Chapter 22: My Own Counsel
The Whitmore attorneys offered to protect me by deciding which version of me they represented.
Their engagement proposal reached Dana's office Tuesday morning, twelve hours after Tessa sent the leaked brochure.
It defined me as Andrew's widow, a Whitmore family member, Northline's owner, WCT's former founding sponsor, and a cooperating participant in WMG's legal response to the dispute.
One signature would place every role inside a family-paid defense group.
One appendix gave coordinating counsel authority to approve shared public statements and decide whether an interview created adversity among represented clients.
Another let the family end fee payment if I rejected a unified factual position, making its safety net conditional on my agreement.
Dana projected the proposal beside a blank conflict map.
“They are offering legal fees, coordinated statements, shared interviews, and one privilege structure,” she said.
“Which sounds efficient.”
“Until your interests separate.”
She placed my name at the center of the map.
One line ran to Northline, where I controlled records and owed duties to employees and clients.
A second ran to WCT, where I had withdrawn permissions but held no board seat.
The WMG line marked me former outside consultant, potential witness, record custodian, and possible participant in inaccurate communications.
The family line carried grief, private archives, and interests no corporation could own.
The same sentence could protect one role and injure another.
If I called the brochure authorized as Andrew's widow, I contradicted Northline's revocation.
If I defended WMG's old briefing as its former consultant, I weakened my own need to understand what Northline had actually received from Andrew's office.
If family counsel controlled my interview, they could decide a question threatened the group before it reached me or before I understood my own exposure.
“Who would you represent under this?” I asked.
“No one,” Dana said. “I would not join it.”
She drew a box around only two names: Claire Whitmore and Northline Crisis Partners.
Her revised engagement letter excluded WMG, WCT, the Whitmore family, Jonah, every employee, and every potential witness.
It required separate advice if my personal interests and Northline's later diverged.
That sentence denied me the comfort of believing one attorney could make every consequence compatible.
The Whitmore proposal offered to cover prior fees and future document review.
Dana's required a personal retainer and made Northline responsible for its own work.
I pictured the contractor payments already delayed by the emergency capture.
Family payment would restore that cushion by lunch.
It would also let WMG's largest commercial relationship sit beside my private legal defense in the same room.
“Declining will be read as hostility,” I said.
“Possibly. Accepting would not make the conflict disappear.”
Dana did not sell independence as painless.
WMG procurement could keep new Northline work paused.
Vivian could stop treating family resources as available to me.
No ethics speech would make either invoice smaller.
I signed Dana's conflict disclosure first.
Then I signed an engagement naming her as attorney only for me and Northline, subject to the written split procedure if our interests later diverged.
Dana sent the rejection to Whitmore counsel without accusing them of misconduct.
Their proposal remained preserved in her matter file.
Their reply arrived nine minutes later: family-funded legal support was withdrawn immediately.
The sentence made independence visible in a number my bank account would have to absorb.
It also removed the family from deciding whether my answer to Tessa served WMG, WCT, Andrew's memory, or me.
Dana returned to the leaked brochure.
We treated Tessa's attachment as a source-check copy, not authenticated evidence or proof of who leaked it.
The deadline beneath her questions mattered anyway.
She asked whether the memorial fund had ever possessed my authorization and whether that authorization remained current.
Her final line gave me until noon Wednesday to answer on the record.