Client Relations

I don't usually do divorce litigation. I, Brent Langston, am the civil trial specialist at a midsized firm in the Midwestern part of the United States. I do all sorts of litigation, and have for the last twelve years, but I try to avoid "family law" since the emotions are so high and things are so acrimonious. However, the senior partners of my firm begged me to take the divorce case of the president of one of our largest clients.

The client is Advot Tech one of those multi-billion dollar companies that is unknown to the public but a leader in their industry (jet components) and its president is Hugh Jorgenson.

At the time that I was beseeched to take the divorce action between Hugh Jorgenson and his wife Melinda I had been hoping to cut back for a while to spend more time with my lovely wife Amanda. Amanda is a High School teacher. While her job is hard, and I'm quite sure that I could never do it, she does have more free time than I do and I wanted to spend more quality time with her.

I discussed the situation with Amanda including how hard I would have to work on the trial; to my surprise she actually knew who Hugh and Melinda Jorgenson were and apparently had met them on a couple of occasions. She encouraged me to take it as long as we planned a trip to the Caribbean when the case ended -- which would most likely be in the winter.

I met with Hugh and didn't like him; he seemed to be an egotistical asshole who because he was good-looking, young for someone in his position, and rich, had an air of superiority about him. I also didn't like the fact that he drove a Bentley -- how ostentatious. However the case would be a cash cow and some of my partners weren't doing as well financially as I was so I yielded to pressure and took the case -- especially since Amanda had not only given me the green light but encouraged me to take it.

The main issue in the case of Jorgenson v Jorgenson was adultery; Hugh's adultery. Considering that Hugh was pompous it didn't surprise me that Melinda was claiming adultery. While in most states adultery as the precipitating cause of the divorce action has no effect on the end result in this case it was a big deal because of the prenuptial agreement that Hugh and Melinda had signed.

According to my accounting expert if Hugh could be proven by clear and convincing evidence (the evidentiary standard set forth in the prenup, which is more strict than preponderance of the evidence but not as strict as beyond a reasonable doubt) to have committed adultery Melinda would be able to be awarded (among other material things) roughly $45,000,000, whereas if it was not shown she'd get about $1,500,000. According to Melina's expert the discrepancy was even greater (50.5 million compared to 1.75 million). Only about 9% of contested divorce cases actually go to trial and most of them are where custody issues are involved. In this case custody was not an issue because they had no kids but at least about $44,000,000 difference between the parties positions made this case likely to go to trial especially since Hugh was dead set against offering a settlement.

I pursued this case as diligently as any other case that I ever had, despite my dislike for Hugh. While I would have done this anyway regardless of my feelings about my client I was inspired to work harder on his behalf because he strongly maintained his innocence and a number of potential witnesses that I talked to -- including his secretary and a waitress who were supposedly his paramours -- maintained that they did not have a sexual relationship with him.

Melinda had hired a pit bull as her attorney, Betty Gross -- her name was appropriate because regardless of her brilliance as an attorney she was physically gross -- who specialized in representing wronged women. She had a slight advantage over me since she had more "family law" trials than I had, although I had many more trials overall than she did.

There were lots of contentious issues during discovery especially the depositions of the parties. Despite her best efforts Betty was not able to fluster Hugh during his deposition. Despite being a jerk it was obvious that Hugh was a skilled and smart businessman because he retained his cool throughout and followed my directions exactly. My instructions were: only answer the question asked, don't volunteer information, ask for clarification if there is any confusion whatsoever about a question, and never be flippant or sarcastic. Most clients have a problem with at least one of those issues, but not Hugh.

In some ways I wished that I was representing Melinda instead of Hugh even though I thought -- based upon everything that I could find -- that Melinda's case bordered on frivolous. She seemed to be either reading way too much into events that had other more logical explanations, or she was simply being a gold-digger. The reason that I would rather have represented Melinda, however, was because she seemed to be a kind and gentle woman, someone who I could not believe had ever been attracted to Hugh in view of his personality (not his looks or wealth).

