- Daniel, we'll be meeting later today to go over
the disposition of your cases. Yes?
- Yes.
- Very good.
- Vonzel versus Stanley Huggins and Castellano Construction.
- We're representing Cille Vonzel against her architect
and contractor for damages her home
sustained from the earthquake.
I'm expecting settlement offers sometime today.
I've been led to believe that there'll be more
than $ million on the table.
- And we're on board for a third.
Not bad for a month's work.
- How are you getting settlement offers this fast?
- Well, it was a new house, so there was clear cut liability.
- Is it an earthquake considered an act of God?
- We're not holding them responsible for the earthquake.
We're holding them responsible for misrepresenting
the protection they were providing from the earthquake.
- I know we're all lawyers and everything,
but it seems to me we were all in this together.
There isn't any one person who was to blame for what happened.
- Moving on, Andrew Cass versus Lynn Barnett.
- Sexual harassment, wrongful termination.
Trial starts today.
- Andrew versus Lynn.
He's suing her for sexual harassment?
- Yeah.
- Well, she did tie him up.
- There are subtler forms of expressing one's desire, Arni.
- Like quoting scripture.
[ALL] Ooh.
- Bullock versus Barca.
- OK.
Now, who asked me for coffee?
- Me.
- And me. - Water.
- Congas.
- Congas.
[glass rattling]
- Aftershock.
[glass breaking]
- Bullock versus Barca.
- We're in depositions all week.
- I need to talk to you regarding
the offshore business.
The Cayman Island shelter's not gonna fly.
- All right.
Let's get together right after this.
- Hazel versus Mahoney?
- I have a pretrial conference set for : today.
- Well, please do not be overly anxious to try this one.
- And with that, I think we're adjourned.
[car alarms]
[music playing]
[SINGING] Day after day, more people come to LA.
Don't you tell anybody, the whole place shaken away.
Where can we go when there's no San Francisco?
Better get ready to tie up the boat in Idaho.
- One thing this quake did was force me to get organized.
- Oh, yeah? - Yeah.
And I've gone about it with a vengeance.
I've had a structural engineer out to look at the house.
I've made up a master list of supplies.
I have worked out an evacuation route and a telephone tree
with the other parents at Matthew's school.
- No one in this office is prepared for a major earthquake
except me. - Are you kidding?
I'm totally prepared.
I've got shoes under all the beds, flashlights
in every room, a*t*matic shut off for the gas, water,
canned goods, portable radio with extra batteries.
- How about a generator?
- You put in a generator?
- That's right.
How about a four wheel drive Dodge Power Wagon with front
mounted winch?
Milk?
- Yeah.
What's the point of that?
- When the freeways collapse and the roads are barricaded,
how are you going to get around?
- What else?
- How about $, in gold Bullion.
- What's that for?
- For when the currency collapses.
- You're keeping this in your house?
- No, I keep it in the yard.
Don't ask me to tell you where. - It's OK.
I just hope you'll be able to get home in order to get to it.
- In the event that I can't get home, the trunk of my car,
I have a water purification kit, flares, dehydrated food,
flashlights, blankets, camp stove, crowbar,
first aid kit, and work boots.
- You got all that in the trunk of your car?
- I usually keep it in the trunk of my car.
It's not in there right now. - Why not?
- I needed the room, I went shopping.
- Why wouldn't the city be liable?
- It's not clear that they wouldn't.
It would depend on whether or not they were negligent.
- Negligence of the contractor we got.
Negligence of the architect we got.
- That's why there is a settlement offer on the table.
- Well, as far as I'm concerned, we should
still be going after the city.
- Well, number one, I don't think we
have a case against the city, and number two,
you are being well compensated by the contractor
and the architect.
- Brand new house, brand new foundation, and the assurances
of both of them that it would withstand
earthquakes of this magnitude.
Is there any question that I should be compensated?
- No.
- I'm told Stanley will declare personal bankruptcy.
- That is my understanding.
- I find myself just wishing there
were more people we could sue.
- Look, Cille, you should be really
happy with this settlement.
To tell you the truth, it's more than any of the attorneys
in the office thought you would get whether we went to trial
or not.
- I probably should feel fortunate
that while thousands were left homeless by this earthquake
because I own four homes, I'm left with three.
- That might be one way of looking at it.
- I don't care.
I feel aggrieved by what happened to me.
I feel abused by the forces of nature.
