Chapter 3124

The board members of the Ellis Law Firm had already been waiting in the firm's executive conference room.

They also knew that Jimmy had made a connection with the Rothschild family, so they dared not show any negligence; those who were often in New York and those who were not had all rushed over early to wait.

This feeling was very much like a third-rate family in a feudal kingdom that originally couldn't even touch the edge of the royal family, but suddenly produced a concubine who was granted the rank of 'Changzai' by the Emperor.

It was as if the entire family finally had someone who could reach the heavenly court, and everyone was hoping she could stage a 'Legend of Zhen Huan' in the palace, upgrading and fighting monsters all the way from a 'Changzai' to become the Empress, so that the entire family could shine with glory.

Even Ellis held the same thought.

Pacifying Jimmy was only one part of it; in his view, pacifying Jimmy was not the problem, the key was how to make him contribute more to the Ellis Law Firm after he was pacified.

When the two arrived in Manhattan and met with all the board members in the conference room, thunderous applause erupted throughout the room. Everyone looked at Jimmy with admiring eyes, and the meaning was very clear: from today on, you are the hope of the whole village.

Jimmy looked at these directors who were usually high and mighty, now fawning over him in every possible way, and felt a thousand emotions in his heart. This was the influence of the Rothschild family in the United States, enough to make the so-called elite class grovel.

After the thunderous applause, Nate Ellis said with a proud face: "Inviting everyone here today is to announce a decision of mine in front of everyone, which is to formally nominate Mr. Jimmy Smith to become a board member of our Ellis Law Firm. The current 11 board members are all present, so let's vote by a show of hands on the spot. Those who agree with my nomination, please raise your hands."

As soon as he finished speaking, the other 10 directors raised their right hands without hesitation. One of them even said somewhat impatiently: "Chairman, an employee who contributes as much as Jimmy naturally needs to be absorbed into the board of directors as soon as possible. Besides, our stock option agreement has long been prepared, so let Jimmy sign it quickly."

Nate nodded, took out the contract, and said to Jimmy: "Jimmy, look, this is the stock option agreement we have prepared. After the board's research and decision, we grant you 100,000 shares of company stock options, which is approximately 3% of the company's total shares. These stock options will be vested over 5 years. As long as you work here for 5 full years, you can hold these stock options permanently. Besides that, as long as you sign this agreement, you will have the dividend rights for these 100,000 stock options. Based on our current scale of annual antique dividends of around 200 million US dollars, you can probably get an additional 5 to 6 million US dollars in stock option dividends each year."

Jimmy did not look at the contract, but said very seriously: "The contract can be discussed later. What I want to see now is the dirt on all of Ellis's senior partners. You give me all the dirt you have mastered, and then we will continue to talk. Otherwise, just prepare the termination agreement directly."

Everyone looked at each other for a moment. Nate was the one who broke the awkwardness first, smiling and saying: "That's simple. Since Jimmy is about to become a member of the board, these secrets should naturally be shared with him."

After saying that, he took an Apple laptop out of his briefcase, opened it, and said to Jimmy: "Since you are one of us, I might as well tell you our operating model. We provide a large number of internship opportunities to top law graduates across the US every year, just to select potential talents from them to absorb into our law firm. When talents enter, we conduct internal ratings. Those with excellent potential are S-level, followed by A, B, C, and D levels, and the recruitment range is selected within the S and A levels;"

"A lawyer often needs five to ten years to accumulate experience. We will give promotions and raises to those who perform well, and for those who perform very well, we will include them in the partner plan;"

"You are very clear about the partner plan; it is a compensation and stock option incentive scheme. As long as they enter the partner plan, they will become associate partners. We will give them higher salary treatment and also give them certain stock options. These stock options will be vested and exercised gradually over five to ten years to bind them to stay at Ellis and create greater surplus value for us."

Jimmy reached out to interrupt him: "These are all clichés. I mainly want to know how the dirt part is operated, and specifically what dirt you have mastered on them."

"Okay..." Nate said awkwardly: "Once a partner makes an outstanding contribution and is promoted to a senior partner, we need to make two-handed preparations for the future. Senior partners are very capable and have their own client groups, and their appetites will become larger and larger. They will demand higher stock option ratios, and even demand to enter the board of directors to become a member of the board. But our stock options are also limited. A company's shares are at most 100%, and everyone wants a share, but in the end, it is divided less and less. This will lead to dissatisfaction among a group of senior partners, so before they become dissatisfied, we will create a series of opportunities for them to make mistakes;"

"The purpose of our law firm is to let every senior partner make mistakes and leave handles for their mistakes, just like buying a remote-controlled bomb on them. Whether to explode or not, or when to explode, depends entirely on the board of directors."

