A first taste of the law firm
Lin Feng walked out of the residential building still reeling from the farce, completely shutting out the wailing, sirens, and chaos behind him.
The morning air carried a slight chill. He took a deep breath, adjusting his breathing as if to dispel the unpleasant, foul odor from the elevator. He checked the time, quickened his pace, and headed towards the "Junyue Law Firm," where Lawyer Zhou worked.
"Junyue" occupies a full half-floor in a high-end office building in the city center. Behind the gleaming glass doors is a spacious, high-ceilinged reception area, decorated in a modern, minimalist, cool color scheme, exuding the rationality and distance characteristic of the legal profession. However, it was still early, and the large office area seemed somewhat deserted, with only a few figures busy at work.
As Lawyer Zhou previously mentioned, the law firm operates on a flexible work system, without strict clocking in and out. However, this so-called "flexibility" has drastically different meanings for lawyers at different levels.
What came into Lin Feng's view were several men and women who looked to be around his age or even younger; they were all referred to as "trainee lawyers" or "legal assistants."
At this moment, they are scattered in various corners of the office area, doing work that seems to have little to do with the law profession—some are carefully wiping each desk and computer screen with rags; some are painstakingly changing the empty water bottles on the water dispenser; and others are using brooms and mops to clean up the fine dust left over from last night.
They moved swiftly, but their faces bore a hint of weariness and a numb acceptance of their newfound experience. This is a true reflection of the working-class environment at the bottom of law firms:
Nominally, they are the future legal elites, but in reality, they bear a large amount of tedious administrative and logistical tasks. Picking up takeout, collecting packages, photocopying documents, organizing case files, and cleaning are commonplace. The so-called "weekends off" and "9-to-5" are often just benefits on paper. Working overtime until late at night and being available on call on weekends is the norm. The workload is extremely heavy, making them typical "law firm laborers."
In stark contrast to these busy figures are the formally appointed lawyers who have yet to arrive. Their workstations are spacious and tidy, with heavy legal books and case files piled on their desks, but they enjoy true "flexibility." Unless there are urgent court hearings or client meetings, they can mostly arrange their time at the firm relatively freely. They are busy when there are cases and relatively relaxed when there are no cases. Their pressure comes more from the sources of cases and the cases themselves.
As for renowned lawyers like Zhou Wenyuan, they occupy an even higher position in this pyramid. Their relationship with law firms is more like a deep collaboration, even mutually beneficial.
Law firms rely on their reputation and caseload to enhance their brand value and revenue, therefore granting them maximum freedom.
For them, whether they come to the office or not is irrelevant. As long as they are willing to have their names registered under the law firm, it is an intangible asset in itself, and the law firm is willing to pay high salaries and profit sharing to maintain this relationship.
Lawyer Zhou originally planned to pick up Lin Feng in person this morning and show him around, but Lin Feng felt that being treated so "specially" on his first day of work would not be appropriate, so he declined and chose to come by himself.
Lin Feng walked quietly into the office area; his appearance did not attract much attention.
The interns who were cleaning only glanced up at him. Seeing that he was a stranger and not dressed particularly formally (compared to the full suits commonly seen in law firms), they assumed he was a client whom a lawyer had arranged to meet in advance or a new administrative staff member, and then lowered their heads to continue their work.
Lin Feng's gaze swept over the slightly messy public area, and he saw the busy figures of the young people, and pondered for a moment.
He took off his casual suit jacket and neatly draped it over the back of an empty chair at the workstation next to him. Then he rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt, walked to the tool storage area, picked up a rag, and naturally joined in wiping down the desks.
His actions initially startled a Glasses male intern lawyer next to him. The man quickly stopped what he was doing and waved his hand somewhat awkwardly. "Uh, hello, who are you...? We can do these tasks, no need to trouble you."
Lin Feng continued working, saying calmly, "It's alright, I'm the new assistant, Lin Feng. Let's all work together, hurry up."
"A new assistant?" The intern lawyers were somewhat surprised and looked at each other. In a law firm, new assistants usually spend their first day familiarizing themselves with the environment, looking at documents, or being assigned to run errands. This was the first time they had seen someone volunteer to do cleaning and miscellaneous tasks right away.