And I feel abused by tradespeople.
And I can't bear it when either of those things happen.
- I need you to sign all three of these copies right here.
- I stay awake nights compiling lists of grievances
and not just earthquake related grievances.
There are things I blame my family for,
and there are things I blame my dentist for.
I'm unhappy with my accountant, and I
am unhappy with my housekeeper.
I am not, despite what you may think, a happy person.
- I'm not sure I know what to tell you.
- You read that Bible?
- Every day.
- I haven't read one since I'm a kid.
- Well, maybe you would feel better if you read it again.
- I don't think so.
- This way.
- Thank you.
Hi.
- Hi.
Thanks, Ava.
So how do we do this?
I haven't had anybody pick out my clothes
since I was years old.
- Well, show me the clothes you're thinking of wearing,
and I'll give you my opinion.
- You want to start with what I've got on?
- Sure.
Maybe not.
- Too predatory?
- Yeah.
- OK.
- You know what?
- What?
- You probably don't need me to do this.
You probably know what to wear to court all on your own.
- No, I want your help.
You're my lawyer, I want the benefit of your expertise.
- It's just that what you wear is a rather personal decision.
- Leon, I'm in advertising.
You know what we do before we dress
an actor for a commercial?
We put executives in a room to decide
what he's going to wear.
There is nothing personal about this.
Believe me.
This is about an image that I am going to project to a jury.
And I want you to help me figure out what that image will be.
- OK.
- OK.
These are the clothes I picked out.
- Hmm.
Too upper class.
- OK.
- Too sexual.
- Really?
All right.
Losing both.
- These look fine.
- You got any suggestions for shoes and handbags?
Those are the real indicators, you know?
- I think I'll leave them both up to you.
- You ever get involved with anybody at work?
- Not really.
I'm not officially, not formally.
- If I were you, I would adhere to that policy at all possible.
- I wouldn't necessarily call it a policy.
- You know when I first knew that my affair with Andrew
would end badly?
- When?
- We were walking out of a meeting one day
and he put his arm around my waist.
- What did that tell you?
- That told me that he wanted everyone to know that he
was sleeping with his boss.
- We have a strong case, Lynn.
I don't think he's going to b*at us.
- Good.
- Would you describe for the court
your relationship with the defendant?
- I was a copywriter.
She was a vice president at the agency for a period
of about three months.
She was also someone with whom I was romantically involved.
- I'm going to ask you to describe very
specifically how that happened.
- Your honor, the fact that these two
people had a romantic involvement is not in dispute.
I object to this whole line of questioning.
- The role each of them played is very
much in dispute, your honor.
I asked to be permitted to pursue
this line of questioning.
- The objection is overruled.
The witness can answer.
- We had just landed a major account, I'd gotten a raise,
she was made a vice president, and it was Saint Patrick's Day.
We drank Irish whiskey at Tom Bergin's until closing time,
then we went back to my apartment.
- And who initiated going back to your apartment?
- Objection, irrelevant.
- Overruled.
The witness can answer.
- Who initiated it, Mr Cass?
- Lynn did.
- Characterize for us, if you would,
what kind of relationship you had.
- I think we had a fairly intense relationship.
We began spending three or four nights a week together.
We were going away for the weekends together.
For a while, it was great.
- Did there come a point at which that changed?
- Well, there came a point at which the relationship
had run its course.
It wasn't her fault. It wasn't mine.
It just happened.
- And what effect, if any, did the cessation
of your romantic involvement have on
your professional relationship?
- It had a profound effect.
She'd exclude me from meetings that I
once would have been a part of.
She stopped sending me good assignments.
She'd berate me.
Ultimately, she fired me.
- Are you currently employed, Mr Cass?
- Yes, I am.
- And how much are you earning relative to what
you had been earning before?
- Half.
- Why would you take a job that paid you
half of what you were making?
- I had no alternative.
Ms Barnett got the word out to too many people a little
too fast. - Objection.
- Sustained.
- No further questions.
- Did you feel coerced into having
a relationship with Ms Barnett?
- Coerced?
No.
- She give you an ultimatum?
Go to bed with me or else?
- No.
How did you react to having a woman you were
sleeping with being your boss?
- I think I reacted fine.
- How did you react to your work being rejected?
- When I felt my work was being rejected out of spite,
I probably got angry.
- Yet you often felt like your work was being rejected
out of spite, didn't you?
