HPDBC Chapter 204 The Parasites of the Legal Department
Chapter 204 The Parasites of the Legal Department
Chapter 204 The Parasites of the Legal Department
After the first episode of "Lega I High" aired, it received rave reviews.
Kensuke Komikado's unconventional lawyer image did not provoke audience dislike; on the contrary, his extremely sharp tongue and blunt "money-is-no-object" attitude became a highly contrasting and enjoyable aspect of the show.
The success of the series has also drawn more and more attention to the exaggerated promise Kitahara Shin made on a variety show—to obtain the national lawyer qualification certificate within two months.
As time went on, public opinion gradually became more rational and tolerant.
Most people have automatically assumed that this is an extreme "show effect" created by Kitahara Shin to promote his new drama.
After all, most people have a sense of right and wrong. How could a popular actor who is busy filming, recording shows, and writing scripts every day really have time to read through those vast amounts of legal books?
Even if he eventually takes the exam and fails without any doubt, the public is unlikely to launch a massive attack against him.
People's expectations are actually quite low: if you're an actor, as long as you act well and occasionally create some gimmicks and boast on variety shows, people will just enjoy it and move on. If someone could actually do everything, it would make people feel that this world is too unreal.
Kitahara Office, President's Office.
At this point, there were less than two weeks left before the official start of the National Judicial Examination.
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Kitahara Shin sat at his desk. Unlike before, his desk was no longer piled high with thick volumes of the "Six Codes" and past exam questions.
Just last night, he had already gone through all the past ten years' worth of National Judicial Examination papers, wearing the "Screenwriter's Glasses." With the system's purple gear's almost insane "text extraction" and "photographic memory" passive effects, he could accurately recite the legal logic of every classic case even with his eyes closed.
He scored incredibly high marks on every single mock exam.
He was so confident about the upcoming national unified examination that he didn't even need to study anymore.
So, he naturally turned his attention back to the company's day-to-day operations. He began to deal with the backlog of business plans and cooperation documents that had accumulated during this period.
However, his sudden cessation of reading and return to normal work took on a different meaning in the eyes of Ota Masakazu and other company employees.
Everyone tacitly assumed that the club president had finally succumbed to the pressure and was planning to give up the exam.
The most obvious reaction came from the legal department downstairs in the company building.
During the lunch break, several employees from the legal department gathered in the break room to chat.
Employee A, holding a coffee cup, said, "It seems the president has really given up. I haven't seen him bring any test papers downstairs to ask those external lecturers for advice these past two days."
Employee B breathed a sigh of relief: "That's normal. That's the bar exam. Do you really think you can pass it by memorizing lines for a few days? But it's probably for the best that we gave up. If the boss knew more about the law than we do, what would be the point of our legal department?"
that's the truth.
The legal department of Kitahara Office is arguably the most relaxed department in the entire company.
In 1990s Japan, copyright protection was extremely important, and the company has never encountered any script plagiarism or copyright disputes. As for its new actors, Kitahara Shin offers extremely generous contract terms, with profit-sharing ratios far exceeding those of industry peers. Everyone is vying fiercely for acting opportunities; nobody has the time or inclination to deal with contract disputes.
Therefore, the daily work of these legal personnel basically consists of sitting in the office drinking tea, watching dramas and variety shows starring Kitahara Nobuo, and occasionally going through the motions with a standard template contract when the president needs to sign it.
A department that's purely for eating dry food.
In a corner of the break room, a man wearing gold-rimmed glasses, who looked quite refined, listened to his colleagues' discussion, picked up his water glass, took a sip, and his lips twitched almost imperceptibly.
His name is Watanabe.
He was a senior legal counsel in the legal department, and someone Sasaki had introduced to him. Because of this relationship, and because he was generally reliable in his work, Kitahara Shin trusted him quite a bit, and entrusted him with the initial review of many external cooperation contracts.
But no one knew that Watanabe, who seemed to be well-behaved, was actually the mole in the company.
Upon hearing the rumor that Kitahara Shin had given up the exam, Watanabe finally felt relieved.
Watanabe sneered inwardly: "That's for sure. An actor with only a high school education is lucky if he can even memorize his lines, let alone think about taking the bar exam? He's incredibly arrogant."
According to Watanabe, Kitahara Shin's success today is entirely due to good luck and his face.
He despised Kitahara Shin's business philosophy from the bottom of his heart. As the boss of an entertainment company, instead of thinking about how to maximize the value of the artists and exploit the surplus labor of the lower-level employees, he offered such outrageously high salaries to newcomers and practiced so much human touch and family-style management.
It's utterly baffling.
This also means that although Kitahara's agency appears to be incredibly successful and has a very high turnover rate, if you exclude Kitahara Shin's personal salary, script royalties, and his shrewd private investments, the company's overall net profit is actually not very impressive.
