Joseph, The Partner Who Got Fired - Part 4

Part One, Part Two, Part Three

Joseph, as I told you, had previously had his own law firm in Miami before coming on as a partner in this firm. So it's understandable that he had some ... adjustment issues. I have a feeling Joseph did not do well in kindergarten, because despite explaining the system to him over and over, he refused to share the conference room next door to his office.

Here's how it works in most midsize or large law firms: when you want a conference room for your lawyer you find out when they want it, for how long, for how many people, and if they need anything special (projection screen, laptop, IT dude on standby, drinks, lunch, etc.) and you either call the receptionist to give them that info, or you log onto a program on the intranet and reserve the conference room that fits your needs.

Obviously, you can not bump someone from a conference room without asking them first. Also, the general understanding is that when lunch is brought in for a meeting, once that meeting has ended, the leftover food is up for grabs to all employees. I have actually seen emails go out that say "Free food in Camo Conf. Room" fairly regularly.

Joseph didn't want to share the conference room. And he only wanted to use the one next to his office. Often we had to spread things out, and it's common to use a table in a conference room for the space. But it's also common to clean up when you're finished. And if you're not going to finish any time soon, the right thing is to make sure nobody's going to be needing that conference room. Partially because it's unprofessional for clients to see a mess, but also because of confidentiality issues.

Joseph didn't care. The partners had a standing reservation for the conference room across from me, and Joseph often asked me to have them moved. No. You can't do that. You just simply can not. He also had a habit of using the conference room when nobody was there, and if someone came by during their reserved time, rather than scooping everything up and leaving, Joseph would suggest to them that they find another conference room to use.

Once we had a client come to a meeting from Columbia. He brought his whole family. This was one of my favorite clients - he worked for a company that hired him to invent airplane parts to make planes more aerodynamic and we'd patent them, but every so often he'd get bored with that and go crazy by inventing a better golf ball or something. We'd patent those inventions also, and bill him instead of his company for those. In all honesty, I think he brought his sons to the meeting to translate for him.

A lot of people were at this meeting, and I ordered a huge lunch for it. I also reserved a small conference room next door to the one we were using, and had a tv and vcr put in there in case the boys got bored and wanted to go watch tv. Joseph wanted me to attend this meeting, so I did. The client had been Joseph's client for years, and stayed with him through the move to the firm. Yet when he arrived, Joseph pulled me aside and angrily hissed, "Why don't you speak spanish?!" before turning away to shake hands with the wife.

Julie and I looked at each other in shock, and I pantamimed pulling something out of my ass before running off to see if there was a secretary available to come translate. Joseph KNEW I didn't speak Spanish. I know how to say, "The attorney is not here," and "I'm sorry, I do not understand," and "One minute, please" and that's all. Wait, I also know how to ask where the library is, thanks to Golden Boy, but it's rare you have to ask that at work. After the meeting Joseph told me to make sure the leftovers were packaged and put into a refrigerator clearly labled with the date and "IP Department ONLY." Julie gently asked him if it woudn't be better to let people know there were leftovers so that if they'd had to work through lunch they could grab something quickly. No.

Oh! Did I mention that Joseph called his parents by their first names? I don't need to point out to you that Joseph was not a 14 year-old girl amusing herself by calling her mother Marilyn. He simply decided when he became a lawyer that it's not professional to call your parents anything but their first names. His mom dropped by a few times, and we used to use his dad as a messenger, so Julie and I knew Joseph's parents. His dad actually told us one day he missed being called dad, so from then on that's what Julie and I called him.

Joseph continued to refuse to share the conference room, continued to offend his partners, and continued to have privacy and control issues. Frankly, he did not play well with others. And that is why ultimately, Joseph was asked to leave the firm. On a Friday afternoon. He walked out to never go back. He had movers come in to take his things, and Joseph reverted to private practice. Months later Julie left the firm to go work for him part time (she had a baby by then). The end.