- “Always read the fine print.”
- ―Lilah Morgan[src]
The Standard Perpetuity Clause was a clause in contracts between the law firm Wolfram & Hart and its employees. It stated that their service to the firm extended beyond their deaths, unless the employee in question was terminated by the firm itself. Destruction of the contract by physical means, such as fire, didn't release the employee from the clause's effects, as contracts were magically recreated.[1]
Examples[]
- “Oh, no. I'm quite dead. Unfortunately my contract with Wolfram & Hart extends well beyond that.”
- ―Holland Manners[src]
Holland Manners was killed by Darla in early 2001 during the massacre at his wine cellar.[2][3] While his position within the firm was filled by other individuals such as Lilah Morgan and Nathan Reed, Holland was reanimated and placed at the service of the Senior Partners. One of his tasks involved operating an elevator to give Angel a ride to the firm's Home Office, in order to break his spirit by showing him the source of Wolfram & Hart's power: the everyday life in Earth itself.[4]
Lilah Morgan was killed by Jasmine in 2003,[5] and her body beheaded by Wesley Wyndam-Pryce as Angel Investigations feared she could've been bitten by Angelus, whom they believed to be the culprit.[6] She was reanimated, keeping only the beheading scar, which she hid underneath a scarf. Lilah returned to offer the Angel Investigations staff the chance to take over the Wolfram & Hart Los Angeles branch. Wesley attempted to release Lilah from her contract and give her some peace by destroying the document, but it wasn't enough, as the contract was instantly recreated.[1] A few years later, the Senior Partners promised Lilah that she would be released from her contract if she successfully evacuated all of Wolfram & Hart's Earth offices out of this dimension in lieu of Twilight's forthcoming.[citation needed]
In 2004, even though Wesley had been murdered by Cyvus Vail during a revolt against the Senior Partners,[7] Wesley was selected by them to serve as Angel's new Liaison to the Senior Partners, replacing the dead Marcus Hamilton, after the city of Los Angeles was sent to hell. Unlike the case of Holland and Lilah, the Senior Partners knew Wesley would not submit to their will, so they kept him as a ghost, unable to physically interact with the world and dressed in a suit like the stuffy, by-the-book Watcher he had been when he originally arrived in Sunnydale, while his body was kept elsewhere. It was implied that Wesley was permanently killed when the Partners undid the Fall of Los Angeles to restore Angel to existence, as he has not been seen since the subsequent collapse of the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram & Hart.[citation needed]