Chapter 41: Chapter 39: You're a Partner, After All!
What did you say? That guy with the surname Hou said he's going to transfer the public profits and the accounts? What's going on, has he suddenly changed his tune?" Zhao Ruixia looked at Director Liu in front of her, utterly shocked.
Among the members of the community committee, she and Old Qian knew all too well what kind of attitude that General Manager Hou had initially.
Although he always talked about taking legal measures, everyone who understood knew what that meant.
You could say he never took the property owners seriously at all.
Not to mention that after the establishment of the community committee, he was nowhere to be seen, didn't hand over the accounts or profits, and didn't give anything or cooperate at all.
And now, all of a sudden, he was willing to fully cooperate. What had happened in between?
However, she was already very satisfied with this outcome. Look at Magic City, look at The Capital, many community committees elsewhere had only managed to achieve this much.
Alright, Director Liu, I'll definitely be there on time tomorrow!"
She would take the day off just to see the look on General Manager Hou's face.
Although the dispute over the property fees had been mediated, it was obvious that the property owners still harbored resentment. Thus, when some of them heard about the property management's willingness to compromise, they all expressed their desire to come tomorrow…
Then there was Secretary Tian and others from the community. If they really were going to dismiss the property management, that would be a big deal!
While everyone in the complex wanted to go watch the excitement tomorrow, Old Tang, the originator, returned to Tengda with a solemn face.
Just as he arrived at Old Song's office, he saw another person there.
Old Song was about to introduce them, but the other person had already come forward with a smile and said,
"You must be Little Tang. I'm one of the partners at Tengda, Wang Daming. I haven't met you before. I heard that you brought Old Song quite a few cases, which is great. Young people should be enthusiastic."
Furthermore, the Judicial Bureau has already sent out a notice. Your batch's certificates are ready. When you have time, go and pick them up, then apply for your intern lawyer's license and begin your formal internship."
"I also need to emphasize something to you. Look, Little Tang, our firm does not allow hanging licenses. Previously, you were not considered an intern lawyer, so it was okay not to come to the firm. But that won't be the case going forward, our firm…"
Wang Daming hadn't finished speaking when Old Song became displeased.
"Old Wang, what do you mean by that? Little... Tang is an intern lawyer under my mentorship. Why are you meddling so much?"
He had just completed a labor dispute case provided by Tang Fangjing and felt great about it. Therefore, he had specifically shared a portion of the profits with Tang Fangjing.
Indeed, Tang had said he didn't want it, but Old Song, as clever as they come and setting aside his professional abilities, knew how to handle people well. After all, it was someone else's case source. Sharing some profits would foster cooperation for making more money in the future, which was beneficial.
So now, for him, Old Tang was like a cash cow. Even though he always felt something was not quite right before, he still wanted to stand up for Tang.
Old Wang turned around, looking rather helpless, and said, "Old Song, it's out of my hands. Someone reported his situation, saying that he was an intern lawyer who didn't work on any cases. I had to step in and address it."
As Old Song was about to say something, Tang Fangjing across from him spoke up, "Director Wang, right? The reason I wasn't at the firm is that I was out sourcing cases."
"That's no excuse, Little Tang. The most important thing for an intern lawyer is…"
"The case involving the Yuefu Residential Complex's public profits – it looks like the amount in dispute should be around twenty to thirty million, not much. Scraping it together, we'll definitely have to go to court..."
Swish! Old Wang moved three steps in two to get in front of Tang Fangjing, with a smile on his face saying, "Well then... Little, ahem, Fangjing, it doesn't matter whether you come to the firm or work on the firm's cases, that internship stuff is all trivial..."
"Right, the target amount for this case is so big, Old Song probably can't handle it alone, I guess we'll need a team of lawyers. How about I lead the team..."
Seeing this scene, Old Song suddenly felt comfortable. He thought back to when Old Tang had him firmly in his grip with case sources, proving just how impressive having case sources was.
Now, Old Wang was firmly gripped as well, a case with a target amount in the tens of millions was not something you'd come by every day, and sometimes lawyers who had handled cases worth tens of millions would even be referred to as "ten million lawyers."
Of course, this title varied by region, with some places referring to those whose annual income exceeded tens of millions...
But no matter what, even if Old Wang was a partner at a big firm like Tengda, he had no resistance in the face of such a case. After all, Jingzhou is Jingzhou, it's neither Magic City nor The Capital.
"A team is definitely needed, but let me first say that the situation will be quite complicated, and it's basically going to be a risk agency. You'll see if you're willing when the time comes."
Risk agency means either not paying or paying less in attorney fees, which effectively means the law firm assumes the risk. If they lose the case, they end up with nothing, but a victory would bring in a very substantial income.
"All right, someone call a few people to come with me to bring the preliminary materials back to the law firm to check, I need to go home to rest."
"No problem, so Li, you guys are not busy right now, right? Go with Lawyer Tang to get the materials."
Li Weilong: "..."
Is having case sources really that impressive? You are a partner and a director of the law firm, how come you're also... This law firm is done for!
After the intern lawyers, like Niu Ma, had taken away some of the less sensitive materials, Tang Fangjing took out a mental health diagnosis report that had been issued by the psychiatric department of the Handong Province People's Hospital a few days earlier.
Anxiety neurosis, depressive neurosis...
With all this commotion, it turned out he was already crazy, well, no problem then.
The financial investigation department notified us yesterday to file a case, and the speed was surprisingly fast. According to Old Fang, they were initially going to investigate occupational embezzlement, but then they discovered the routine misappropriation of funds from the public revenue account.
What was the misappropriated money used for? Things like short-term loans for bridging finance, and the profits naturally went to that General Hou.
As long as the amount of money didn't decrease, it went unnoticed, invisible as if gods and ghosts were none the wiser... but the financial investigation department uncovered it upon inspection.
It sounds unreasonable, but it's actually quite reasonable. Before, there had been a number of real estate developers who were jailed for this charge, after all, it's such a waste to let so much presale funds just sit in an account.
Then why wasn't the misappropriation discovered before? Think about it, now doesn't it make sense?
Of course, they still had to investigate occupational embezzlement because General Hou had been the general manager of Yuefu Residential Complex's property management for a long time, and many of the previous accounts were unclear.
Moreover, it even involved the parent company, the developer company.
However, without surprise, General Hou could stand unshakably here because there were definitely people from the developer company backing him. The waters ran deep, but that was fine, as long as the public security organs took on the case and drained the swamp.
The next morning, the conference room of the property management was filled with people once again.
There were a lot of homeowners present, members of the homeowners' committee, other homeowners, a whole crowd of them. Everyone wanted to know how the property management issue would be dealt with.
Secretary Tian was attending the meeting, the kind who doesn't speak.
As the time was almost up, General Hou finally walked in with another person.
"Sorry to keep the neighbors waiting, this gentleman here is General Ye, a leader from our parent company. He's also come today to have a chat with everyone."