I swear that my view of Melinda was not colored by the fact that even though she was five years older than I am she was the hottest woman that I had ever seen in my life -- even hotter than my wife Amanda, who I had thought was the hottest. Melinda's hair is better than anyone in a TV hair commercial, her legs and ass are works of art, her face could launch as many ships as Helen of Troy, and her boobs -- well I'll stop there since I'm getting carried away.

In my state all divorce cases, regardless of the issues, are bench trials. If it were a jury trial I really would have been worried because Melinda's personality and looks would definitely have biased all hetero male jurors, and most female ones, in her favor.

I was more polite to Melinda than I can ever remember being to any other adverse party in any other litigation that I ever had. I like to believe it is because she was herself so polite and personable, but I can't deny that her stunning looks had something to do with it. There are several instances that stand out in my mind.

I had gotten to the courthouse early one day for a hearing in the case. While Hugh never attended hearings, Melinda often did. When I got to the courthouse I got a text that the hearing had been delayed for an hour so I went to the courthouse cafeteria to get some breakfast. It was crowded, but I did get a table for two that serendipitously opened up.

I had taken only a few bites when I saw Melinda walking around the room with her breakfast tray, looking for a place to sit. My table had the only open seat. Melinda smiled at me. "Mr. Langston, do you mind if I sit at your table? There are no other open seats and I'm very hungry."

I stood up. "I would be pleased if you would, Mrs. Jorgenson, but there are two conditions. One, you have to make it clear to anyone who asks that you initiated the situation; and two, we cannot talk about our case at all, or even about the law in general."

"I have no problem with either," she smiled, so I pulled back the open chair at my table for her and she sat down.

While eating -- and then sipping coffee -- over the next 30-40 minutes I had one of the most pleasant conversations I've ever had in my life. Not only was the woman extremely nice, considerate, and gorgeous, but she was highly intelligent. There was a temporary downer, however, when after most of the cafeteria had cleared out her attorney came walking by.

"You know that it is inappropriate to talk to my client, Langston," Betty snarled at me when she approached my table.

"Don't get your panties in a bunch, Betty," Melinda chuckled. "When I sat down the place was packed and this was the only table and I initiated the contact. Also, Mr. Langston and I not only didn't talk about the case, but didn't even talk about the law. Is it time for the hearing?"

"Yes," Betty growled giving me the stink I.

"Why don't you go with Ms. Gross, Mrs. Jorgenson, I'll clear our trays, and then I'll be in the courtroom a few minutes after you two."

"Thank you, Mr. Langston," Melinda said, and then left with Gross, who was still giving me the stink eye.

A second situation occurred when after a deposition of a third party witness that I took at a location about thirty miles out of town-- again Melinda attended most of the proceedings including this one even though Hugh attended virtually none -- as I was driving to my office I saw Melinda standing outside her car on the side of the road. I stopped to help.

"Is there a problem, Mrs. Jorgenson?" I inquired.

"Yes, I have a flat tire -- the rear one on the drivers' side," she replied, distraught.

"I can change it," I replied taking off my suit jacket. However, when I looked in her trunk there was no spare.

When I pointed out the lack of a spare to her she sighed "I had another flat two weeks ago and I was negligent in not replacing the spare," she sighed.

"There's a garage just up the road," I said. "Let me drive you there; you shouldn't stand by your car alone," I continued.

We had another very pleasant chat as I drove her about three miles to the garage. I made sure that they could immediately help her before I left, charmed by her 1000 watt smile and "Thank you," as I did so.

When I took Melinda's deposition -- the only one that Hugh attended -- I was also unfailingly polite. Since she was straightforward in her answers there was no reason to be rude. At breaks, however, Hugh encouraged me to get nasty with her. I told him that was counterproductive and I remained polite. At one break he yelled at me to be tougher. I got in his face and told him "If you don't like how I practice law I'll happily resign from the case." That shut him ups since he saw from all of the other things I had done in the case that he was getting the best representation possible.

