his eyes. “When do I get to start working on the real cases, the ones we opened this practice to handle? We were going to serve Almighty God, not the almighty dollar, remember? And here I am grubbing for greenbacks just to keep the doors open.”
“Is that a long way of saying, ‘Yes, I can keep working on the case’?”
He sighed. “I suppose so.”
C HAPTER F OUR
D ISCOVERY
Ben sat back and looked at the to-do list he had just typed up for the Ivanovsky case. It was depressingly long. Today he had to prepare formal document requests, interrogatories, deposition notices, and the rest of the opening salvo of discovery he would fire at the other side. Anthony Simeon—or, more likely, one of his junior associates—was currently readying the defense’s initial broadside, so tomorrow Ben would need to go through his client’s documents to get a head start on preparing the responses. He also had to subpoena all of American Union’s records about either the box or the Zinovievs.
Hiring a good private investigator was also high on the list. Formal discovery done through lawyers was necessary but not sufficient. It wasn’t unheard of for lawyers—or, more often, their clients—to lie or fail to produce damaging documents. An experienced detective could often catch them in their lies, and that could force quick and favorable settlements.
The PI would have to be cheap as well as good, given the size of this case. Strong connections to the Chicago Russian community were also a must. Finding someone who fit that bill could take a lot of looking.
And all of that was just the first week. Next week there would be depositions to take and defend, documents from the other side to dig through, responses to the defense’s discovery requests to prepare, and more.
Ben went through his list and put a time estimate next to each task. He had at least twenty hours’ worth of work to do this week and thirty-five hours’ next week. It was Wednesday evening, so that meant he would have to spend long days on Thursday and Friday just working on Ivanovsky .
He pulled out his to-do lists for Circuit Dynamics and his other active cases and did time estimates for them as well. Circuit Dynamics was going to take about ten hours of his time this week and twenty next week. His other cases needed around five hours of work before Monday and ten hours or more next week. He put down his pen and ran his fingers through his hair. It took at least thirteen hours in the office to get ten hours of billable work done, so that meant that he would have to work from eight in the morning until after nine at night every day until next Friday. He could handle that, assuming everything went smoothly and there were no surprises, but neither of those were safe assumptions in the practice of law. If something went wrong, he would be in deep trouble.
“What’s up?” Noelle’s voice broke into his deliberations. Ben looked up and saw her standing in his doorway.
“Too much. I was just figuring out how much work I’ve got to do over the next week and a half. It’s not pretty.”
“Will it get better after that?”
Ben thought for a moment. “No.”
Noelle looked down and shuffled her feet guiltily. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Ben was about to say no—after all, she wasn’t a lawyer—when an idea hit him. He raised his eyebrows and smiled. “Actually, there is. What’s your time like over the next few weeks?”
“I’ve got a stack of spreadsheets to go through and I need to update our books, but other than that I’m pretty free. What do you have in mind?”
“You don’t have a law license, so you can’t handle depositions, court appearances, and stuff like that. But there are other things you can do. For starters, you can go through documents and interview witnesses, which would be a big help. You can also help me put together discovery requests. We can bill you as a paralegal at, say, a hundred dollars an hour. It
“Is that a long way of saying, ‘Yes, I can keep working on the case’?”
He sighed. “I suppose so.”
C HAPTER F OUR
D ISCOVERY
Ben sat back and looked at the to-do list he had just typed up for the Ivanovsky case. It was depressingly long. Today he had to prepare formal document requests, interrogatories, deposition notices, and the rest of the opening salvo of discovery he would fire at the other side. Anthony Simeon—or, more likely, one of his junior associates—was currently readying the defense’s initial broadside, so tomorrow Ben would need to go through his client’s documents to get a head start on preparing the responses. He also had to subpoena all of American Union’s records about either the box or the Zinovievs.
Hiring a good private investigator was also high on the list. Formal discovery done through lawyers was necessary but not sufficient. It wasn’t unheard of for lawyers—or, more often, their clients—to lie or fail to produce damaging documents. An experienced detective could often catch them in their lies, and that could force quick and favorable settlements.
The PI would have to be cheap as well as good, given the size of this case. Strong connections to the Chicago Russian community were also a must. Finding someone who fit that bill could take a lot of looking.
And all of that was just the first week. Next week there would be depositions to take and defend, documents from the other side to dig through, responses to the defense’s discovery requests to prepare, and more.
Ben went through his list and put a time estimate next to each task. He had at least twenty hours’ worth of work to do this week and thirty-five hours’ next week. It was Wednesday evening, so that meant he would have to spend long days on Thursday and Friday just working on Ivanovsky .
He pulled out his to-do lists for Circuit Dynamics and his other active cases and did time estimates for them as well. Circuit Dynamics was going to take about ten hours of his time this week and twenty next week. His other cases needed around five hours of work before Monday and ten hours or more next week. He put down his pen and ran his fingers through his hair. It took at least thirteen hours in the office to get ten hours of billable work done, so that meant that he would have to work from eight in the morning until after nine at night every day until next Friday. He could handle that, assuming everything went smoothly and there were no surprises, but neither of those were safe assumptions in the practice of law. If something went wrong, he would be in deep trouble.
“What’s up?” Noelle’s voice broke into his deliberations. Ben looked up and saw her standing in his doorway.
“Too much. I was just figuring out how much work I’ve got to do over the next week and a half. It’s not pretty.”
“Will it get better after that?”
Ben thought for a moment. “No.”
Noelle looked down and shuffled her feet guiltily. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Ben was about to say no—after all, she wasn’t a lawyer—when an idea hit him. He raised his eyebrows and smiled. “Actually, there is. What’s your time like over the next few weeks?”
“I’ve got a stack of spreadsheets to go through and I need to update our books, but other than that I’m pretty free. What do you have in mind?”
“You don’t have a law license, so you can’t handle depositions, court appearances, and stuff like that. But there are other things you can do. For starters, you can go through documents and interview witnesses, which would be a big help. You can also help me put together discovery requests. We can bill you as a paralegal at, say, a hundred dollars an hour. It
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