- I did where Lynn were concerned.
- Isn't what happened Mr Cass is that you
weren't moving up the ladder quite as
fast as you would have liked? - No, that's not what happened.
- You were hoping, were you not, that sleeping with Lynn Barnett
would result in a little career advancement?
You wanted it to do you some good.
- Objection.
Mr Levinson is browbeating this man.
- Sustained.
- She fired me because I broke up with her.
- Isn't it possible, Mr Cass, that she fired you
because your work was unsatisfactory
and you wouldn't take direction?
- My work was never unsatisfactory
while we were going out.
- Was it that your work was never unsatisfactory
or that Ms Barnett covered for you when it was?
- That never happened.
- I have nothing further.
- I assume you've got a whole argument worked
out as to why the Hermann case should
be yours to take with you.
- No.
- You don't want to take it with you?
- I think it rightfully belongs to the firm.
- OK.
- What about the Reese brothers?
- Well, it seems like the big fees from the Reese brothers
have all been had.
So whatever's left, I'm happy to leave behind.
- Just out of curiosity, are you setting us up for something?
- Douglas.
- Like what?
- Like what cases are you hoping to take with you?
- I'd like to take the Edelman, and I'd like to take the Snow.
- That's it?
- I would also ask that Jonathan take over
for me in the Donnelly case.
I think our client would be most comfortable with him.
- It's OK with me.
- What about the Reinhold?
- It's yours.
- What about Hutton?
- Hutton is also yours.
- What are you doing, Daniel?
- I'm leaving, Douglas, and it doesn't much matter
to me what I take with me.
I'll call the clients and let them know,
and I'll be out of my office by the end of the week.
- Excuse me.
- Daniel, you adamant about this?
- I don't know about adamant, but I have made up my mind.
- I'm going to miss you, man.
- Likewise, brother.
[heartwarming music]
[knocking]
- I'm going to be in trial most of the week.
I might not see you again, I wanted to say goodbye.
- OK.
- I'm sorry this happened.
- I'm sorry about it too.
- It's like watching a train wreck for me.
I knew it was going to end badly.
And all I could do was watch.
- Is that all you did?
- I had to remain neutral, Daniel.
I haven't been here long enough to take positions
on these things, I don't think.
- Except you did take a position.
- I abstained.
- That's a position, Eli.
It caused something to happen.
If you had voted the other way, it
would have resulted in a tie.
Had that happen, Patrick Flanagan
would not have been hired, and I would not be leaving.
- And I'm genuinely sorry that that's what happened.
- Fine.
- And you're right.
I did take a position.
I'll see you.
[chatter]
- Cashier's checks are on their way over.
- We closed at ,,?
- We closed at ,,.
- Fabulous.
- I thought you'd be pleased.
- I'm extremely pleased.
You handled this case very well.
- Thank you.
- I thought this was worth nothing.
To find that it's dumped $, into our lap,
this is like found money.
- Oh, here you are.
- Hi, Cille.
- I just had the most remarkable night of my entire life.
- Let me leave you two ladies.
- No, stay, please.
Jane, you told me to read the Bible, and I read the Bible.
Instead of falling asleep in front of the television,
I made myself a pot of coffee, bought
a fresh pack of cigarettes, got out that Bible, and I read.
And let me just say, I was blind.
And now, I see.
- That's great.
- I have such a feeling of serenity and calm
I don't believe I've ever had.
- And that's before you get your hands on the money.
- Forgive and you will be forgiven, Luke .
- Absolutely.
- I'm not taking the money.
- What do you mean?
- What I mean is that I need to forgive my architect.
I need to forgive my contractor, and the one real way
to do that is not to take the money.
- There may be other ways.
- No.
There are no other ways.
Now, I want to thank your office for representing me,
but I want to thank you for pointing me back toward Jesus.
And I wish for the two of you a very pleasant day.
- Are you kidding?
- What's your position at the agency, Mr Justin?
- President.
- Do you deal with Lynne Barnett directly on a day-to-day basis?
- Yes, I do.
- How would you characterize her performance
supervising the creative teams that report to her?
- I would characterize it as outstanding.
- You ever observe her being vindictive with anyone?
- No, I have not.
- Are you familiar with Mr Cass?
- I was aware that he worked for us, but I never dealt
with him on a day-to-day basis.
