The name is Wilson Fulton. A lot has happened in my world recently. It's amazing how you can be on top of the world one minute and then crumble the next. Such is my reality. I'm an attorney with Fulton & Hanover, one of the top law firms in New England. It's black-owned, started by two African-American lawyers named Shawn Fulton and James Hanover back in 1977. Thirty two years later, the firm employs three hundred and forty lawyers and has offices in Boston, Massachusetts, and Manhattan, New York.
I felt proud the day I was hired, right out of law school. My father, Leonard Fulton, is a legendary attorney and the younger brother of the firm's owner, Shawn Fulton. Today, my uncle has terminated my employment. I'm twenty eight years old, and I'm an unemployed African-American attorney during the worst recession to hit America since the 1920s. It's not a situation anyone would envy. Seriously. I'm not sure what to do.
I head home. Just another brother in a suit riding the Red Line train from downtown Boston to Ashmont. I get off at Ashmont, and take the Bat Bus to Brockton. I've been doing this for a week now. My car got totaled thanks to some drunk driver, an Irish soccer mom, who rammed into me. I survived, she didn't. I feel no sympathy for drunk drivers, whether they're male or female, black or white. Idiocy isn't racially or gender biased in my book. I've defended enough morons to know this for a fact.
I sit in my living, trying not to think about tomorrow. I live in a nice house on Ash Street, somewhere on Brockton's West Side. I bought the house for one hundred and forty grand a couple of years ago. My bonus for winning a really big case. Millionaire Janet Richardson was accused of murdering her ex-husband Larry and his girlfriend Marianne Hawks. I got her acquitted. It was my first big case and I won. How about that? The fact that my wealthy white female client was guilty as sin didn't bother me one bit. I only cared about making the big bucks. Some attorneys will lie to you and tell you they care about the truth. I don't bother. All I care about is winning and getting my money.
Which brings me to my next point. I became a lawyer because I wanted to make money. My father and uncle were both lawyers, as were most of their friends. My mother, Elisabeth Stewart Fulton was a lawyer back in the day. She now teaches Criminal Justice to young women at Pine Manor College. I wonder how she's going to react when she hears that my uncle fired me. She probably won't be surprised. My uncle is one of the smartest men I know. He's also a complete psychopath. Yep, the man has no conscience whatsoever. Most people find him charming. I think he's a snake. I've met many men and women like him over the years. You'd be surprised at the number of psychopaths in the American criminal justice system. And most of them are lawyers and judges. Only a small number of psychopaths are in prison, believe it or not.