In actuality I got more from Melinda's deposition by being nice than I would have by being aggressive.

***********

As the case proceeded I was confused by two things that I never put together; I only put them together later with the benefit of hindsight; they were unconnected random facts at the time. The facts: Hugh was not available after hours for discussions and even skipped some trial afternoons; and Amanda had all sorts of questions about the case and about my schedule.

I would have thought that Hugh would have considered the potential to lose at least 44 million dollars a real incentive to meet with me whenever I needed him to.

Amanda was almost never curious about my lawsuits or schedule, in fact she had ever only come to one day of a trial I was conducting and that was the day of closing arguments in a jury trial that got national attention. However, since this lawsuit started she questioned me about it -- and about my schedule -- constantly.

The depositions of Hugh's alleged paramours, who I'll call Sue and Lue, went pretty well. Betty was not able to find any evidence that they had been paid off and since they were both single they didn't have to lie to protect their status, therefore despite some inconclusive photographs they could testify with a straight face that they never had committed adultery with Hugh. However, the definition of adultery had also become an issue during the trial.

"Adultery" was not precisely defined in the prenup; Hugh asserted that it included only oral sex and actual intercourse; Melinda averred that it included hand jobs and finger fucking, although that wasn't clear from the testimony either.

I was putting in long hours working on this matter because the stakes were so high. In addition to fact witnesses I was also dealing with "experts." You wouldn't think that experts would be needed in a case like this -- I mean we weren't talking about brain surgery or rocket science -- but both sides seemed to want to leave no stone unturned so both sides had psychological as well as financial experts.

When I would get home at night Amanda would quiz me about the day; I was sometimes too tired for sex and sometimes she wasn't receptive, but any time I could get it up I was very anxious. Despite being as pleasant as usual, however, Amanda seemed to be less amorous when we got between the sheets. Every chance I got, however, I reminded her about our escape to the Caribbean once the trial was over.

************

The trial seemed to go well through presentation of most of the evidence. Melinda's side went first, then us. When the trial day concluded after our evidence presentation Hugh beat it out of the courtroom immediately, ignoring my request for him to talk to me since Melinda's side said that they were going to present a short rebuttal the next day, and we might have closing arguments then too.

I needed to look over possible cross-examination for a potential rebuttal witness and also to work some more on my closing argument so I went to my office. Amanda was out-of-town visiting her sister that night and staying at her sister's house so there was no urgency to get home. I was done with what I could accomplish by about 7:30.

As I was leaving my office there was a flyer on my car's windshield about a Schlotzsky's restaurant that had just opened up in a part of town that was close to my office but not in a direction that I normally went. I hadn't had a muffuletta -- Schlotzsky's specialty -- in years and I loved them, so off I went.

The muffuletta was just as good as I had remembered. It was the last "joy" I had for quite a while.

As I went onto a one-way street form the restaurant and turned toward the main highway I was in back of a new construction relatively nice motel. Parked in the back of the motel, way away from the entrance and main highway, was a car that looked suspiciously like Amanda's; enough like it so that I turned into the lot. Given the "If You Can Read This Thank A Teacher" bumper sticker -- which was what drew me in initially -- and after shining a flashlight on the license plate, it was clear that it was Amanda's.

I walked around toward the front of the motel hoping that she and her sister -- who lived ninety miles away -- were there for some reason. Instead I saw Hugh's Bentley, parked near the front.

I was presented with the problem of how to find out exactly what was going on. I got lucky. I called Hugh's cellphone and heard it ring in a room close to where his car was parked. After at least four rings he finally answered. I asked him some dumb question -- he obviously was irritated by it but by that point I didn't give a shit. After I terminated the call I went close to the room -- 144 -- where I heard the ringing and could make out Amada's and Hugh's distinctive voices although I could catch only a few words. I did hear mutual laughter, however, which almost caused me to break through the door.

I calmed down and then was hit by a brainstorm. Since I was Hugh's attorney and the judge would never let me withdraw at this stage I had to do the best that I could to represent him. However, as a wronged husband I could do other things as long as I represented him in court to the best of my ability.