However, Lin Feng's attitude was very natural. He didn't try to flatter them or act superior. He simply felt that there was work to be done and that many hands make light work. After their initial surprise, they relaxed, nodded as a greeting, and continued with their own tasks. The atmosphere seemed to have become a little more lively because of the addition of one of their own.
As the group was engrossed in cleaning, the glass door was pushed open, and a middle-aged lawyer, who was overweight and wore a tight-fitting suit, sauntered in. He looked to be in his forties, with slicked-back hair, but his face was somewhat puffy and he had heavy bags under his eyes.
He entered, bringing with him a faint smell of cooking oil. He plopped down at a workstation not far from the door—his seat. He took a few breaths, as if walking those few steps had exhausted him, then, without looking up, habitually raised his voice:
"Xiao Wang! Where is he? Go downstairs and buy me some soy milk and fried dough sticks from Old Liu. Hurry, I'm starving!"
The Glasses intern lawyer (Xiao Wang) who had just spoken to Lin Feng stiffened almost imperceptibly, a look of extreme reluctance flashing across his face. He silently put down the rag in his hand, tidied it up, and replied in a low voice, "Okay, Lawyer Chen." Then, with his head down, he quickly walked out of the office area.
While the chubby lawyer wasn't looking, another female intern lawyer glanced at Xiao Wang's Back View and silently mouthed to her colleague, "Here we go again."
Several lawyers in the firm have a poor attitude towards interns, especially this overweight lawyer surnamed Chen.
He not only frequently made interns run errands to buy various personal items, but he also never paid them, euphemistically calling it "paying in advance," but he almost never returned the money afterward.
He was always bossy when assigning tasks, treating interns like his personal servants, ordering them around and scolding them at the drop of a hat.
Most importantly, while other lawyers have interns do odd jobs in their spare time, they also assign some professional tasks or offer guidance in the process, which can be considered a form of "tuition fee."
This Lawyer Chen, only assigned interns purely manual labor and errands. Whenever it came to core case materials or communication with clients, he would immediately shut the interns away as if they were thieves, so they couldn't learn anything substantial.
Lawyer Chen sat in his chair for a while, seemingly only then noticing the unfamiliar face in the office area. He raised his eyelids, his cloudy gaze sweeping over Lin Feng, who was wiping the desk at the next workstation. Seeing Lin Feng's rolled-up sleeves as he worked, he subconsciously categorized him as a new intern lawyer.
He tapped the table with his knuckles, making a "knock-knock" sound, and said in a commanding tone, as if it were an absolute matter, in Lin Feng's direction:
"Hey, you there? New here, right? Stop wiping, go get me a cup of hot water." As she spoke, she pushed her well-worn, slightly chipped thermos forward on her desk.
Lin Feng continued wiping the table without pausing, not even lifting his head, as if he hadn't heard a thing. The arrogant, condescending tone of Lawyer Chen filled him with disgust. He hadn't come here to suffer such treatment, much less to serve as a servant to someone like him.
Lawyer Chen was taken aback when the newcomer dared to ignore him, then a surge of anger welled up inside him. In this office area, which intern lawyer didn't tremble with fear and obey his every command? He felt his authority challenged, and his voice immediately rose eight octaves, filled with obvious displeasure and reprimand:
"Hey you! New guy! Are you got your ears stuffed with donkey hair? Did you hear me? I told you to go get me a glass of water!"
Lin Feng finally stopped what he was doing. He placed the rag aside, slowly straightened up, and calmly turned his gaze to Lawyer Chen. His eyes held no trace of a newcomer's timidity or fear, only an unfathomable indifference. He was about to speak—
Just then, his cell phone in his pocket started buzzing and ringing.
Lin Feng glanced at Lawyer Chen, ignoring the latter's increasingly unpleasant expression due to being ignored, calmly took out his phone from his pocket, glanced at the caller ID, and pressed the answer button.
"Hello?" he answered the phone while walking briskly towards the corridor outside the office area, completely leaving Lawyer Chen's livid face and impending rage behind.