I Will Miss The Conference Room

The Academy Award-nominated documentary The Invisible War begins with the individual stories of men and women who had been raped while serving in the military.  We then see one of the women, Kori Cioca, driving across the country to come to D.C.  The movie climaxes with the meeting of the women in the conference room of our office in Georgetown. The women come together as part of my wife’s lawsuit. They realize they are not alone.  They tell their stories. They laugh and they cry.

I was in the office on at least one of the days of filming, and Susan introduced me to the women. But I hadn’t seen the movie yet, nor heard their stories. There was no context, no ability to know who any of them were.

Susan and I will be moving out of that office at the end of next month. The office had a chi-chi address in Georgetown and a great location by the river. But it was expensive, and our lease is up. Susan is now based in Baltimore and I’d like to be closer to D.C. Superior Court.  I have not yet decided what I am going to do.  Maybe I will take an office with colleagues in the former Price Benowitz building across from the courthouse.  Maybe I will strike out on my own.  Whatever decision I make, I will need to change my business cards and stationary.

Susan does not dwell on things. She has always been very practical.  The furniture has been moved, and her office stands bare. Her work there is done, and she will not give it another thought. But I am sentimental enough for the two of us, something she says she likes about me, and I am going to miss that conference room, even apart from its connection to the movie.  After all, that is where I started solo practice.  It is where I met many of my clients for the first time.