Watanabe judged that entertainment companies that rely entirely on the boss for financial support and lack a systematic exploitation mechanism are simply not sustainable.
Therefore, he naturally began to pave his way out.
Taking advantage of his position, he cleverly exploited legal loopholes and vague clauses when reviewing external cooperation contracts, secretly transferring some of the company's hidden benefits to competitors. At the same time, he also sold Kitahara Shin's next film project and variety show recording plans to other production companies at high prices.
He planned to make a lot of extra money before the company collapsed, and then find an opportunity to resign and leave after receiving his year-end bonus.
At the same time.
In the president's office.
Kitahara Shin was leaning back in his leather chair, casually flipping through a stack of documents awaiting signature on the table.
These were all long-term sponsorship contracts that Watanabe had reviewed and prepared to sign with several external GG companies. In the past, Kitahara Shin, trusting the people introduced by Sasaki and not having the energy to scrutinize the wording, would usually just glance at the total amount and sign directly.
But today.
Kitahara Shin's gaze suddenly stopped as he swept over the additional clauses of one of the contracts.
He blinked and leaned forward slightly.
With the screenwriter's terrifying ability to extract text, those originally dry and complicated legal provisions became incredibly clear in his eyes.
He squinted.
-
Something's not right with this contract.
On the surface, this appears to be a normal product placement sponsorship contract. However, in the corners concerning "exclusivity clauses" and "penalty percentages," several traps are planted using extremely subtle cross-referencing methods that require a high level of professional expertise to understand.
Without a strong legal background, one simply wouldn't be able to spot these seemingly minor issues.
However, if a dispute arises, or if the other party intends to breach the contract maliciously, these seemingly insignificant clauses can accumulate into a massive black hole that could leave Kitahara Law Firm with nothing.
With a cold face, Kitahara Shin flipped open all the contracts that had been delivered today on the table.
One eye and ten lines.
There is more than one problem.
From the pitfalls of revenue sharing for artists' external commercial performances to the vague authorization of overseas copyrights for TV series, several important contracts are full of ingenious traps.
Kitahara Nobu leaned back in his chair.
He glanced at the names of the partners in these problematic contracts; they were all media companies in the industry that competed with Kitahara's firm.
He turned to the last page of the contract.
In the "Initial Review Person in Charge of the Legal Department" column, the same name, Watanabe, is clearly signed.
Watanabe was preparing to have lunch as usual. As he walked out of the Ministry of Justice, he ran into Kitahara Shin, who was walking slowly towards him.
The two brushed past each other. Watanabe, like the other employees, bowed slightly in respect.
Kitahara Shin stopped and smiled slightly at him before pushing open the door and walking into the legal department's office.
Watanabe remained completely unfazed. He guessed that the busy company president was here again to find someone to sign a contract for some new investment project. Without a second thought, he took the elevator downstairs and went to enjoy his lunch.
A week passed uneventfully.
At this point, only seven days remained before Kitahara Shin took the National Judicial Examination.
Watanabe sat at his desk, expertly flipping through several newly arrived external cooperation documents. When he saw one of the profit clauses concerning film and television copyright distribution, he keenly sensed an opportunity to make a quick buck.
He immediately picked up the landline on the table and dialed the private number of the other company's executive, arranging to meet at a secluded coffee shop.
-
The afternoon's negotiations went exceptionally smoothly.
Watanabe subtly hinted to the other party that, in terms of profit distribution, he could legally reduce Kitahara's firm's earnings by modifying the base figures of several supplementary clauses, allowing the other company to take the lion's share.
Watanabe: "This is a business concession tacitly approved by our president, mainly to facilitate long-term cooperation in the future."
The executive who came to negotiate was also a complete novice, completely oblivious to the intricacies of the situation, and unaware that Watanabe was extracting huge kickbacks from the deal. The other party simply thought they were getting a great deal from Kitahara's firm and nodded and signed off repeatedly.
In reality, this world is often just a giant makeshift operation.
Although Japanese workplaces have always adhered to a high-pressure policy, constantly talking about "rigor" and "absolutely no mistakes," in reality, the number of people who actually make mistakes and exploit loopholes has never decreased; it has simply remained at a constant level.
The so-called "meticulousness of the Japanese" is often just a seemingly impressive joke that cannot stand up to scrutiny.
Using this underhanded tactic, Watanabe successfully completed another deal and received a hefty new kickback.
He did some mental calculations. The "commissions" he had accumulated over this period of time added up to about 20 million yen.
This amount of money would have been nothing during the bubble economy of a few years ago. But in this era of bursting bubble, it is definitely a huge sum of money, equivalent to his total salary at Kitahara's office for more than two years.
Thinking about his salary, Watanabe felt a pang of resentment again.
Although Kitahara Shin offered the legal department a salary that was more than a third higher than the industry average, he still felt it was too little. Why should someone like him, who understood law, be paid so little at the bottom?
evening.
