My next assignment is WHAT?!

This past weekend brought nostalgia to the Deputy in Madrid as Nick Zebrow and Olivia D came to visit. Nicholas first arrived Thursday night after I had finished having a drink with co-workers. I am slowly starting to take the necessary steps of social assimilation in the office. By applying the social lubricant to the coarse traction of being the new kid, I hope to create a more noticeable impact both in and out of the office. We had drinks at a really nice tavern in Chueca, just chatting about office politics and our respective home lives. Obviously, there were the routine questions of how I came to arrive at Spain, but the tact was lost in translation as one co-worker asked me, "What are you doing here?" We had a great conversation and the other co-worker was kind enough to invite me to the reception of his brother's wedding. I couldn't, in good conscience, accept such an amazing invitation in order to ensure that it wasn't an impromptu gesture of cordiality. I had to terminate the rendez-vous in order to head home and connect with Nick's arrival.

To save our energy for Olivia's arrival, I took Nick through a leisurely stroll of the La Latina neighborhood. It is a quaint neighborhood with a lot of character and strip of bars with terrazas (outdoor seating) and a vibrant mix of locals. We sat at a central spot, ordering croquetas and sangria, catching up on his travels and our anticipations of this weekend's plans. After, we spent an hour just cruising down a street hopping into and out of spots, stress free and working off vibes. I had work the next day, so I had to end the night there.

Work on Fridays are half-days and casual dress. I however knew of neither as I entered with a full suit and tie and a large coffee in the morning. Making rounds, asking "qué tal?" to my fellow legal team, I sat to work. My bosses gave me a couple of projects to work on, that I welcomed with open arms to wet my intellectual palette. The candor of the assignments as they are given and the assignments themselves are interesting to note. The responsibility is greater, the initiation is quicker, the explanations are fewer but the importance is greater. My first assignment was just a read/review of a contract with a movie distribution company. The second assignment was a memorandum to our client, Estée Lauder of the new developments regarding the status of counterfeit material of their projects in Madrid.

The final assignment was the most comical. Spain recently released a series that basically mimics a reality series in the U.S. and the company are trying to end the show under an infringement claim. My job...wait for it...is to show the similarities between the two. I don't know if you know about how the Deputy operates, but he is an aficionado of the television arts and more specifically those of a reality genre. It was as if Baker McKenzie hired a specific expert to research this series because my product that I will produce is going to be of such an excellent quality and profound depth, it may be seen as wholly overproduced. Pero bueno, I am loving the job so far.