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tHree firM DeCisions
of an elaborate statute—never entertained, much less passed—to establish and empower a new federal agency to develop a boulevard, complete with a trolley system and arena, that would become a latter- day Champs-Élysées, serving as a grand entry from the north of the District of Columbia to the Capitol; and (3) the acquisition and financ- ing of a large number of Western shopping centers. The last transaction was notable only for the fact that it took me to a law firm in Chicago that was completely unknown to me and, to the extent that I then experi- enced it, not particularly impressive: Katten Muchin & Zavis. The first two transactions were intrinsically interesting and occupied a fair amount of time. I would remember the third, relatively run-of-the mill, uninspiring transaction only when the Katten name would reappear, unpleasantly but significantly, five years later.
But that was about it. Those transactions aside, I had little impor- tant work to do. In fact, none of the Goldstein group did either. Charles was hardly to be seen. As was the case at Sutherland, he was constantly traveling to Brazil, Germany, and other parts unknown, on the firm’s nickel, “promoting business” that never materialized.
Of all of the things that were difficult for me professionally, I had the most trouble when I was not busy. It was not just that I had less to bill than I would have liked; it was that I just couldn’t tolerate sitting around with little or nothing to occupy or challenge me. As I went through pro- tracted periods of inactivity, I resorted to one strategy that brought me satisfaction, namely teaching in law school. I’ll spare you that (amusing and rewarding) experience until we get to Chapter Thirty-Two.
Ex-Squire
It had become obvious that the situation at Squire was not working out, and, in March 1997, things came to a head. The firm was clearly not happy that our group had produced less business than Charles had promised, and it therefore sought, in polite terms, to “restructure” the
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