- Were you aware of the fact that he and Ms Barnett
had anything other than a purely professional relationship?
- I became aware of it.
Yes.
- How did you become aware of it?
- Well, Ms Barnett came to me and explained the situation.
She told me that they had had an affair, that the affair was
over, that his work was deteriorating,
and that his attitude was bad.
And she wanted to let him go.
- How did you respond?
- I told her that if he wasn't making
a contribution, that it was up to her to get rid of him.
- Did you trust Lynn Barnett to make that determination?
- Yes, I did.
- Thank you.
I have nothing further.
- You stated that you didn't deal with
Mr Cass on a day-to-day basis.
Is that true Mr Justin?
- Yes.
- That would mean, would it not, that you
had no direct knowledge of the quality of his work?
- That's correct.
- So in other words, you just took
Lynn Barnett's word for it.
- I take Ms Barnett's word for a great many things,
Ms Gershon Wu.
- Would your confidence, in this instance,
be at all influenced by the fact that your agency
bears principal liability for her actions?
- My confidence is based solely on her work performance.
I think the fact that she's a vice president of my company
would attest to that fact.
- Just for the record, would you say that Ms Barnett exercised
particularly good judgment in having
an affair with a subordinate?
- It happens.
- Yes.
We all know it happens, but I'm asking
whether or not you endorse it.
- I treat the people that I work with as adults.
I don't make a habit of second guessing
how they conduct their personal lives.
- Except this wasn't Lynn Barnett's personal life,
this was her professional life.
And I am asking you once again whether or not you
endorse the practice of becoming involved sexually
with people who work for you.
- No, I don't.
- Why not?
- Because it introduces a new set of variables
into the work environment.
It carries with it the potential of problems
in terms of job performance and lawsuits,
such as the present case.
- So it's safe to say, is it not,
that you would have preferred Ms Barnett
not to have had this affair?
- All things being equal, yes.
- Thank you.
I have no further questions.
[chatter]
- Correct me if I'm wrong here, Jane,
but it seems as though you convinced this woman
to not take the money.
- All I did was suggest she read the Bible.
- Why would you do that?
- There is a Bible on my desk she made mention of it.
She said that she hadn't read it since she was a little girl,
so I suggested she read it again.
All of this after she was telling me how unhappy she was.
- And we ended up taking a half million dollar hit.
- How are you taking a half million dollar hit?
Before Cille came in, Douglas said
that this was not money he anticipated getting,
that it was found money.
- Do you think that makes me any more willing to part with it?
It is found money, Jane.
We found it, and we want to keep it.
- Have you contacted the other party?
- No, I've been ducking their calls.
- This fax just came in.
They've upped the offer by $,.
- They think you're holding out and
they're willing to pay more. I'm going to k*ll myself.
- Don't overlook the malpractice exposure here.
- What malpractice?
- She changes her mind about Christian forgiveness,
realizes she signed a release, and comes
after us to make it up to her.
- She agreed to sign a waiver against us.
- She'll come after us anyway.
She'll claim that she was delusional
when she signed the waiver.
Any way you look at it, we come out on the losing end.
- What do you want me to do?
- I want you to convince her to do
that which is reasonable under the circumstances.
- I.e.
take the money.
- You and I can spend an hour this afternoon
and find all the biblical citations you
need to support that position.
- I am perfectly capable of finding
biblical citations on my own assuming
that I wanted to use them.
- The woman's hysterical, Jane.
Use whatever you have to use.
- Nice to have you here, doctor.
Let me ask you if people are having a lot of trouble--
- You can't find pizza by the slice around here.
- Actually, you can.
- You can't find pizza, forget about the slice.
I mean, there's no place like Johns or Stromboli
and definitely no place like LMB Spumoni Gardens.
- I know.
Something's been bothering you lately.
- Yeah.
A lot of things have been bothering me lately.
- I know.
- Hurry up.
- You know, I used to buy my clothes at Cesar's Bay Bazaar.
There's no place like that out here.
- You have to talk about it eventually, Denise.
- And there's no ANS.
- We had a moment back at the wedding.
- You know, I used to go dancing at Lamoors, Pastels, Elefis.
You know, they don't have places like that out here.
- I kissed you and you kissed me back.
We didn't plan for it.
We didn't expect it, but there it was.
- I used to get my shrimp earrings
from the Chinese guy on th Street,
but do you think I could do that here in LA?
Look at this.
