On the table in his room sits piles and piles of green, cardboard, pocket folder files.
When he started the small, sole practice nine years ago the table was completely bare and clean. He did not even use this room back then, preferring to sit in the front room which afforded a view of the main street and the passing traffic.
He was used to having a view of a busy street for decades.
Different streets in different locations, he could always look out and observe the traffic and world passing his window. His businesses were dependent on this when he was in the retail business.
This new world of law and crime and property and employment rights and personal injuries was different. He did not necessarily need a high volume of passing traffic, as he did in retail.
But it was a habit he had developed over the decades spent in retail.
Sitting in the outer office then allowed him to feed this habit. It was like a comfort blanket.
Over the years the law practice developed and grew. Gradually, he had to take on staff to help him with the volume of files.
Then he had to move from the front room into the back room as it made more sense to have a person in the front room who could answer the phone and deal with ‘walk ins’.
When he moved into the back room initially the room had a table and a nice, semi-circular desk. There was plenty of space and he could meet clients in this room at the table which was now in danger of being completely covered with files.
Now when he met people at this table, he always had to manoeuvre and move files to make sure the visitor was not sitting behind a pile of files.
Soon, this would not be possible, such was the growth in the number of files and the gradually diminishing space.