tinge of excitement bubbling within him, the pure blood followed the partner into the senior’s room. There was a brief introductory discussion after which the junior partner left softly closing the wooden door behind him.

 

The senior grilled the pure blood on all aspects of the work done by him. He further went on to explain the kind of work which their office primarily handled. Slowly the monologue veered towards whether the pure blood’s past experience would match or even supplement the firm’s current areas of practice. This was the question the pure blood had been preparing for quite some time, since he was aware that he was aspiring to move into a new area of practice and he may not have the advantage of his past experience. He made a strong pitch on his ability to quickly grasp new things as well as his high adaptability level. Moreover the fact remained that he had worked hard to equip himself with legal knowledge and had sufficient experience to deliver in his current firm. Further, to his credit, as a fresher he had no past experience and had learnt it all on the job! So he was prepared to do it all over again and perhaps put in more effort. The senior seemed convinced since the interaction went into deeper aspects and continued for close to an hour (generally considered an indication of the level of interest of the interviewer).

 

The pure blood was out in the open after almost 4 hours, the rain had stopped, water level had receded although rumbling of thunder could be distantly heard. Carefully avoiding the little puddles and the slush of passing water on the sloping roads, he made his way to the nearest bus stop. Throughout the return journey to his temporary residence he kept reflecting on the day’s various discussions, questions, answers, trying to gauge the impression of his interviewers from the various changing expressions as the interview progressed. Although he didn’t want to count his chickens before they hatched, he felt much better to conclude that he definitely stood a bright chance to make it through.

 

It was a week later that the pure blood received a response from the junior partner. The one line response read ‘We are happy to try you for a period of three months on a salary of .... per month.’ The bolt from the blue left him speechless and rooted to the spot for what appeared to be eternity.