‘Sit near the staff.’
My mother insisted on this before I began my pupilage at my father’s firm in 1998. She did not approve of the firm’s arrangement where the bosses, lawyers and pupils sat upstairs near the library whereas the staff – comprised of the receptionist, clerks and dispatch – sat downstairs. “Sit near the staff. There is no one supervising them downstairs. Because of that they do as they like downstairs. Whenever I call the office no …