Watanabe returned home in high spirits. With the kickback he had just received in his pocket, he prepared to go upstairs to change his clothes and invite his girlfriend out for a fancy meal.
But he stopped as soon as he reached the bottom of his apartment building.
A police car with flashing lights was parked in front of the building. Two uniformed police officers were standing at the entrance, looking around suspiciously.
Watanabe felt a sudden surge of nervousness, which quickly turned into confusion.
Could someone have died in this building?
In this day and age, countless people choose to end their lives because they cannot cope with sudden changes in their lives, and it is not uncommon for the police to come to collect corpses. People's mentality is no longer as stable as it was during the bubble economy era.
Watanabe deliberately lowered his head to avoid the police's gaze, preparing to quickly walk around them and go upstairs.
He had only taken a couple of steps when the two policemen stepped forward and blocked his way.
One of the police officers pulled a notice out of his pocket.
Police officer: "Mr. Watanabe, you are suspected of abusing your position to tamper with company business contracts, violating relevant business laws. Kitahara Office has formally filed criminal charges against you."
The police officer spoke in a businesslike tone and took out handcuffs.
Police officer: "Please come with us to the police station immediately for questioning."
Upon hearing this, Watanabe dropped his briefcase. He abruptly looked up, his eyes wide, completely bewildered as to what had gone wrong.
Watanabe's capture raised Kitahara Shin's serious concerns about the company's internal management.
He acted swiftly, disbanding the entire legal department and firing everyone involved. For future legal work, he planned to directly seek a reputable, large external law firm for in-depth cooperation.
To prevent similar incidents from recurring, Kitahara Shin has significantly upgraded its contract review process and security verification level. They are willing to incur higher approval costs to ensure the company is completely clean and free of such parasitic moles.
Meanwhile, the finance department has also been included in the most stringent list of key monitoring departments. If an entertainment company is found guilty of tax evasion, it's a complete disaster; there's absolutely no room for carelessness.
The incident didn't cause much of a stir in the public eye. Kitahara Shin, using legal means and the power of the police, quietly sued Watanabe. With the evidence irrefutable, the corrupt official was about to face several years in prison.
This incident taught Kitahara Shin a vivid lesson. He deeply appreciated the tangible benefits of personally acquiring knowledge. If he hadn't understood the legal provisions, he would probably still be being taken advantage of and kept in the dark by Watanabe.
1
The rectification efforts are proceeding in an orderly manner, and the broadcast of "Legal High" is also progressing steadily.
The series has already aired its third episode, maintaining high viewership ratings and generating considerable buzz in society. The fourth episode airs next week, coinciding with the official start of the National Judicial Examination.
The timeline is brought to a perfect close.
The day of the National Judicial Examination.
Outside a large examination hall in Tokyo, several astute media outlets had set up their cameras early and randomly stopped candidates preparing to enter for interviews.
Reporter: "Are you aware that actor Kitahara Nobu is taking the bar exam today? What are your thoughts on this?"
If you ask any ten people, seven of them will know about this.
The candidates' attitudes were extremely polarized. Half of the candidates looked disgusted.
Candidate A: "This is absurd. The law is the sacred cornerstone of the nation. We have studied hard for so many years, and he, an actor, is turning this into entertainment for TV dramas and variety shows. He is simply trampling on our efforts."
The other half of the people were more tolerant, even showing some admiration.
Candidate B: "He is, after all, an entertainment star, and this kind of operation isn't illegal. The fact that he could come up with this kind of publicity stunt shows that he does have a clever business mind."
Amidst the uproar and controversy, Kitahara Shin, at the center of the storm, remained completely unconcerned. What others said was utterly unimportant; true confidence lay in the knowledge he had genuinely acquired.
Inside the examination room.
Kitahara Shin sat in his seat, looking down at the exam papers that had been handed out.
Whether it's multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blank questions on legal provisions, or complex case analyses, his answering movements are fluid and effortless. The various legal provisions and logical applications are clearly and vividly presented on the page.
After all the answers were completed, there was still a long time left before the exam ended.
Kitahara Shin put down his pen. He had originally planned to hand in his paper and leave early, but when he looked up and saw the ordinary examinees around him, sweating profusely and still gritting their teeth as they wrote furiously, he changed his mind.
He gave up the idea of submitting his paper early.
Remaining quiet and waiting with all the students present for the exam to end was the basic respect he showed to those who had truly put in the hard work. He didn't need to resort to such attention-grabbing methods to deliberately seek the limelight.
Kitahara Shin didn't leave until the final exam bell rang, handing in his paper and leaving with the rest of the crowd.
The timing of the announcement of the results for this exam, which captivated the entire nation of Japan, coincided perfectly with the release of the "Legal" exam results.
The week that High will air its final episode.