I'm not going to make this light.
[jackhammer drilling]
Look at this.
- Maybe part of my problem is that I
tend to overanalyze things.
- This is my worst nightmare.
- Will it happened again?
I have no idea.
- Am I crazy or is that a cr*ck up there?
- The main thing is I don't want there to be
any awkwardness between us.
I don't want to lose intimacy.
I don't want to be less close all the result of this kiss.
[honking]
- Come on, come on.
- You talking to me?
- This is absolutely insane.
- I know it is.
Denise, what are you doing?
- Eli, look where you are.
Look what you're sitting under.
- Where are you going?
I have to be in court.
Denise, I just have a learner's permit.
- Center lane, so that's going to be slow to go.
- Oh, God.
[chatter]
- It's been alleged, Ms Barnett, that you initiated
the affair with Andrew Cass.
Is that true?
- I always thought that it was more or less mutual.
Technically, you could say I made the first move.
Yes.
- It's also been alleged that it was Andrew
Cass who ended the affair.
Is that true?
- Yes.
- Would you concede that having a fair in the office
is a bad idea?
- Yes.
- Why did you do it?
- I worked hour days.
If I'm going to meet a man, the likelihood is
I will meet him in the office.
- You also meet men who occupy equal status with you.
This man was a subordinate.
Would you concede that that carries additional problems?
- Yes, I would.
This just happens to be who I fell in love with.
- How did you react when Mr Cass told you
he wanted to end the affair?
- I was relieved.
It had become increasingly difficult to balance
our respective roles.
- Would you describe what you mean by that?
- Before and after work, I was his lover.
At work, I was his boss.
He couldn't handle that.
- In what way couldn't he handle it?
- He would question decisions that I made.
He would question deadlines that I set.
I felt that he was trying to undermine me.
- It's been alleged that you rejected work that Andrew
Cass had done out of spite.
Was that the case?
- I would look at work that he had done,
I would ask other people's opinions about it.
And I tried very hard to think about it fairly.
And I believe that in the end, I used
my best professional judgment.
- Did you ever communicate to Andrew Cass
that his career would suffer if he refused to continue
having a sexual relationship?
- No, I did not.
- Why was it necessary to fire him?
- Because his work was bad, because it had been bad for too
long, and mostly because he showed
no willingness to improve it.
And I believe in his heart, he knows that's true.
- Objection.
- Sustained.
The witness's speculation as to what is in the plaintiff's
heart is stricken.
- I have nothing further.
- How long had it been since you'd
had a significant relationship with a man before Andrew Cass?
- Objection.
- Overruled.
The witness will answer.
- About five years.
- Do you like being in a significant relationship
with a man?
- Yes, I do if it's the right man.
- Was there ever a time when you thought
Andrew Cass was the right man?
- Yes.
There was.
- Didn't you in fact discuss marriage and children with him?
- Yes.
- And yet you tell us that you had an overwhelming feeling
of relief when he left you.
- I was also hurt and lonely and tired.
- Isn't it possible that those feelings
of being lonely and hurt and tired
intruded into your business relationship as well?
- No, it is not.
- Is it possible that it's your behavior that's changed?
It's not Andrew Cass's work that's changed
but rather your perception of it.
- No, it is not possible.
- Ms Barnett, after you fired Andrew Cass,
why did you feel it was necessary to blackball
him in the business? - Objection.
Assuming facts--
- I never did anything of the kind.
- Ms Barnett, please.
The objection is sustained.
- Subsequent to his being fired, did you ever
speak to any individual from any other agency about Andrew Cass?
- No, I did not.
And if my opinion was solicited, I decline to give it.
I decline to get into any conversation
of any kind about Andrew.
His opinion to the contrary notwithstanding.
From the day he came to work with me,
he was talented and charming and undisciplined
and totally ill equipped to work with clients and colleagues.
I was infatuated with him, so I protected him.
I didn't punish him because of how
he made me feel when he left.
I protected him because of how he
made me feel when he was there.
And when I stopped protecting him, he turned on me.
- And that really made you furious, didn't it?
That made you want to just do anything to get even--
- Objection.
Counsel is making speeches.
- Sustained.
- What it made me do was attend to business.
- I have nothing further.
- Hurry up.
- Cille.
- Oh, Jane.
- Your housekeeper said that I would find you here.
- What brings you here?
- I wanted to talk to you about your decision to drop the suit.
