#Suits' Jessica Pearson, HBIC of Pearson Specter

Disclosure: you might want to check some of Jessica Pearson's GIFs before starting your read. 

Currently, Suits’ Jessica Pearson is the high-powered attorney and managing partner of Pearson Specter, a major law firm headquartered in New York. Suits airs on the USA Network on Thursday nights at 10 p.m. ET. Jessica Pearson is portrayed by Gina Torres. At first, she was a results-only leader. Now, she has become a competent leader.

The firm through the four seasons has gone through numerous takeovers, threats, and consequent name changes. First the firm was Gordon Schmidt Van Dyke. It became Pearson Hardman, then Pearson Darby, then Pearson Darby Specter, and now Pearson Specter. Jessica first became the managing partner when the firm was named Pearson Hardman. She found out that Daniel Hardman, her co-founder and managing partner, was stealing the firm’s money to fund an affair while his wife was dying of cancer. Armed with the knowledge, Jessica, with Harvey Specter’s help, forced Daniel out. Now, together with Harvey, Jessica successfully navigates the cutthroat legal world with both grace and guile. Her firm's clients include influential national and international companies.

Description

Everything about Jessica breathes power. She has expert, legitimate, referent and reward power as the managing partner of Pearson Specter. She is the smartest and the most powerful lawyer in the firm. She knows it and everybody else knows it too. This awareness seeps into the way she interacts with people and the way they interact with her. Her tall imposing figure, high heels, and her structured corporate suits and dresses contribute to making Jessica look commanding and powerful. Her facial features and tall physique also give her an extra edge. It is not unusual for Jessica to stand up from her desk, walk around to the front of her desk and lean towards to whoever is sitting before her, in order to buttress her point and make the recipient squirm. In addition, she habitually walks to the door while talking to show that a discussion or meeting is over. Her large, swanky corner office’s door is transparent like the rest of the office space. But, it is often closed.

As the managing partner of a firm that changes constantly, Jessica has often had the offer to merge her firm with other firms. She always refuses. However, after surviving an egregious battle with Daniel Hardman, the firm was in a delicate, weak position. Jessica felt the only suitable option was to merge with Edward Darby, the managing partner of Darby International, a law firm headquartered in London. She merged the firms to Harvey’s dismay. When she later found out that the decision was no longer smart, she swiftly found a way to break the merger and outs Darby. There are a few things you can fault Jessica on, but the ability to make necessary timely decisions is not one of them.

Jessica often delegates work and responsibilities to her employees. She sometimes gets things done herself and she sometimes hands them over to other people. Louis Litt, a senior partner, is a genius at tackling corporate finance. He is the supervisor of the firm's associates. Louis loves the thrills of arguing in a courtroom. Harvey, on the other hand, hates the courtroom because he believes he has no locus of control there: cannot control the outcome. Harvey is about the win, not necessarily the case. He is a closer. Harvey likes the thrill of gambling and risky methods of winning cases. As much, Jessica often assigns cases to each of them based on their individual characteristics and what is needed to be done. She furthermore often pushes that they work together on cases more often.

Jessica is ambitious. While a senior partner of Gordon Schmidt Van Dyke, she led a successful coup against the name partners, with Daniel, creating Pearson Hardman. Harvey Specter later described the takeover as “so fast, it took the name partners by surprise.” Whenever someone threatens her position as managing partner, she neutralizes the threat with Harvey’s help. Jessica takes her position as the leader of the firm seriously and does not take kindly to outside threat too. She assumes responsibility for the lawyers, paralegal, secretaries and other employees working at Pearson Specter. Jessica carved her way to the top and intends to stay there, for herself, her firm and her employees.

However, Jessica is not sociable. She is married to the firm so much that she does not have the drive to pursue a life outside it. The show does not dwell much on the personal life of Jessica and Harvey. But, it is an unspoken knowledge she does not date much, is divorced and has no close friend, except from Harvey. A handful of times, former acquaintances show up, like in the case of Ella Medeiros, on the opposite side, with a grievance against her.

At first glance, Jessica scores real low on the agreeable trait. She comes off as cold. You later find out she has soft spots. This is because she hides her emotion well. Since she is a straight shooter, to win her respect and ear, you have to push through her aloof façade and provide irrefutable fact.

