I told them that the President of the company walked into my office and said that he had "decided to take the company in a different direction and that my position was eliminated." I proceeded to explain that the V.P. of Acquisitions, who had a banking background, had left the company in May and that two of the company's three leasing agents had left the company in August, resulting in a big reduction in my active workload. The company had not had a general counsel since February of 2003. An outside attorney, working as interim general counsel, and I, working inside, had handled all the legal affairs of the company from that time forward and, to the best of my knowledge, it had worked very well. I told them that I thought that the President of the company used the downturn in business, when immediate legal demands were not so great, as an opportunity to hire a general counsel who had a banking background so he could combine the positions of in-house counsel and V.P. of Acquisitions. The company hired a general counsel with a banking background in February, 2015.