- Oh, I'll see you later.
You mind if we keep walking while we talk?
- Not at all.
- It's my daily regimen.
- Cille, I wanted to tell you that I don't think your taking
the money from these people is necessarily
an un-Christian thing to do.
- Oh, well, wouldn't that depend on what what's
in the heart of the taker?
- Yes.
But I don't think there's anything
un-Christian about your heart.
- Oh, well, you're charitable.
And you're kind, and I appreciate it,
but you also may not know me very well.
There is a great deal that's un-Christian in my heart.
- Well, I think the same could be said about most of us.
But I also think that no matter how much you want
to affect a change in your life, not taking the money
is an extreme gesture.
- Oh.
But I think this calls for extremes.
What is it that they say?
If you want something you've never had,
you have to do something that you've never done.
And I have never forgiven anyone for anything.
- Yes.
But legitimately, you're owed something here.
The contractor and the architect were negligent in the way
that they constructed your house.
- Love your enemies.
Bless them that curse you.
Do good to them that hate you, and pray
for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.
That's from the Book of Matthew.
- Yes, you could still do that.
- Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.
That's also the Book of Matthew.
- Yes.
You could still be merciful.
- If you hold anything against anyone,
you must forgive him so that the Lord in heaven
will forgive you.
That's the Book of Mark.
- A man's gift maketh room for him, the Book of Proverbs.
- Oh, would that then support my taking of the money?
- It might.
People have justified all kinds of actions
by using scriptural passage.
Being able to do that doesn't necessarily mean they
did the right thing.
I think it's great that you're so
enthusiastic about the Bible, but I
don't think that it requires you not taking the money.
I really think that could be something
that you would come to regret.
- You don't believe I'm sincere, do you?
- I don't doubt that you're sincere.
- Oh, yes.
You do.
You think of me as some sort of Christian wannabe,
who's grasping to make some dramatic but basically
empty gesture.
- I don't think anything of the kind.
- Well, see you--
- Cille, wait a second.
- I don't know what to do.
Jane, excuse me.
I just think I better go off and be by myself right now.
I think I'd like to go home.
[laughing]
- How do you just leave the man there?
- I had an anxiety att*ck. What?
That never happens?
- No, no, no.
Hey, it happens.
- Well, Eli managed to drive himself to court.
Everything worked out.
- Listen, Denise.
Nobody wants to be under a freeway
overpass in an earthquake.
- You're right about that.
- You probably also don't want to be
in that underground garage we got to park in.
You probably don't want to be in this office.
Believe me, though, when the aftershocks die down,
you forget all about it.
[rattling]
- We're having one.
[glass breaking]
This is a big one.
Oh, God.
- That wasn't a big one.
- That wasn't a big one.
- ..
- If that.
- Oh, .--
- Not ..
- Are you kidding?
- No, I'd say --
- I'd say you're all out of your minds.
- In what way?
- We're going along like this was nothing.
- Why? What should we do?
- Something, we should do something.
- Like what?
- Like move someplace where there's
not earthquakes every day.
- Denise, these are aftershocks.
- Aftershocks are earthquakes, Jonathan.
We just call them aftershocks, and you guys
are standing around trying to figure
out what number they are.
What difference does it make?
Who cares if we die in a . or a .?
And we don't have the slightest idea
what's going to happen next.
I mean, no one does.
We don't know how big they are.
We don't know when they're going to stop.
We don't know if they're going to stop.
All we know is that we got to go back to work.
- I think it shows the strength of the human spirit.
- I think it shows that we're completely nuts.
Right now, I'm going home.
[chatter]
- We know the following, Andrew Cass worked at the ad
agency for eight months prior to becoming
involved with Ms Barnett.
During that time, his work was by all outward
appearances satisfactory.
But the truth is it was better than that.
This is a talented hardworking young man, whose career
has been derailed by the actions of a spiteful embittered woman.
Did she force him to have an affair with her?
It depends on your definition of the word force.
She was several tiers above him in the hierarchy at the agency.
She made it very clear what it is she wanted.
Make no mistake about it this, woman
wielded the same authority in their personal relationship
that she wielded in their professional relationship.
And she did not like to see that authority questioned one bit.
And when it was and her will was not complied with,
she sought to punish whoever defied her.
Now, whatever Andrew Cass's responsibility
may have been in the initiation and continuation of this love
affair, he does not deserve to be
both professional and financially savaged
as a consequence of it.
