that it was opening a criminal investigation into the accident. Although Roth Properties was not a target of the probe, the developer had been hit with a subpoena seeking virtually every document in the company’s files relating to the construction of the Aurora.
If that wasn’t enough to get the billable hours flowing, Simon Roth had also directed Blake to file a libel suit against the New York Journal. They’d just survived the paper’s motion to dismiss and were proceeding with discovery, which Duncan was heading up. He was scheduled to depose the reporter who’d written the article, Candace Snow, later in the week.
While there were a dozen or so Blake and Wolcott associates working on the various Roth matters, Duncan was the only person besides Blake who was connected to all of them. For the past six months virtually all of Duncan’s working hours had been occupied with the affairs of Roth Properties. This wasn’t ideal from Duncan’s perspective, but it wasn’t the kind of thing he could complain about either.
Aside from providing a general update on the state of play of the various cases, the purpose of the present meeting was to discuss a particular piece of bad news: the firm’s motion to dismiss Roth Properties from the wrongful-death suit had just been rejected by the court, meaning the company would have to proceed with turning over documents and submitting its executives to depositions.
“What did I just say?” Roth burst out, interrupting Blake’s summary of what the company would have to produce. “They want to depose me?”
Blake shook his head. “For starters, they want your son, and Preston. If they do drop a depo subpoena on you, we can always try to quash, since it’s a matter of public record that Jeremy was taking the lead on the project and you weren’t directly involved. The good news on the documents, anyway, is that we’ve already collected everything relevant for the DA’s subpoena.”
“You know how much time I’ve spent being deposed the past year? Three full days. That’s more time than I spent on vacation.”
“As I recall, you were down at our place in the Caymans for most of February,” Jeremy Roth said to his father.
Simon glared at his son, who didn’t meet his eyes. “Just because I’m in the Caymans doesn’t mean I’m not working,” he growled. “I can get more accomplished down there than the rest of you get done without me up here.”
“I’m sure you actually believe that,” Jeremy said. Duncan was surprised by the adolescent nature of Jeremy’s sullenness with his father, and that he was willing to indulge it in a business meeting.
“I believe a lot of things that are true,” Simon shot back.
“In any event,” Blake said, ignoring the sniping, “discovery’s going to happen. We need to prep everybody, go over stuff. You know the drill.”
“I’ll be coordinating things from our end,” Leah Roth said softly, her cool demeanor a world apart from her father and brother.
“Duncan here will be our point guy on the day-to-day,” Blake said, draping a paternalistic hand on Duncan’s shoulder. Duncan smiled at Leah, who looked back at him, her own expression unchanging.
“So, you need to take up any more of my day with this crap?” Simon said, pushing his chair back from the table.
“We still on for lunch?” Blake asked him.
Simon checked his watch. “As long as you promise you’re not going to try to bill me for it.”
Leah looked at her father, then back to Duncan. “You have time to set up a to-do list now?”
Duncan readily agreed and the meeting broke up. Leah picked up a phone on a side table and asked her assistant to have lunch brought in for them. Duncan was annoyed with Blake for not bothering with a heads-up about his own lunch with Simon Roth, although he should be used to such offhand slights by now. Blake wasn’t a yeller or an all-around prick like a lot of partners, but he was brusque and elusive, as well as expecting something like mind reading from those who worked for him. But the law was not a profession for those who wanted their hands held.
And besides, part of the idea of coming to a meeting like this was for Duncan to get to know the next generation of Roths. Duncan was at the point in his career that was less about acquiring new legal skills and more about developing relationships and connections to start growing his own book of business, assuming that his