page_title: List of Suits characters
section_title: Jessica Pearson
hierarchical_section_title: List of Suits characters / Main characters / Jessica Pearson
caption_attribution_description: English: Gina Torres at a promotional event for the TV show Suits
context_page_description: Suits is an American legal drama, created by Aaron Korsh. It premiered on USA Network in June 2011. The series revolves around Harvey Specter, a senior partner at a top law firm in Manhattan, and his recently hired associate attorney Mike Ross as they hide the fact that Mike does not have a law degree. Each episode focuses on a single legal case and its challenges while examining the work environment of the firm, Mike's and Harvey's personal relationships, and problems stemming from Mike's lack of a degree. The rest of the starring cast portray other employees at the firm: Louis Litt, a partner who manages the associates; Rachel Zane, a paralegal who develops feelings for Mike; Donna Paulsen, Harvey's long-time legal secretary, close friend, and confidant; and Jessica Pearson, the co-founder and managing partner of the firm.
context_section_description: Jessica Lourdes Pearson (Gina Torres) is the co-founder, name/managing partner of Pearson Hardman (later Pearson Darby, Pearson Darby Specter, Pearson Specter, and finally Pearson Specter Litt). She received her undergraduate degree from Vassar College on a full scholarship, graduated second in her class from Harvard Law, served on the Law Review, and did one year as the first black female clerk in the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals. Although she is well-respected, her "overbearing nature" and "holier-than-thou attitude", as described by Harvey Specter, often makes it difficult for those working with/for her. When faced with a dilemma, she will choose the less risky choice, although it may have diminished returns. If, in spite of this, Harvey or Mike Ross choose a riskier but more profitable course of action, she will harshly rebuke him, even if the risk pays off. Despite outward appearances, Jessica has performed unethical, immoral, and possibly illegal deeds. She takes loyalty seriously and will react badly to those who betray her as in season 1 when she discovers a good friend has been stealing from the firm for years and harshly leads a lawsuit against her.
  While in college, she felt that classmate (currently a Judge) Ella Medeiros was too uptight; simultaneously they were competing for a job they both wanted. To neutralize her as a threat to Jessica's chances she caused Ella to become heavily intoxicated and placed her in the nude while unconscious in a lecture classroom. This comes back to haunt Jessica when Ella becomes the judge assigned to a case involving her client. Whenever Jessica feels that someone is too uptight, she "straightens them out"; to straighten Louis Litt out, she did to him what she did to Ella, and she told him to blame Harvey, to straighten Harvey out.
  Jessica is in a quandary with respect to Harvey: she realizes Harvey is her greatest asset and the firm's best rainmaker because of his willingness to do whatever it takes to win, but she has difficulty controlling him and she cannot trust him to do exactly as she instructs. Jessica is divorced from Quentin Sainz, a pharmaceutical chemist and businessman who was diagnosed with ALS, and later dies in the third-season episode 'Yesterday's Gone'.
  At the end of season 1, Trevor Evans tells her that Mike does not have a law degree and Harvey is protecting Mike. When Jessica investigates, she discovers that Harvard's records show that Mike has a law school diploma, but she also finds that he has no record of an undergraduate degree, convincing her that the Harvard degree is a fraud. Even though she plans to have Harvey fire Mike, she lets Mike continue working because Daniel Hardman returns to the firm and Harvey threatens to quit if Mike is fired, leaving her vulnerable to Daniel.
  Jessica uses Mike's secret against him at the end of season 2, when she has him deliberately lose a case to ensure her merger with Darby International goes through, under the threat that she will use an anonymous letter to reveal Mike's status as an unlicensed attorney. This puts her at odds with Harvey, and even though she and Harvey work together on a case while she tries to make amends, she admits that if she had to do it all over again, she would. In the meantime, Mike cashed in a favor with the firm's I/T specialist to gain proof that the anonymous letter came from Jessica's hard drive, meaning Mike can now put Jessica's career in jeopardy should she reveal his secret. With this threat lifted, Harvey plots (with Darby's apparent compliance) to take over the New York office from Jessica. Eventually Harvey admits this to her, and their relationship is temporarily destroyed. She remains angry for a while and make that clear to both Harvey and Edward. Eventually she begins to empathize with Harvey, and as a consolation prize, makes him a name partner.
  After Ava's charges are dropped, Jessica forces Darby to begin negotiations to dissolve the merger. She agrees to waive the Harvard rule for Rachel and, after noting her long presence at the firm and overwhelming expertise
caption: Gina Torres
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D5100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Photo Gallery 6.0.6001.18000", "Image DateTime": "2013:01:15 20:00:33", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "260", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "36276", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "36402", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5416", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "24/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1250", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:01:14 20:54:06", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:01:14 20:54:06", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "9/2", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "120", "EXIF SubSecTime": "60", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "60", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "60", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3264", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4928", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "36226", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "180", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "-18"}