Sorry, wrong number

I had a pretty amusing day at work this week. It was one of those days where I was out of the office practically the whole day for a matter in court. When I returned to the office in the afternoon, I noticed that my voice message was blinking. I was pretty surprised by the message which went somewhere along the following lines-

"Hi Azmi I'm calling from **** and would like to engage your firm to provide us with an opinion on a Malaysian law issue. Would appreciate if you could return my call at ****"

*Perplexed*

Firstly, why was this person calling me from all people? I have never dealt with this company before. I only have few clients from Hong Kong and I know for sure that this entity is not related to any one of those.

So I went to seek advice from my boss (the partner) on how to deal with this telephone call. Being only a Junior Associate I have limited experience in accepting new engagements with new clients because they would usually have to go through the partner first for the necessary clearance. My boss was as perplexed as me with regards to this telephone message. She also confirmed that our department have not in the past done any litigation work for this company. I was then asked to return the call in the partner's room so that she can oversee the call and jump in if need be.

I was quite nervous in making the call for 3 reasons:-

1) I have limited experience in dealing with conference calls on accepting new engagements;

2) The potential client is a well known international company which I believe is in the best interest of our firm to secure the work; and

3) My boss would be evaluating every aspect of this call which I had to instantly do without any preparation on how I would like to structure the call.

I just thought, okay here goes! It started off relatively well with the introductions after which I proceeded to enquire more about the Malaysian law issue for which our advice is sought. She then asked whether I had a chance to consider her e-mail to me that was sent later in the afternoon and whether I was following up from the response I had given to that e-mail.

Okay hold on. What e-mail? Did I overlooked this e-mail when I returned from court?? And I supposedly responded to her e-mail??? My boss and I stared at each other with a confused look and realized that she probably got the wrong number. After a few more questioning we realized that the person she meant to have contacted was another partner in the firm whose second name is Azmi!

What an experience! :P