Chapter 3 – What Grace Discovered at Work

Grace’s public interest fellowship placed her at a small firm specializing in workplace safety litigation, and six months after moving out of the Winslow guest house, a new case landed on her desk that made her sit very still at her computer for several long minutes before she trusted herself to speak.

The case involved a class-action lawsuit against Winslow Agricultural Holdings — Charles Winslow’s own company — alleging systematic safety violations at three of its processing facilities that had resulted in dozens of preventable injuries among workers over the preceding five years, several of them severe enough to end careers entirely.

“I need to disclose something,” Grace told her supervising attorney, once she’d confirmed the case details matched exactly what she suspected. “The defendant company is owned by my father-in-law. I’m currently estranged from that side of my family, but I want to make sure this doesn’t create a conflict the firm needs to address before I go further.”

Her supervisor, after a brief internal review, determined the relationship posed no legal conflict given the estrangement and Grace’s complete lack of financial interest in Winslow Agricultural Holdings, though she offered Grace the option to recuse herself regardless, given the personal complexity involved.

Grace considered the offer for exactly one evening. “I want the case,” she told her supervisor the next morning. “Not out of spite. Because I’ve read the initial complaint, and if even half of it holds up, those workers deserve someone who won’t be intimidated by the Winslow name into settling for less than they’re owed.”

Her supervisor, satisfied by the answer, assigned her to the case as second chair.