While Jessica is not risk-averse, she often pushes for the less risky option. She is also very honest and a straight shooter. Because of this, she rarely gets in trouble. However, sometimes, she can be a bit result-minded. But, she is not machiavellianistic, dogmatic and is intolerant of ambiguity. She is very long term goal oriented. It is always about the firm’s success or strength. She is dedicated to her purpose of increasing the firm’s bottom line and growing the firm.

Jessica is an excellent coach to Harvey. She discovered him in the mailroom of Gordon Schmidt Van Dyke. Using her own money, she sent Harvey to Harvard Law. She advised him to work with the District Attorney’s office after graduation. She later employed him when he left after finding out the DA’s practice of burying evidence. Jessica allows Harvey the freedom to make his decision and hands him the responsibility of cleaning up the crisis his actions sometimes cause. She only steps in when his decision exponentially affects the firm and its clients negatively. This trusting, coaching relationship is what made Harvey the lawyer he is today.

Analysis

Due to Jessica’s close relationship with Harvey, she often appears to favor him over other employees which most time affects their performance. Louis Litt, a Senior Partner at Pearson Specter, especially is affected by this. Louis’ jealousy of Jessica and Harvey’s relationship and the resulting feeling of being unappreciated make him venerable to manipulation. When Daniel Hardman, Jessica ousted co-founder, came back, he used Louis to strip Jessica of her managing partner role. Again, when Jeff Malone, a former lawyer with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a current lawyer at Pearson Specter, wanted Jessica to work with him on an ongoing case, he plays Louis into requesting that Jessica takeover his role in prepping the case, falling right into Jeff’s plan without knowing it. Louis seeks validation from Jessica and wants to be like Harvey so much that his well-intentioned actions often backfire.

Likewise, because of his close relationship with Jessica, Harvey often defies her. Harvey always takes the riskier option. While Jessica often pushes for low risk actions, Harvey and his protégé Mike Ross most often do the exact opposite, although they often get the job done with greater benefit. However, one cannot help but think that Jessica takes the cautious route because she knows Harvey is a loose cannon and needs to be reined in. Without Jessica guarded attitude, Harvey probably would boomerang the firm. In the same light, Harvey takes risky moves because he knows that Jessica needs him to get the job done without making her or the firm look bad or involving her in the process. Jessica is often about the result. “Just fix it” is a favorite phrase of hers.

As much as Jessica tries to avert risks that put the firm in jeopardy, when the crises do happen, she provides her employees the opportunity and resources to clean up the mess themselves. She respects them enough to allow them fix whatever problem they cause. She creates a familial atmosphere in the firm where she is the strict mother. Because of this, she has referent power: her employees respect her and are great champions for her cause. They understand that Jessica might appear cold, she looks out for them.

While Jessica’s agreeable score is not as severe as Simon Cowell, she falls into the TV trope of an overbearing boss. I think she believes she has to be stern in order to be taken seriously. When you take into consideration Jessica’s background, it is understandable. She is the highest female executive in the city and is black. Jessica herself says: “I have responsibilities that you just do not understand. I am the only woman partner at this level in the city.” While it is good that Jessica holds herself to a high standard and expects the best from her followers, I cannot help but wonder if the bar is too high that it actually prevents her followers from opening up to her more. Whenever a Pearson Specter employee needs something from Jessica, such employee never directly goes to her immediately. Such person goes to Donna Paulsen, Harvey’s secretary, confidante and the most valuable employee at Pearson Specter, to figure out how to approach Jessica. While Jessica’s office is never closed off, her tough demeanor often makes it ‘the principal’s office.’

Which we see when Rachel Zane, a paralegal who has worked at the firm for five years, attempts to have the firm pay for her law school tuition. For days, Rachel fretted about approaching Jessica. She finally mustered up courage and sought Jessica out. She got shut down with the fact that the firm has no precedence of paying for employees’ law school tuition. But, when Rachel returned with knowledge, supplied by Donna, that Jessica paid for Harvey’s law school and was able to paint the tuition as an investment for the firm, Jessica agreed to pay for the tuition. But, she made Rachel sign an agreement. In short, Jessica is tough and fair.

Her ambition and acute awareness of her responsibilities seep over to her personal life. I, personally, love the fact that Jessica draws the line between personal and professional relationships. But, it has been insinuated that Jessica places her professional work over her personal life. While, I do not think it is wrong, it is also pointed out that Pearson Spector employees also have the same drive. One can conclude that Jessica’s choices influences and shapes Pearson Specter’s culture.

