An American Family Saga

Chambers Lane Series by Daniel Maldonado

Series Excerpt

The elevator door opened to a marble and dark cherry wood lobby with a platinum-plated plaque indicating that the law firm occupied the entire fifteenth floor of the Dial building in midtown Phoenix north of the I-10 interstate. To the right of the elevator bay was the luxuriously decorated reception area that welcomed guests and staff alike. With spatial views of Piestewa Peak and Camelback mountain to the slight northeast and downtown to the south, one could almost see the entire valley from the various windows of the fifteenth floor. But from the reception area, the looming landmark was the Sandra Day O'Connor courthouse housing the federal courts with its six-floor, glassed-enclosed atrium that nearly encompassed the entire length of the north side of the building. An older woman who hailed from North Dakota with her natural long, blond hair and off-blue eyes sat stoically at the receptionist desk in the lobby awaiting any visitors or staff that exited the elevators. She also answered any calls received at the front desk.

“Good morning, Cheryl.”

“Good morning, Daniel.”

It was his daily routine after arriving at the firm around 9 a.m. every morning to first greet the receptionist, grab a bottle of orange juice from the merchandizing refrigerator in the east kitchenette which was stocked full of sodas and juices of every type, including mineral and spring water. Daniel would then walk to his office past his secretary, Lori. He never greeted Lori until after he drank his morning juice, checked his email, and then checked his snail mail which Lori processed every day. One could call it a routine, but hardly precise because Daniel Mendoza, although always early or on time, was not regimented and could care less if he arrived precisely at nine or one minute after or even ten minutes after so long as it was nine-ish. This day was a slightly different day because, unbeknownst to Daniel, when he went to pick up his mail, he learned that two of the shareholders wanted to speak with him this morning. They had left a message with Lori to that effect. Daniel had no idea that such a request was waiting for him that morning and it was unusual for the shareholders to meet with associate attorneys like Daniel. Daniel usually went about his day working his cases. He rarely interacted with any of the shareholders unless he needed their approval or needed their advice on a case.

Before heading to the conference room for the meeting, Daniel decided to stop by the bathroom to freshen up to prepare for what awaited. His navy blue, pin-stripped double-breasted suit was tight fitting and slightly crumby, but his dark blue paisley tie with light pink, diagonal stripes still gave him a slight sophisticated look that he had hoped would give off an air of confidence. Luckily, Daniel had recently visited the barbershop so his dark brown hair laid down in naturally, long wavy curls reminiscent of an inverted “s”, rather than the tight “o”-shaped curls that he had when his hair grew in length. The scent of Creed's Virgin Island Water vaguely wafted from his clothing. He made sure that the blue and silver oval cufflinks were properly fastened. He polished his shoes with the electric shoe buffer that was stored in the men's bathroom on the opposite side of the office away from the guest bathrooms. Daniel stood at only five foot ten inches. He hoped that his Salvatore Ferragamos with their two inch heels would give him some extra height so that he would appear taller in stature during the meeting with the shareholders. He cleaned his semi-rimless Oakley prescription glasses to remove any smudges from his fingers that would inadvertently appear when he often removed his glasses to read the various pleadings or deposition transcriptions or emails throughout the day. Daniel wanted to see clearly and wanted the shareholders to be able to look him in the eyes.

He walked slowly to the main conference room on the south side of the fifteen floor and sat down on one of the black leather chairs encircling the 14-foot long table with its Giallo Veneziano granite and cherry-wood table top that dominated the room. Cheryl had prepared the conference room like she usually did when it is reserved in advance with the typical carafe of Starbucks coffee and a pitcher of iced water. A trio of glass canisters with candy, chips, and other snacks were located adjacent to the refreshments. Nothing seemed out of place or unfamiliar to Daniel.

Bill and Tim were already there awaiting his presence. They sat on the opposite side of the table facing the door, while Daniel sat on a chair facing the southern windows where he could see the federal courthouse in the distance. They politely greeted him and shook his hand as he sat down. They offered him some refreshments, but he eagerly declined.

“Welcome. It's good to see you, Daniel. We don't get to spend as much time together because you are in court a lot,” Bill said because he was the managing partner at the firm. Bill and Daniel began working a lot together in recent years. Bill had a varied past and had worked as a firefighter and volunteered as a police officer before going to law school. His voice and demeanor reflected this.

“We have a couple of things that we wanted to talk to you about now that it is near the end of August,” Tim interrupted. “As you know, this is your eighth year with the firm so you are up for shareholder. We wanted to discuss some things with you about what is going to happen in the next several months before the shareholders vote on whether to extend an offer to you.”

Daniel silently listened. Of the two, he knew that Tim was the more gentler attorney and had the type of personality that went along with everyone and was very friendly. He rarely, if ever, got upset, but his wife, Lisa, would always claim during the firm dinners that Tim would lose his temper at home a lot. No one really believed her. Daniel was simply glad that Richard, the other shareholder, was not a part of the meeting. Richard claimed to be a Christian, but was ruthlessly unsympathetic and selfish when it came to office politics and greedy when it came to money.

