Page 638 - WhyAsInY

Why (as in yaverbaum)
ranking list in The American Lawyer, an influential magazine read by everyone in the profession, including law school students. Clever, huh?) Feeling that there was no realistic alternative, and not firmly set on retir- ing again at that time, I accepted. The money was likely to be about the same as that which I would have made as a partner and—hooray!—I didn’t feel any further obligation to attend meetings (although I did continue my breakfast tutorials, which I loved).
It took three more years for Sergi to return to my office. Shapiro, it seems, was leaving for other pastures, whether or not greener—and whether or not voluntarily. So, miracle of miracle, Sergi, who just hap- pened to be visiting the New York office, casually walked in, unannounced, for a friendly drop-by. After the normal, feigned, pleasantries, he pro- ceeded to apologize profusely for relieving me of my post as head of the Real Estate Department when the merger had occurred. He didn’t know how the firm could have made such a great mistake, but he wanted to make things right, and he begged me to become a partner again (for what would have been the third time).
I declined. I had seen enough of the merged firm to convince myself that sharing in its fortunes (or misfortunes) was not what I was inter- ested in. Feeling vindicated, I got a great deal of pleasure from turning down the offer that had been made by the apologetic, indeed prostrat- ing, managing partner.
Hours and Hours
So much for my interactions with what I came to regard as the Katten mouse. I’d prefer to give you a short synopsis of the client-related mat- ters that interested me in the last decade of my practice, talk a bit about my decision to retire, and move on. (I suspect that you’ll like the mov- ing-on part the most.)
My last years seemed to begin and end with the kind of transactions that were reminiscent of those that had both stimulated and disturbed me when I was in practice in the eighties. First, there were four large
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