My baby! "But I developed it myself, and I teach it in addition to my other courses." Read, for free.
"I understand that. But the school has other needs, if you have extra time." McConnell peered through his tortoiseshell bifocals to consult some papers on his desk. "Scott is going on sabbatical to finish his textbook, and we could use someone to teach taxation, which would demonstrate your versatility as a scholar and legal educator."
I'd rather date Kyle Buford. "I'd love to, in addition to the seminar."
"That's not what I had in mind, but we can discuss that later." McConnell turned to Angus. "Back to the problem at hand. This incident at the prison arose from one of your clinic's externship programs. Currently, how many externship programs do we have?"
"We're up to six. We have externs in the civil practice clinic, entrepreneurial, mediation, child advocacy, transactional, and public interest."
"Civil practice is the most subscribed, is it not?"
Angus nodded proudly. "Yes, our students counsel the indigent in housing, social security and disability, health law, education, child custody and support, and consumer law."
"Chester County Correctional Institution is the only externship program in which something like this has occurred, is that correct?"
"Yes, of course."
"I see." McConnell cleared his throat. "Well, in addition to the harm incurred by you two faculty members, my concern, of course, is the harm to the school. Its reputation and its potential exposure."
"Exposure?" Angus repeated, but Nat knew what McConnell meant, because she had learned a few things at Morgan Lewis:
Time for even the lawyers to lawyer up.
McConnell said, "Waiting for me this morning were messages from the parents of several of your clinic students, who had been out to the prison in the past. They're understandably concerned that their sons and daughters have been exposed to danger, or could be in the future. I assured them that, as of this morning, the externship Program to the prison has been cancelled."
Angus looked as if he'd been slapped, his mouth partway open.
"I've suspended the program. I'm not canceling it.”
“The parents are demanding as much.”
“The parents don't run my clinic."
"If you send a student out there and he gets hurt, you expose the school to an array of negligence actions."
"I've already taken the appropriate measures to protect those students, and I care about them, too." Angus shifted forward in his seat, his face flushing red even under his bruise. "The program is suspended."
"I'm afraid that's not your decision."
"Nor is it yours," Angus shot back. "I'll take it up with Sam."
"He can't be reached."
"I have his cell."
"Good luck trying it. He's in Kenya with Carolyn and the kids, on a safari. In his absence, I make the decisions."
"Jim, this is absurd!" Angus shouted, and Nat worried he'd pop a stitch. "There has never been an incident before at Chester County, and our best students have served in the externship program there, counseling inmates for over eight years."
"That benefits the prison, not us."
"Wrong. The students have learned more about criminal defense than they can ever get in a classroom. They represent real inmates on real cases. They draft all the pleadings, find all the experts. That's invaluable experience."
"They can learn it within these walls, Angus." McConnell tented his fingers. "I cannot ignore the concerns of these parents. As a result, effective today, I will be running all of the clinic externships programs, and you are relieved of your duties with regard to them."
"You're firing me?" Angus exploded, jumping to his boots.
"What?" Nat blurted out, astonished.
"Don't be so emotional, Angus." McConnell remained calm, his gaze even and unblinking behind his bifocals. "I'm not firing you. You will continue to teach your non-clinic classes, meet with clinic students, and run the in-house clinical programs. I'm merely assuming supervision of our externship programs. I have to make sure they're run with due regard for the welfare and safety of our students."
Nat interjected, "Vice Dean McConnell, Jim." Whatever. "Angus has the clinic under control, and if we overreact as an institution, it will only aggravate the situation."
Angus nodded. "Jim, you don't even know what the programs are. How can you begin to run them? This isn't about programs, this is about people. Real students who work ongoing lawsuits for real people."
"I know how to run a tight ship, no matter what it is. If you ask me, this happened because it's been loosey-goosey for far too long under you."
Angus looked stricken for a moment, as he realized he had lost. Nat felt terrible for him. His long hair, cowboy boots, and his image were coming back to haunt him, and she saw him in a different light. He'd been right when he said he was in his own little world. The students may have loved him, but McConnell had barely tolerated him, and with this, he had just declared war.
"I'll take it up with Sam, when he gets back," Angus said, struggling to rein in his anger. "He knows how important those programs are to the school. He's the one who raised the funds for them and for our renovation."
"Thank you," McConnell said, but Angus was already leaving the room, storming through the open door.
Nat watched him go, and her heart went out to him. He'd developed and grown those externship programs himself. The clinic was his passion, and he'd been very good at it. She turned back to McConnell just as the phone on his desk started ringing.
Thank you for your time, Nat," the vice dean said, dismissing her with a wave before he picked up the receiver.
Nat got up stiffly and left the office, shaking her head. Only she had been naive enough to think that academia would be politics-free, It was all the books they had lying around that fooled her.
Chapter 11
Nat sat, allegedly concentrating, in her small modern office. She'd called Angus twice but he didn't call back. She went to see him after her morning classes but he was gone. McConnell had already sent around an email advising everybody that he was assuming supervision of all externships, which set the faculty and students buzzing. Colleagues who had never spoken to Nat had stopped in to fish for juicy details. She'd begged off, saying she had to research her article, and corroborated her alibi by papering her desk with handwritten notes and placing a takeout Dunkin' Donuts cup next to her laptop, which had long ago gone into hibernation, code for "you're not working hard enough, girl."
She checked her desk clock. 12:05 p.m. She had brought Mrs. Saunders's phone number to the office but hadn't gotten up the nerve to call her yet, though she came close at 10:23 a.m. and 10:43 a.m. She'd wanted to talk it over with Hank, but he'd left early again. She couldn't decide whether to call. She felt as if it were either urgent or too soon, which made no sense.
Her gaze wandered over the wooden chairs in front of her desk, then strayed to the wall-mounted bookshelves of yellowish oak, happily crammed with law books, case reporters, and legal nonfiction. Llewellyn's Bramble Bush, Holmes's The Common Law, Breyer's Active Liberty. The sight of books didn't comfort her the way it usually did, and she couldn't stop thinking about Mrs. Saunders, Angus, or yesterday. No reporters had called her, for which she thanked God. Still. She hit a key to wake up her computer and logged onto phillynews.com. She had to look everywhere to find the story: Disturbance Put Down in Record Time at Chester County Correctional Institution.
Nat almost laughed. What had Angus said? Let the spinning begin. She clicked the link and the story came on, barely a paragraph on her laptop screen:
Prison officials quelled a disturbance at SCI Chester County yesterday, in the record time of sixteen minutes, though not before the deaths of a corrections officer and three inmates. The disturbance began with a mattress fire in the RHU, or the rehabilitation unit, but was suppressed with the use of high-tech "stingers," percussive devices that fire nonlethal rubber pelts when deployed. Killed were corrections officer Ron Saunders, 38, of Pocopson, and inmates Simon Upchurch, 34, of Chester, Herman Ramirez, 37, and Jorge Orega, 32, both of Avondale. Charges in connection with the incident are pending.