The morning after Mala and I had gone to the Robertsons, I awoke realizing that we probably should not pose with them. That could be considered sex with a client, which is an ethical violation. I explained my thinking to Mala and Sarah, who both agreed.
Mala called Claire on Monday to explain that we couldn't pose with her and her husband. I wasn't present for the call, but Mala came into my office and said that Claire had taken it very well.
Later that morning, Sarah and I were reviewing several of our most active cases. We were quickly confronted with the question of how the two of us could possibly do everything which we had to do.
After discussing our caseload for about a half hour, Sarah said "we really need to bring someone else in. We're making enough and turning enough away that we could easily pay a top rate for another lawyer."
"Ok, but who can we get who is good and willing to work under our rules?" I asked. "Also, remember that we'd have to bring them in as a partner. As partners, we can all agree to work nude, but we can't require an employee to work nude"
After a few moments of silence, Sarah said "What about Carla? You remember the lawyer from MS&T at the deposition in Florida? I think that she enjoyed her nudist experience. I know that she left MS&T, but I'm pretty sure that she's still in town."
I recalled the tall blonde with whom I had danced nude the evening after her first nude deposition. "She's worth looking into," I said. "I'll call my friend at MS&T to see what I can find out. Why don't you see if she's still in town? If she is, make contact and see whether she would even consider coming with us. No point spending a lot of time on her if she's not interested."
Sarah agreed with that approach. After Sarah left my office, I called a female litigator at MS&T who was an old friend. After the usual preliminaries, we got down to the purpose of my call.
"Carla got a very raw deal here," my friend said. "It was too bad too because she was just hitting stride. I think that she had a lot of potential."
"What was the 'raw deal?'" I asked.
"You put us in a really bad position with that Florida deposition in the trade secrets case. No way were any of the men here who were senior on that case going to show up for a deposition nude. On the other hand, that was such an important witness; we had to show in person. Our client would have gone apeshit if we'd just done it by phone. Carla had the experience to handle that and she stepped up to do it. Now, you'd think that would help her, taking one for the team like that. Nope. My male partners gave her no end of shit after that happened. Bob [the head of MS&T's litigation group] even sent around an e-mail announcing that Carla was going to give on in-house CLE on taking depositions in the nude 'with a live demonstration.' We called him on that one and he apologized, but that is reflective of what she went through here. Understandably, she left. I was really sorry to see her go because she's bright, a self-starter, and easy to work with."
"What do you know of her background? I asked.
What my friend told me sounded impressive: selective small liberal arts college in the Northeast followed by law review at one of the Nation's preeminent law schools. Carla had gotten some big case experience at MS&T and performed well along with being lead on some smaller cases.
"Do you know where she went?" I asked.
"Yes," my friend responded, "she's at Schaeffer. I think that's more than a bit below her level, but she wanted out of here badly and took the first thing she found. Why are you asking? Are you thinking about trying to hire her?"
Busted. I admitted that we were looking to bring in another litigator and that Carla had crossed our minds.
My friend giggled. "You guys still work naked don't you? I don't know if Carla would go for that or not, but it doesn't hurt to ask. I think that you'd be very pleased if you can get her." My friend paused, and then said "She probably looks great with nothing on, too. Of course, you already know about that."
I thanked my friend and ended the call. Shortly afterwards, Sarah reported that she had, indeed, found Carla at the Schaeffer firm and that Carl had agreed to meet her for much in a couple of days. I temporarily put the recruitment issue aside and went back to trying to make a living.
Sarah's lunch with Carla went well. Carla was, very tentatively, interested in talking to us. At this point, we brought Mala into the conversation. Mala was fine with bringing Carla in as a partner if we could get her. The mechanics of getting her warranted some discussion.
"We should bring her over here to interview with all three of us," Mala said. "That raises the question of whether we do the interview nude or clothed."
Sarah interjected, "I think that we have to be nude. That is how we work and, if Carla isn't comfortable with that for an hour or two, how could she work here?"
"Good point," Mala acknowledged. "Next question: do we ask Carla to get naked for the interview? Can we even do that?"
"I don't think we can require her to be nude for the interview," I said. "In fact, I'm uncomfortable saying that we'd prefer that she do the interview nude."
Again, Sarah made our decision: "Well, we won't say anything about her being nude or clothed. She undoubtedly knows that we work nude here. If she's truly interested, she will have the good sense to undress on her own."