Dare I say, were he a woman, we would not hesitate
to award him due compensation.
Let us not hesitate because he is a man.
- These two people had an affair.
Not a single shred of evidence has
been adduced to support the contention that this affair was
coerced by the defendant, that it
was anything other than volitional
on the part of both of them.
That this affair took place does not entitle the plaintiff
to compensation of any kind.
The only bases for compensation would be that the plaintiff was
harassed or humiliated or wrongfully
terminated as a result of ending the affair.
And much as the plaintiff and his attorney
would like you to believe otherwise,
there is no proof of that either.
You may think that Lynn Barnett exercised less than impeccable
judgment in having this affair, maybe
she threw caution to the winds, but what she also
did was to continue carrying out the responsibilities
of her position.
I submit to you that her treatment of the plaintiff
while he remained at the agency and her subsequent termination
of his employment there represent
precisely and exclusively that.
The fact is Lynn Barnett had wholly legitimate
reasons to fire the plaintiff.
She had them because he gave them to her.
By the quality of his work and the nature of his conduct,
he brought it on himself.
Lynn Barnett proved not to be the girlfriend
Andrew Cass wanted her to be.
In the end, she wasn't the boss he wanted her to be either.
That should not entitle him to exact from her anything
more than the pain and the humiliation
that this trial has already yielded.
Thank you.
- Jane, any news?
- I talked to her, she's confused.
- They just upped their offer by another ,.
Unconfuse her.
- I don't suppose there's any way to talk you out of this.
- No.
It's-- it's done.
- I'd like to explain to you why I voted the way I did.
- You don't have to do that, Stewart.
- Yeah, I do.
- I feel bad about it, Daniel.
I had no idea that voting for Patrick Flanagan
was going to result in your leaving.
And in that it did, I want to explain why I did it.
OK.
It's not that I thought Leland was right, Daniel.
It's that I think that Leland doesn't have to be right.
Sometimes it's enough that he's Leland.
- Well, I-- I don't see it that way.
- Yeah.
Well, you haven't been with him as long as I have.
- Length of service has nothing to do with it.
The man showed me a complete lack
of respect for no other discernible reason than
to throw his weight around.
- Did it ever occur to you that sometimes
it's important for him to throw his weight around?
- Why is that?
- Because he's old, because he's looking for a sign
that he's got any weight left.
And I think when I'm his age, that's
what I'll be thinking about.
And years later when you're his age,
that's what you're going to be thinking about.
Have you spoken to him?
- No.
- Do you intend to?
- I wasn't planning on it.
You know?
I mean, what is there to say?
- I think you know that better than I do.
- Jane.
- Hi.
- May I come in?
Just a moment talk to you.
- Of course.
This won't take long.
I want you to know that I've done what you asked me to do.
I thought about it, I read the Bible, and I prayed.
And I did find scriptural authority that would support my
taking the money, and I found scriptural authority
for not taking the money.
Well, the truth is the only solace
I found last night came from a five
gallon canister of barbecue flavored potato chips.
- Look, Cille.
You can take some time to think about this.
- Oh, I don't want to take any time.
My heart tells me I should give back the money.
But my head says that that would be foolhardy.
So I want you to decide what I should do.
- I can't do that, Cille.
- Well, I listened to you when you suggested I read the Bible.
That gave me a great deal of serenity.
So I stand fully prepared to listen to you again.
- Oh, please don't do this to me, Cille.
- Jane, you're in a better position to judge than I am.
I'm asking you as my attorney, as my spiritual
seeing eye dog, so to speak.
Take this burden from me.
Now, I'm going to go drop my car at the dealership.
I'll be home late this afternoon.
Call me and let me know.
- Has the jury reached a verdict?
- We have, your honor.
- What say you?
- In the matter of Cass versus Barnett,
we find for the defendant.
- The jury is dismissed with the thanks of the court.
We're adjourned.
[chatter]
- Good work, Eli.
- Thank you.
- From all of us, really good job.
- No matter what kind of job I did, it all came down
to the jury believing Lynn.
- Absolutely.
- It goes without saying.
- Hey, why don't I call my office?
We can go have a celebratory drink.
- I can't do that.
- Just to cap off the trial.
- Well I'd love to, but I'm already running.
Maybe another time.
Maybe you guys would like to go.
- Well, I've got to jump on the freeway.
