Clause & Effect™ | Case Notes ✦

Observations from a life in law, finance, business and everything in between.

Some of this is serious.
Some of it is ridiculous.
Most of it is true.

Short and sweet... and it may just be right up your street.
CASE NOTE 003 — The Matter of the Fictional Law Firm I Never Meant to Build
CASE NOTE 003 — The Matter of the Fictional Law Firm I Never Meant to Build
|Marditarl Co. | Clause & Effect™
Why I accidentally built a fictional law firm populated by exhausted lawyers wearing their own case files.   When I first started designing tees, the idea was simple enough. I... Read more...
CASE NOTE 002 — The Matter of the Taxi
CASE NOTE 002 — The Matter of the Taxi
|Marditarl Co. | Clause & Effect™
One of the perks of working for a large international firm was having a corporate taxi account. Need a taxi? No problem. Book it. Charge it to the account. Job... Read more...
CASE NOTE 001 — The Matter of Three Failures
CASE NOTE 001 — The Matter of Three Failures
|Marditarl Co. | Clause & Effect™
They say things happen in threes. I was supposed to be at our summer party that weekend. Instead, I found myself dealing with three entirely different matters. The first involved... Read more...
Let’s Discuss Deal Tombstones
|Marditarl Co. | Clause & Effect™
Spend enough time on a trading floor, in a corporate finance team or around investment bankers and eventually you'll notice a curious collection of objects occupying desks, shelves and office cabinets.   Deal Tombstones.   Most people outside banking have no idea what they are. Most people inside banking barely question them.   They sit quietly among family photographs, awards, industry publications and the occasional stress ball. Small acrylic blocks, glass plaques and engraved pieces of metal commemorating transactions that may have taken months, and sometimes years, to complete.  ... Read more...
Why Corporate Professionals Avoid Graphic T-Shirts
|Marditarl Co. | Clause & Effect™
Spend enough time around lawyers, bankers, consultants and corporate professionals, and you begin to notice a pattern.   Very few of them wear graphic t-shirts. At least, not to work. This may seem surprising.   After all, many of these professions have relaxed their dress codes significantly over the past decade. Ties have disappeared. Trainers occasionally appear. Casual Fridays have become common. Yet the graphic t-shirt remains one of the last frontiers.   Why?   The answer has less to do with clothing and more to do with signalling. Professional... Read more...
Can I Wear a T-Shirt to Work?
|Marditarl Co. | Clause & Effect™
Few questions generate as many conflicting answers in professional life as this one.   Can I wear a t-shirt to work?   The answer, like most things in law, finance and corporate life, is: It depends.   More specifically, it depends on where you work, who is visiting, what meetings are in the diary, and whether anyone senior has suddenly decided to walk the floor.   In investment banking, trading floors and many law firms, the traditional answer remains a firm no. While dress codes have undoubtedly relaxed over the... Read more...