“We want to assure you that you did an excellent job this past year. Although we always appreciated your high billable hours, as we explained, this is a boutique firm and we pride ourself in the quality of life that we offer our associates and staff. We are pleased that you have lowered your hours and are focusing on other things besides work and that you are investing time in nurturing your relationships with the attorneys and staff in the firm.” Bill recounted this same philosophy that he and Tim said earlier in the year about how a happy employee who is not overly stressed and overworked is not only more productive, but also less prone to make mistakes and less prone to commit malpractice. Malpractice could be financially devastating to the firm and its national reputation.

At first, Daniel was focused solely on work and dreaded the shareholders' advice two years ago that he needed to spend time every morning listening to his secretary and complimenting her more when she did things for him. His initial resentment faded and he learned to appreciate her morning stories about her daughter graduating from high school and going to college or her husband, Tommy, who worked as a computer programmer and played saxophone in a jazz band on the weekends. Daniel would never discuss anything in his own personal life with Lori. He would nod and smile and say something or another about the story Lori was sharing. She seemed to gleefully appreciate it.

Daniel was pleased to hear that the shareholders still had faith in him and acknowledged his efforts not only as an attorney, but also in creating stronger social relationships in the firm. He knew this was a good sign that he would likely get offered a partnership at the end of the year like every other senior associate who had worked at the firm. But he did not want to seem overly cocky or arrogant for fear that it might cause an unforeseen ripple that would unexpectedly impact his ability to become a shareholder. He would be the first Hispanic attorney in the firm's long history. Daniel knew that there were very few Hispanic attorneys in town and very few who made shareholder at a prestigious firm.

He had worked very hard all of these years as an attorney after graduating summa cum laude from the Arizona State University School of Law. It wasn't known as the Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law at the time. As one of two Hispanics who graduated in the top ten percent of his graduating class, Daniel could have worked for a large firm in Phoenix and made substantially more money. He decided against working for a large firm because he wanted a better quality of life and did not want to be forced to work until 10 p.m. or later every night and work every weekend to meet a horrendous billable hour requirement. Law school had taken its toll on him, both physically and emotionally, and Daniel never wanted to endure that unbearable strain again.

To graduate with honors, Daniel studied long hours into the night and every weekend for three years. He also had to study during the holidays, especially every Thanksgiving because Winter finals began shortly thereafter. He did not mind studying long hours because he really enjoyed studying the law. In later years, he realized that he loved studying the law even more than practicing law as an attorney. What he regretted about law school was the lack of social time there was compared to undergrad and being away from his family and friends. In undergrad, Daniel was involved with his fraternity house, participated in intramural sports, watched college football, basketball, baseball, and volleyball games, and even participated in Spring Sing and the Mardi Gras festival. Then there were the late-night dinner runs to Chinatown or Koreantown or J-town; not to mention the burger runs to Fatburgers or Tommy Burgers or In-N-Out. But law school was different. Daniel focused mainly on studying with very little extra-curricular activities except the one time that he attended the Fiesta Bowl during his second year.

Daniel was not very close to his family. He welcomed the move from Los Angeles to Phoenix because he knew that it would give him the space to live his own life without being smothered by family obligations or the never-ending drama that seemed to plague the Mendoza family. A part of him still wanted to visit his family on occasion. Moving to Arizona to attend law school made that almost impractical. What made things even worse was that all the rest of his college friends from undergrad were married and began starting their families around the time that Daniel moved to Phoenix and began law school. His college friends no longer had time to spend nights with Daniel like they used to; whether that was going to dinner, a concert, or just to the movies. Could he blame them? They had responsibilities now that he did not share and in some ways could not fully understand. It made spending nights alone studying all the more bearable because he could rationalize that all of his college friends lived out of state and were too busy nonetheless. He made fewer friends in law school compared to undergrad. It wasn't as easy making friends in law school compared to undergrad because he was not from Arizona. A lot of Daniel's law school classmates were married with young kids and had very little time to socialize given their rigorous study schedule. So he found solace in studying alone, but all the while Daniel hoped to find someone special in his life. It was especially difficult to find a young attractive, Hispanic female who had the same education and shared the same conservative values as Daniel, even though there was a large Hispanic population in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area.

Daniel's mother never taught her children how to speak Spanish. She seemed to think it was a hindrance to their new lives in Los Angeles. Los Angeles was far away from where she was born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico - a small suburb of San Juan where the university was located. Perhaps, if Daniel was born in Rio Piedras, then he may have attended the University of Puerto Rico and would have met other female Puerto Ricans and married one. Perhaps, he could have grown up knowing and speaking Spanish the way Puerto Ricans do - fast and with a Caribbean dialect peppered with Taino or African words like mofongo and gandul. Maybe he could have fit in more if his grandmother never moved to the States in the 30s. To those Puerto Ricans living on the island, Daniel was not a true Boricua because he could not speak the language and did not really know the struggles and culture of his people.