"You can't have a law office on top of Gibby's restaurant."
Michael, my lawyer friend was adamant.
"Come with me." He dragged me to another office on the floor.
"Look who's occupying it. An artist with no shirt!.
No self respecting client is going to come to you if you rent in this building.
And look at the street. Broken windows, abandoned buildings. You've got to be kidding!"
Too late. I respected Michael greatly as a lawyer. And I completely ignored his advice.
I had fallen madly in love with the available space.
And I rented it.
Youville Stables - made up of a couple of buildings in a magnificent courtyard in Old Montreal -
had originally been the base for the Grey Nuns. This was history that dated back centuries.
Listen Audio, Montreal's well known audio production house was located in one of them.
The available space I was renting had one wall of massive stone 3-feet deep.
The floors were made up of 12-inch wide pine boards stained deep brown.
The outer office was perfect for a secretary, and outside her office i shared
the receptionist for the other tenants on the floor.
Included in my rental package was a small separate office perfect for subleasing
a year later to a sex therapist. (I didn't tell Michael!)
For the next month, i ignored practicing law and instead practiced interior decorating.
And in between I looked for a secretary.
I advertised and waited for the calls to come in.
And they came in with a vengeance.
Over a hundred!
What to do?
And then it hit me.
I would incorporate the telephone operators of the answering service to be my "personnel" department.
(remember these were "primitive" communication 1975 pre-internet days when real live people were
employed to answer the telephone)
"Look guys, you get real, live messages.
I'm sure you've formed your opinion of which person behind the voice you would hire.
And which voice you would hang up on - if you had the chance!
So, on the telephone message slip, why don't you write down your opinion:
'This is a keeper' or, 'YUK!'”
And that is how I discovered Suzanne.
I interviewed her on the phone.
For some reason I answered in a snippy way.
SHE LAUGHED IT AWAY!
I HIRED HER IMMEDIATELY!
We were together for 10 years!
I was now ready for my first client.
And he came puffing up the stairs.
Snippets from my life as a lawyer Part 2
