They were standing in the branch manager’s office, gathered without an agenda, too close to one another, in the kind of stand-up meeting you improvise when something serious has just happened, and this time no one needed to ask what it was: a client had been struck.
For a few seconds, no one spoke, and without it being said, each of them thought of their mother, their daughter, their partner, someone close, someone who could have been in her place.
Someone said they should deal with it directly, reach an agreement with the client, acknowledge what had happened, make sure it would never happen again, and for a brief moment that option existed, heavy, uncomfortable, demanding, but real.
Then someone made the call:
— We will mandate external lawyers.
He added, without hesitation:
— That way, time will take care of it. By the time it’s resolved, the matter will be forgotten.
No one objected.
The mandate was prepared, the file entered the process & the branch returned to its rhythm.
