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high-net-worth clients. Divorce work, pre-nups, post-nups and anything else he can think of.’ His chuckle was as loud as a roar.
    ‘Anyway, I know you’ll join with me in welcoming him to the firm as my replacement as senior partner.’
    Matthew smiled stiffly as the other partners and associates began to applaud again.
    ‘Thanks, everyone, I’m very pleased to be here. Especially with that typically understated introduction.’ There was a ripple of polite laughter. ‘However, I’m keen to get straight to work. I’ll certainly do what I can to live up to the hype.’
    Larry nodded. ‘Exactly right. I think we should crack straight on, let Matthew see what he’s up against. What have we got on the slate this week?’
    Having stepped down as senior partner, Larry was officially only a consultant for Donovan Pierce now, but the team still responded to his instructions as if he were a Roman emperor. As the department heads ran through their workload – a snooker player caught in a newspaper sting, an actress suing a magazine for printing a picture of her daughter, plus the big one, the libel case involving property billionaire Jonathon Balon – Matthew took a moment to weigh each of them up.
    Sitting across from Larry was a blonde woman in her late forties, wearing a crisp white shirt and a bottle-green suit that matched her sharp eyes. The woman radiated authority and competence, not to mention a slightly frightening intensity. Helen Pierce was a legend in the legal world. Word had it she was more connected than the Cabinet, and she had a reputation as a vicious fighter in the courtroom. Matthew had met her before; there was no way someone of Helen Pierce’s reputation would allow part of her firm to be handed over to just anyone, family or not, so he had been summoned to a ‘casual lunch’, which had quickly turned into an interrogation, with Helen grilling him on everything from his financial competence to obscure points of law. Matthew thought he had performed fairly well, particularly under such intense pressure, but then Helen had floored him by telling him she had asked a detective to look into his private life: his business, his divorce, his ex-wife, his son. ‘Everything you have ever done, seen or thought can be used against you, Matthew,’ she had said. ‘I need to know how clean your dirty laundry is. I don’t like surprises.’
    The truth was, Matthew hadn’t wanted to take the job – or ‘birthday gift’ as Larry had touted it when he had called him out of the blue two months earlier. His relationship with his father was difficult enough without the added problem of Helen Pierce. But really, he had no choice. When his father had offered him a large equity shareholding in Donovan Pierce, Matt had been a partner at a small three-man family practice in Hammersmith, but a combination of unpaid bills, rising rental and rates and an office manager on the take had left them financially torpedoed.
    The meeting broke up quickly, leaving Matthew alone with Larry and Helen.
    ‘So good to have you here at last, Matty,’ said Larry, slapping his son on the back. ‘How about we mark the occasion with a spot of early lunch?’
    Matt glanced at his watch. It was barely ten thirty. ‘How about tomorrow? I should probably get settled in. I’m keen to get my feet under my desk.’
    ‘No can do,’ said Larry. ‘I’m not in tomorrow; semi-retired, remember? Come on, Helen, we need to wet the baby’s head, eh?’
    Helen Pierce looked unimpressed as she gathered her papers. ‘I’m snowed under, Larry. The Balon case needs my attention.’
    ‘Balls to Balon,’ said Larry. ‘This is an auspicious day! My boy has finally come home to his rightful place. We need to celebrate.’
    He leaned out of the door.
    ‘Denise!’ he shouted down the corridor. ‘Get us a table at Scott’s, will you? The sooner the better. Matthew, Helen and I. Tell Mario I want a decent table this time.’
    ‘How about we bring