For that matter, I don't see any of his associate's positions, which were all contingent on him signing, involving more than the usual power corrupts-style risks to their souls if Angel had anything to say about terms.

I don't think he would deliberately go there, but his focus was so much on Connor at that point that I don't think that one's a given. He did choose on their behalf to make the deal and commence the mindwiping.

I also don't think it would have just been up to Angel - doesn't seem to me that Wesley, Gunn, and Lorne could have leins on their souls from contracts that were signed while their minds were being messed with at Angel's request. They'd still have to willingly barter their souls away for authority, power, or bling.

Well, the problem -- sorry, one of the problems -- with season 5 was that the premise changed. In "Home," Lilah says:

You win. We’re moving out. The Senior Partners are ceding this territory to you and to prove it, they want to give you controlling interests in our L.A. office. You get the building, assets, personnel, letterhead, paperclips, all of it. It’s yours to do with as you see fit.

She says several times that they can do whatever they want with all the goodies. And that it's a reward -- they're not being offered a job, they're being given a present. "We're leaving anyway, but here's some shiny stuff if you want it" was at least plausibly tempting. But then starting with "Conviction" they're just employees, they can't do whatever they want, and the SPs are still involved.

Meta-wise, yeah. But, c'mon, Lilah. She's like the definition of the "unreliable narrator." Even reformed!Lilah. And she does say "LA office", not even the offices in this dimension or something that implies even more autonomy.

See, I thought they were just the bosses of that W&H- but they had to turn a profit to keep the place running.

If they're agreeing to be employees, they've got nothing at stake if the company makes a profit or not. This is the conversation we should have seen: "If you do this, our stocks will plummet!" "Yes, and?" "You might get fired!" "Yes, and?" "The company will go out of business!" "Yes, and?" "..."

Why would any of those things matter to them at all? But they act like those are real concerns. The deal that they're offered in "Home" made some vague kind of sense from their point of view. The deal that we're supposed to pretend they agreed to in season 5 doesn't. If they agreed to it, they're morons. Which is a simple solution, but I don't think it's the one that we're supposed to arrive at.

This is the conversation we should have seen: "If you do this, our stocks will plummet!" "Yes, and?" "You might get fired!" "Yes, and?" "The company will go out of business!" "Yes, and?" "..."

Well, except for the fact that law firms aren't allowed to sell stock.

Of course, they don't have CEOs either.

t /law geek

Well, law firms aren't permitted to be managed by non-lawyers, either.

That too.

I've even heard that most of them don't have science departments.

Although that last could have relatively easily been handled via the Gunn-style forged McLaw degree.