People at the eight or so desks raised their heads to look at me.
“This is Violet. She’s Mr. Knightley’s exclusive assistant.” There was a collection of shocked faces and groans, but I wasn’t sure if it was just a general lack of enthusiasm at the thought of a new person or sympathy that I was going to have to tackle Knightley. “I need you to give her all the help she needs,” he said, and then he turned to me. “The clerks are responsible for taking instructions from law firms and then giving them to the barrister they think would be best suited to do the work. Sometimes the law firms request a specific barrister, then the clerks tell the law firms how much it will cost and liaise with the law firm to make sure they have what they need. Clerks also arrange the bill for the law firms, but the barristers need to tell them what they’ve been working on and for how long. Then the clerk can negotiate a fee lift if necessary. The issue we have with Mr. Knightley is that he never tells us when he’s completed work or what time he’s spent on what. Sometimes we know, but oftentimes we don’t. That’s why we need your help.”
I nodded, trying to take things in. “So you guys organize the work for the barristers and negotiate the fees. But the invoice is raised by finance?”
Craig nodded. “But finance won’t bill anything until they’ve heard from us that the work is completed and how much to bill.”
Okay, that seemed straightforward.
“The admin staff sit through there”—Craig pointed through an archway to a connecting room—“along with the small finance team we have. You’ll get to know everyone soon enough. I’m going to leave you in Jimmy’s capable hands. He’ll introduce you around and show you where you’re sitting.”
A lanky guy about my age wearing a pink shirt and a blue-and-pink tie came toward us. We shook hands. “I’ll be happy to show you around. Anyone brave enough to take on Mr. Knightley will need all the help they can get.”
Brave? Maybe if it was just him and me alone, he’d be different. Perhaps that crackle of tension between us would return.
“Well, don’t make her more apprehensive than she already must be,” Craig said. “I’ve got a good feeling about her. Anyway, things can’t get any worse.”
Craig shook my hand and left me alone with Jimmy and the other clerks. Life in an office involved a lot more hand-shaking than a restaurant ever had; hopefully there’d be less ass grabbing at the same time.
“So, I’ll show you through here,” Jimmy said, leading the way through the archway to where Craig had said the admin staff sat.
Jimmy showed me to the only free desk, which was pushed up against two walls. I’d be facing the corner like I was being punished.
“And can I see what Knight—Mr. Knightley is working on from my computer?” It felt weird calling a man who didn’t seem much older than me mister. It was so formal.
Jimmy shook his head. “No, because the barristers are all self-employed they aren’t networked. Only the clerks, finance, and admin.”
Well, that was going to make life difficult. How would I see what he was working on? “So, I either ask him or hack into his computer?”
Jimmy laughed, but I wasn’t joking. I used to enjoy hacking into MIT’s systems for sport when I was at college. I was sure Knightley’s computer wouldn’t be so difficult.
“He won’t answer questions about his billing, not even when they come from Craig. So, yes, I guess hacking is your only option.” He grinned as if we were sharing a joke, so I smiled along with him, but my stomach churned. He clearly thought that I had an impossible task, that I’d been set up for failure. At least when I was waitressing, no one actively tried to stop me delivering plates to the tables.
“You think I have no chance?”
He shrugged. “I think people before you have tried and failed.”
I folded my arms. “If sorting this out is impossible, then I don’t know why I’m here.”
“Mr. Knightley is a very important name in chambers. His father was the barrister of his generation and our Mr. Knightley attracts a lot of attention because of that. And he’s brilliant—he really is. Clients love him.” Jimmy seemed to have real respect for Knightley, which gave me a little hope that despite being described as a monster, perhaps there was a softer side of him that would be open to me helping him, like the one he’d shown me this morning. “He’s going to follow right along in his father’s footsteps, but he can’t take on the bigger cases while his office is a shithole—sorry, I mean it’s in disarray and he’s not working efficiently. He’s doing everything himself and he’s going to burn out. He needs to get into the habit of letting people help him.”
Disarray was right. I’d never seen so much paper in my life. There were floor-to-ceiling piles of the stuff. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with it all. Craig had said in the interview that I’d get some help in figuring it out, but it seemed a little overwhelming at the moment. It was weird because he was perfectly dressed and had not a hair out of place—how was his office such a mess?
“And his billing has to get sorted. Chambers can’t afford to get a reputation for not billing properly or mismanaging finances. That looks bad on the clerks, particularly Craig. And if Mr. Knightley isn’t earning what he should, that’s bad for all of us, him included. At the bar, money equals success. Unfortunately, Mr. Knightley doesn’t see it that way.”
I didn’t know where to even start. “So how would you go about it?”
Jimmy pulled in a long breath and shook his head. “Honestly, it’s going to be tricky. I think you need to try to keep out of his way as much as possible. If it were any other barrister, I’d say go into his office when they were out and start on the filing. Once he sees how useful you can be, you might be able to help him more. The problem is Knightley works around the clock.”
Jesus, who was this guy? Didn’t he have friends or family? He couldn’t work every hour of the day, surely.
“The only time I can guarantee he’s not in his office is when he’s in court.”
“Perfect. So does he go to court every day?”
Jimmy chuckled. “No, but he starts a big case in three days. There’s a master calendar in the clerks’ office of when all of the barristers are in court.”
That seemed like a good place to start, but what was I going to do for the next three days? I’d never worked in an office before, but I’d graduated summa cum laude from MIT. This job couldn’t be beyond me. I just needed to come up with a plan. A way to organize Knightley and turn him into an example for this chambers rather than someone who was going to stunt his career and the reputation of this chambers and the clerks in it.
And if he asked me for a drink at some point along the way, I might just say yes. Or suggest we skip the drink bit and get right to the good part.