Jessica’s strengths include her confidence, drive, honesty, strength, fearlessness, coaching ability and commitment to her goal of making her firm the best law firm in New York. Her weaknesses include her ambition, her low agreeable score, her relationship with Louis and her total focus on long term goals without short term goals.

Recommendations for Jessica

The biggest issue Jessica needs to work on is Louis’ venerability. While Jessica and Louis have since gotten closer, with Jessica handing him more responsibility, she would have prevented a lot of battles from the very beginning if she had given him as much attention and respect as she gave Harvey. Although, she has come a very long way in considering Louis’ perspective since season one, she sometimes forgets and has to be reminded by Donna. Louis greatest desire is to be seen as Harvey’s equal in all ramifications. Jessica and the firm would greatly benefit if Jessica directs a little of her attention away from Harvey unto Louis. Since Louis is now a senior partner, I would advise that Jessica sporadically take Louis out to dinner or to an event where they can spend time together and talk. It would not offset the hierarchy of power. Like we discussed in class, leaders needs to make a habit of rewarding followers and the reward does not have to be monetary. Appreciating Louis with her time and presence would actually show him how much Jessica has come to value him. It would motivate Louis to work harder. Jessica does not have to do much. She just needs to solicit Donna’s help as Donna does know everything about the firm and the people working there. This, in turn, would make Harvey take Louis a little more seriously. This way, he does not have to be constantly reprimanded by Jessica and Donna for unintentionally hurting Louis’ feelings.

Jessica has to work on her low agreeable score. She has to break the silo her office has become. No leader’s office should be psychologically closed off. Effective team building leadership skill is a combination of positive attitudes and positive performance. Her success might be determined by her employee’s perception of her. As a large firm which specializes in corporate law, crowd sourcing is important. Why? Most often, junior associates will be able to offer unique outlook to situations and cases because they do the ground and grunt work. And the only way she would only be able to crowd source is when her employees know that she is receptive and her office is always open to their ideas. Hence, she has to go the extra mile to ensure that her employees know this.

I feel that because of Jessica’s ambitious nature and the fact that she seems to have achieved her highest professional track goal, she currently feels stagnant and has no avenue to funnel her go-getting drive into. And in my honest opinion, this is one of the reasons the firm is always battling against a threat, or an internal power struggle, or a crippling lawsuit, or something similar. I do not think Jessica realizes this though. She needs to go back to the boardroom and draw up personal or professional short-term goals to direct her ambitious energy towards. For example, she should try to expand the firm either nationally or internationally. I think this type of goal will focus her energy into a positive way to help the firm. The last thing anyone wants is to see Jessica fall from her pedestal position as an incredible female mentor.

Recommendations for Other Leaders

Goal setting should be a constant endeavor leaders partake in. Minus, preventing an ambitious leader from feeling stuck and anxious, goals provide clarity, affirm direction and priority and bring out the best in people. According to the 4th Annual Staples National Small Business Survey, over 80 percent of the 300 small business owners surveyed said that they do not keep track of their business goals and 77 percent have yet to achieve their vision for their company. Leaders need to develop short-term goals, either monthly or quarterly, to lead their organizations toward the accomplishment of the longer-term goals. When leaders, like Jessica, have no short term goals for their organization other than staying in business, it results in the organization expending its resources on battles and running around without direction. If Jessica has specific short term goals like increasing clientele, making the firm a more corporate citizen, or involving all employees in company growth, the firm would not have been in a lot of situations it found itself in. I think that when organizations get big and successful, it becomes easy for leaders to throw away goal planning and just focus on ensuring their organizations stay afloat. This is a bad strategy and it often backfires.

I cannot overemphasize the need for leaders to work on the inclusivity of their employees. There should not be any hindrance in the flow of communication between leaders and their followers. Leaders need to create an environment where all workers feel they are heard, understood and respected. This makes them fully commit to the company or organization. Furthermore, leaders should make sure followers understand how they fit in the hierarchy of things. This would prevent any suspicion of favoritism on the leader’s part, avert employees from feeling under appreciated which in turn makes them vulnerable to manipulations, and improve the organization’s culture.

References

Staples Inc. (2010, January 12). Staples 4th Annual Survey Reveals Majority of Small-business owners Suffer from "Ping-Pong Syndrome". Investor.staples.com. Retrieved July 16, 2014, from http://investor.staples.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=96244&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1373982.