And if I'm not mistaken, these gentlemen
are heading back to the office.
- Some other time.
- Bye.
- Bye.
- Thank you.
- Was it something I said?
- It's just not something they would do.
- What is it?
Go out, have a drink together.
That's not something that we do.
- They were on the hook for half a million dollars.
I would think they'd be thrilled.
- They hate this.
They hate learning about my personal life.
They don't want to know.
- Why is that?
- Because I'm a girl and they're the boys.
And we may work together but that
doesn't mean we're friends.
- Well, we could go have a drink.
- Yeah.
That would be nice.
- Well?
- Cille left it up to me.
- Fantastic.
- I advised her to drop the suit.
- Now, tell us what really happened.
- Oh, I am telling you what really happened.
She told me that in her heart she didn't want the money,
but she would do whatever I advised.
I advised her to follow her heart.
- Has this been communicated to the other side as yet?
- Cille told it to them herself.
- Does that allow us to bring an action de novo claiming
it hadn't come from counsel?
- Let it go, Douglas.
- I hate letting it go.
I hate letting it go.
- I'm sorry.
- Yeah, you're sorry.
You'd do the same thing all over again.
- If that means that I would refuse
to ask someone to act against their religious beliefs,
then you're right.
If that means that I will profane the word of God
by using it to manipulate someone, then you're wrong.
I did that this time.
I won't do it again.
If that's grounds for dismissal, I assume you'll let me know.
- Letting your religious beliefs interfere
with your fiduciary responsibility
to the other members of this firm
most certainly is grounds for dismissal.
- Are you f*ring me?
- Absolutely not.
As far as I'm concerned, you did the only thing you could.
- Thank you.
- Hey.
- Hi.
- So I'll see you.
- Are you leaving?
- In a little while, yeah.
- Well, I may not be too far behind you.
- You're thinking about leaving?
- I'm thinking about moving.
- How come?
- How come?
Because the city feels completely unsafe to me,
that's how come. - Because of the earthquake.
- Yeah.
So where would you move?
- When I move, I move to New York.
Where else am I going to move?
- There are other places you know?
- No. Not for me.
For me, it's either here or there.
- New York's not exactly safe either.
- No, you're right.
It just depends what risk you choose to live with.
I mean, hey, there's misery in both places.
You know, I'm on the subway, I'm on the bus.
I walk late at night on the street.
There's maniacs on every street corner.
Believe me.
I die from the cold.
I die from the heat.
I mean, until all this happened, I was very happy here.
You know, I was riding around in my car.
I was loving it.
- Maybe you should wait a month and see
how you feel about it then.
- Yeah, I suppose.
So what about you?
What are you going to do.?
- I'm going to take a time to think about it.
I might end up at another firm or I might start my own.
- You think you'll do it here?
- Maybe.
Maybe in Santa Barbara.
- They got earthquakes in Santa Barbara?
- I don't know.
I'm out of here.
- Oh, good luck.
- Good luck to you.
You're the best.
- I'll miss you.
- I'll miss you.
- Maybe I'll see you around town sometime.
- I hope.
- Unless I move.
- Leland, I'm leaving.
I thought I'd say goodbye.
- Come in.
Come in.
I assume this is not the last time
we'll be seeing one another.
- I'm sure it isn't.
- Should any of the clients you're
leaving behind choose to follow you,
naturally we'll forward their files.
- Thanks.
- You'll let us know when you're situated.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
And I'm sure there'll be referrals going
back and forth as time goes on.
- I'm sure.
Do you think there will ever come a time when we'll actually
talk about what happened?
- My door is always open, Daniel.
- That's not why I asked.
- What exactly is there to talk about?
We opposed one another.
I enjoyed the support of the majority, you opted to quit.
- Do you think you were right?
- Yes, I do.
Good luck, Daniel.
- Thank you.
[music playing]
- Goodnight.
- Goodnight.
- Oh, let me get that for you. - Oh, that's cool.
I got it.
- Here.
- Thanks.
- Excuse me.
- Thanks.
[elevator bell]
[music playing]
08x16 - Whose San Andreas Fault Is It, Anyway?
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High-powered law firm of McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak handles both criminal and civil cases, but the office politics and romance often distract them from the courtroom.
High-powered law firm of McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak handles both criminal and civil cases, but the office politics and romance often distract them from the courtroom.