As he spoke, Nate brainwashed Jimmy again: "Jimmy, don't over-interpret this kind of thing. You will also be a member of the board in the future. By then, you will know that those senior partners outside are actually tools for us to make money. Only when they do their jobs properly and create more profit and value for the law firm can we sit back and relax, and receive a large amount of cash every year. In other words, those people are our cattle and horses, and we must tie them up with the best chains to prevent them from escaping."

Jimmy nodded and said: "I understand everything you said. What I want to see now is the specific dirt on these people."

Nate said: "Don't worry, I will send all these materials to you now. But Jimmy, you must keep these materials 100% confidential. You cannot let those people outside know, otherwise, once they want to fight us to the death, it will also be a huge loss for us."

As he spoke, Nate sent some documents to Jimmy one after another.

After reading these materials, Jimmy's face became increasingly ugly.

Those senior partners who were usually similar to him had actually been induced in various ways over the past few years, leaving behind a large amount of evidence of illegal activities. Almost everyone's dirt was enough to send him to prison and be sentenced to more than 5 years. Moreover, once this dirt was exposed, they would not only suffer the disaster of imprisonment but also permanently lose their qualifications to continue being lawyers.

After reading these materials, Jimmy spoke to Nate: "I am indeed very grateful that you are willing to let me join the board of directors. However, I personally feel that if it is only 100,000 stock options, it is still much lower than I expected."

As he spoke, Jimmy added: "Moreover, you underestimated my loyalty. You only prepared a 5-year contract for me, but I hope to work for Ellis for another ten years!"

Jimmy thought very clearly now. Originally, Ye Chen gave him nothing and asked him to help in China, which was equivalent to cutting off all his income. He and his family had to live off their savings. But later, Ye Chen opened a gap for him. He asked Steve to endorse him to ensure that Ellis Law Firm would continue to pay him a salary for the next ten years, and also left him a 30% share.

That is to say, if he wants to earn more money in the next 10 years, he must make the salary base at Ellis as large as possible, and the bigger the better.

It is precisely because of this that he deliberately stated the idea of continuing to work for Ellis for ten years. Anyway, he cannot escape going to China for ten years, and legally speaking, he was sent out by Ellis, and the salary is also paid by Ellis, so it is equivalent to still having an employment relationship with Ellis in the next ten years, so he simply took this opportunity to use it as a bargaining chip for the transaction.

He also understood clearly after going to China this time. This society is a huge food chain. Even a person like Steve Rothschild has to be treated as food by Ye Chen, let alone a small character like himself.

Therefore, Ye Chen treats him as food, and he treats Nate Ellis as food.

Nate was happy and worried when he heard Jimmy's statement.

The happy thing is that keeping Jimmy should no longer be a problem. After all, Jimmy is willing to sign a ten-year contract with the company. In this case, he will not offend Steve Rothschild.

And what he is worried about is that Jimmy is not satisfied with the annual stock option dividend of five or six million, which indicates that he still has to bleed further.

After pondering for a moment, he said: "Jimmy, how about this, if you are willing to sign a 10-year agreement with the group, then I can increase your stock options to 150,000 shares."

Jimmy waved his hand: "5 years to 10 years has doubled, so you should at least double it for me, 200,000 stock options. In addition, the base salary should also be doubled. If you have no problem, you can issue the contract now, and I will sign it on the spot. If you have a problem, then we don't need to talk more, just handle my resignation directly, and I'll leave!"

Nate was extremely depressed when he heard this.

Doubling the stock options means that at least 10 million US dollars must be distributed to Jimmy every year. If the base salary is doubled again, at least another 2 million will be spent. In this way, the money distributed to Jimmy alone will be more than 20 million every year!

And Jimmy was also calculating his future income in his heart at this time. He thought to himself: "If calculated based on an annual dividend of 200 million US dollars, 200,000 stock options should be able to get 12 million, and doubling the base salary is 4 million US dollars. Plus my previous stock option dividends as a senior partner, after deducting performance commissions, there is also about 18 million US dollars."

"Of this 18 million US dollars, Ye Chen takes 70%, and I have 30% left, which is still more than 5 million US dollars, which is enough for the family's daily expenses."

Thinking of this, he suddenly realized another thing: "No! If I take ten senior partners away from Ellis, then Ellis's core backbone will be emptied. Whether it can make a profit next year is a problem, so where is the money to distribute dividends? In that case, wouldn't there only be a base salary of 4 million US dollars left? At that time, I would only get 1.2 million a year!"