I went to a convenience store next to the motel, bought a burner phone, and dialed opposing counsel Betty Gross. Disguising my voice the best that I could I said "If you want to win your trial immediately get your P I, with camera and microphone, to Room 144 at the Laughlin Motel on Lakefront Drive," and then terminated the call.

I parked out of the way and waited; exactly sixteen minutes after my call to Betty two P Is that I knew worked for Betty came roaring up. One had a video camera, the other a microphone that could pick up all sounds in a room through a window, and some other equipment that I didn't recognize. I drove home.

Since the trial was almost over you might wonder how could Hugh's cheating now affect the case.

In a normal case it would just show his character.

In this case, however, it was a game-changer. Both the prenup and an order from the Judge made it clear that all marriage terms and conditions -- including the need to refrain from adultery -- were in effect until a divorce was actually granted or the parties had both signed a waiver. Melinda has refused to sign a waiver when we presented it to her.

I had a bad night's sleep. Apparently Hugh's was worse.

When Hugh arrived at trial the next morning his first words were "We need to settle, now."

Betty was standing across the courtroom with a shit-eating grin on her face.

"What's the problem?" I asked, playing dumb.

"No reason to discuss it; just settle the fucking case. Offer her $25,000,000 and no appeal and I'll pay for her attorney fees and costs," he grumbled.

I pulled Betty into a conference room; her grin still plastered on her face. I told her what Hugh was offering. "I've already talked to Melinda; $30 million and attorney fees and costs and you have a deal."

I called Hugh's cellphone and he agreed to $27.5 million. I offered it to Betty and she took it.

We immediately went in to see the Judge, the trial was suspended, and by 4:00 p. m. we had the signed documents and Melinda had a check for roughly $29.6 million (which covered her attorney fees and costs as well as the $27.5 settlement). All documents, evidence collected, and anything having to do with the motel (although it was phrased cleverly) was to ever remain confidential.

I felt good about screwing Hugh out of $29 million since we had at least a 90% chance to win before he was caught with his pants down. Now I had to decide what to do about Amanda.

***********

Using a dumb excuse that I thought Amanda wouldn't fall for I begged off contact with her the night the trial ended. I didn't know exactly what had happened at the motel and I wanted to see if I could find out. I had one of my male associates call her and tell her that I got drunk celebrating the end of the trial and my associates had put me up at one of their apartment's right next to the courthouse. My associate said that she sounded "relieved." I guess that she needed to get her story straight.

The next day I went to see the P Is who were at the motel. I had used them myself in the past so I had a good relationship with them. I asked them enough questions, and they answered them with enough skill, that I knew that they had excellent sound and video that identified "a married woman of interest" (Amanda) without them really disclosing any confidential information.

Having had a day to get a grip I did the best acting job of my life the next week while I put my plan in action. This included fucking Amanda regularly. I was surprised that by viewing her as a high priced call girl I had no problem fucking the cheating slut. She even complimented me on my performance several nights.

I was only able to do what I wanted because I had gone to law school one semester with Rhondalee Braithwaite-Knowles, the recently appointed Attorney General of Turks and Caicos Islands. I had been nicer to her than anyone else during that semester -- during which she was on an exchange program -- and had actually sent her a present when I found out that she had been appointed attorney general about a year earlier.

I got Amanda a first class ticket to Turks and Caicos for our Caribbean vacation after the trial ended, and convinced her that I had to fly to join her from a client's office in another city. She was so relieved that I hadn't found out about her motel liaison with Hugh (I know that it wasn't the only one) that she wasn't on guard like she might have been.

I slipped a clip of bullets into the liner of Amanda's suitcase before I left for my fake trip to my client's office. I had a P I watch her to make sure that she had her suitcase with her, that she checked it, and that she got on the plane. I had removed the powder from the bullets so once that was determined it wouldn't cause her problems; but the authorities in Turks and Caicos wouldn't know that until they were told.