James Fettes-Tonbridge writes: I have been at MD for twelve weeks and yesterday was my first meeting with the Managing Partner, Matt Muttley. It was a surreal experience and one which was quite damaging to my psyche.
I received an email from Matt Muttley’s PA, Eva Brown, requiring me to attend for a ‘review interview’ with Matt Muttley at 0800 hrs yesterday.
I arrived in good time and walked down the long corridor with plasterboard replica greek columns down each side. The black and white check floor tiles made me feel slightly dizzzy, but it may have been the sense of aniticipation. I knocked on the oversize oak doors. The door clicked and then opened automatically to reveal the ’sanctum sanctorum’. Eva Brown was seated at a marble topped desk of scandinavian design. A Bang & Olufsen phone was on the desk, together with a Sony Vaio laptop. Apart from two small palm trees and some modernist etchings and paintings on the wall, the room was bare. Not a piece of paper in sight.
“Good morning James.” Eva Brown said with a smile. “Mr Muttley will see you now.” She pressed a button on a panel on her desk and the door to Matt Muttley’s office opened with a slight whirring noise. Mr Muttley was seated at a large partner desk facing towards the window. His desk was laid for a lavish continental breakfast – orange juice, croissants, cheese, ham, a glass of champagne and a Clarice Cliff coffee pot and cup. The office reminded me of the foodhall at Harrods and the Egyptian statue in the style of Rameses II, standing to the left of the desk, bore a striking resemblance to Mr Muttley.
“There is a brick on the side table, James. Throw it out of the window please.”
It was an unusual request and, certainly, nothing that I learned on the expensive ‘City’ BPP Law School LPC prepared me for this. I picked up the brick and threw it through the window. The glass in the window shattered,
“James. Interesting. May I ask why you did you did not open the window first?”
It was a good lesson in lateral thinking. I had complied with the client’s wishes – but had not thought through all the implications behind the request and, because I had not opened the window, I had caused damage to the client’s interests.
Mr Muttley smiled and said “James… you will share in the wealth of this firm one day – possibly. In the meantime, I am sure we can settle on £185 + VAT plus costs for the replacement window glass. We will deduct this from next month’s salary. Be happy in your work. We will meet again in two months.”
I left with a sense of elation. I was learning to think like a lawyer.
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You may like to look at this extraordinary story about Oxford interviews for the inspiration behind this post.
