I’m not very good at reunions. I get oddly apprehensive. But last night my old firm of lawyers had a dinner for retired partners in their new offices in the City of London. They now occupy ten floors of an enormous tower with impressive views if you like seeing equally enormous pieces of multiple fenestration. It’s the first time London has felt like Manhatten.
I went. It’s been three years since the last get together courtesy of Covid and the firm has its first female senior partner so I thought I should put in a cameo.
And, of course, it was delightful. I met former colleagues who I’d forgotten I actually quite liked. Oh sure, there were the usual smattering of hawing arseholes dotted about but in my time we reached 500 plus partners (there were 36 when I walked through the front door in July 1981 – actually it was a revolving door and I can remember thinking it had to be a get ahead business to have one of those). In amongst 500 partners you would inevitably find the odd jackass, charlatan and greasy sychophant. But there were many who ate their soup properly, didn’t always talk about great rounds of golf and understood that Douglas Adams was a genius.
It’s been a while since I retired. Some haven’t changed much, most have the sort of glow that is denied the habitually nocturnal beige complexion that is the continuing lot of successful lawyers. But some are showing their age and the years of stress and sandwiches that feed businesses.
It wasn’t all great. Putting on shoes that compliment the suit I was expected to wear led to a crippling blister that had me lurching like the drunk I’m not. And I have a bespoke seafood allergy that was confused with another guest who avoid lactose so for a time I was denied my pudding.
But a small price to pay for renewing some aged old contacts. Those years chiselling deals out of the intransigent granite of stubborn clients and intractable competitors weren’t entirely wasted.
TanGental 
I love the mugs! I worked for a German woman for ten years, as a sales clerk in her gift shop. When I left she gave me a mug, the same mug I had been using on my coffee break for the past ten years! When I unwrapped it, a pearl ring fell out of it, so all was forgiven. I still have the mug, 40 years later. Use it almost every day. Hardly ever wear the ring. It’s nice to see old colleagues from time to time.
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What a lovely gift. Yes the catch up exceeded expectations
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🤭🤭🤭🤭
Got to admit, that mug is funny!!!
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Yes I have to concede that
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😁
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You and I retired the same year. Of course, you were still dashing. I was a 70-year-old codger.
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.I’ve always stumbled more than dashed in truth
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There is honor in a well placed stumble.
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If one can carry it off with poise and grace I think there’s something of the dying swan to it…
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Geoff that’s so lovely. Love the cup 💜
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Oh my goodness! The mugs are brilliant. I was a bookkeeper for a law firm in Montana. I also was an accounting paralegal for the estate attorneys. I can’t say those were all good times, but sometimes I miss the attorneys.
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Yes it is the people I remember most fondly.. well some..
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Yes, that’s usually the way. 😀
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2012 was a good year to retire!
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It turned in 2013 before it finally happened!
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Love the mug! Need to get that for my hubby. Pretty sure I wouldn’t not go back to the places I’ve worked.
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It worked out fine as it always does…
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I retired in 2012 too. I can’t quite believe it’s been so long.
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I know. Tempus fugits doesn’t it!?
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Oh golly, the last work related reunion I went to was too darn depressing. My former boss (a deeply beloved man) had just been diagnosed with dementia and to watch him suffer to remember people and old times was painful. I don’t think he even recognized me. But happy you had a more positive experience (despite the blisters).
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Yes so far but there are an increasing number of empty chairs
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I get quite apprehensive and a tad nervous about meeting up with folk I haven’t seen before or for a while. There is much to be said about early retirement if you’re able too.
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Yes I’m lucky to have been in that position. Now it’s not wasting the opportunity
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In hindsight, having an early “retirement” was the best decision for us. Having a new Porsche wasn’t on our to-do list, so all good 😉
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I married a wise woman who resisted any and all male midlife monstrosities from our shopping lists. I wanted a sports car; I received a cake in the shape of one. Very sensible.
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She is a wise woman. We did discuss the fun merits of a vintage car after my brother brought one. Thankfully, we shrugged that folly off our list. A car cake is a better option.
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I think appreciating the genius that is Douglas Adams is a fine criterion for character assessment.
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Quite.
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You kept us waiting until the end to find out what was on the other side of the mug 🙂
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Ah that’s quite a philosophy. What is there on the other side of the mug?
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Great mugs, Geoff.
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They are!
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A mug for a mug, is one of my coffee friend’s favourite sayings. As much as I love photography, I’ve never done one of those photo mugs. That said, I’m feeling a bit tempted to do some family mugs with photos of us as young children on them. That could be fun, except our mug cupboard like every other cupboard is exploding.
Best wishes,
Rowena
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We have Dog mugs and, in a boost to my ego, book cover mugs!
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I love the sound of the book cover mugs. Oh to have had my own books published to put their photos on mugs, but I’m getting there. Might do that for my aunt now that you’ve mentioned it.
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Go for it they make perfect mugs
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The mug is hilarious – love it! I have only gone back to my department once since retirement – it has changed so much – physically and politically – I would feel uncomfortable. But I do like the football and basketball games, a benefit of working at a university.
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Everything changes while sometimes seeming to stay the same
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Hi Geoff, I am slightly gobsmacked that your firm had its first female senior partner so recently. I would have thought you had a number by now. Admittedly, a lot of our female partners are not married and don’t have children. It sounds like it was good to catch up with your peers.
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It’s a pretty grim indictment, for sure. When I joined in 1981 there were two and that remained the case until the year I became a partner in 1987. It would have been about 1995 when someone pointed out there were 13% female partners . Some of us were very conscious of the weakness – the many micro aggressions – that held back women, anyone from any sort of minority – as we expanded around the globe. It made it no better than we were the second best globally in terms of female legal representation as
after the Wall St white shoe firms in those years. A lot of work has been done to try and redress the balance. But blimey it’s still a work in progress and we… they … should be better than that.
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Ah well, change is slow and painful. I chose not to be a partner because my family is more important to me than the additional money and I didn’t want to give more of my time and energy to the firm. I have never regretted that decision.
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Back in the 80s that wasn’t an option (not sure I would have taken it anyway). You reached 6-7 years post qualification experience and either became a partner or left. There wasn’t the structure for senior professionals who didn’t make it. That became possible maybe by the end of the century. In truth, these days the work life balance isn’t much different between partners and senior professionals. Not a lot of part time roles when I left though we trialed several in my department. Most people understand these things are structurally unsustainable.
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