Suits

The film distributed by USA Network and Netflix (2011-2019)

Created by Aaron Korsh

Starring, Gabriel Mach as Harvey Specter, Patrick J. Adams as Mike Ross, Gina Torres as Jessica Pearson, and Meghan Markle as Rachael Zane

A critical review by Steve Halpern

Recently I’ve become addicted to the film series Suits that can now be seen on Netflix. This is a fictionalized story of the inside workings of a fictionalized corporate law firm called Pearson Hartman. One of the main characters is Mike Ross played by Patrick J. Adams. Ross has a photographic memory and can recite every word of every book he’s ever read. This includes every number he’s ever seen. This ability would have made him an outstanding lawyer, but he broke a law that prevented him from getting a law license. 

By accident, Ross interviews for an associate law position at Pearson Hartman with one of their top lawyers, Harvey Specter, played by Gabriel Macht. Specter is impressed with Ross’ abilities and takes a big chance by making him his associate attorney. This, in spite of the fact that Ross has no law degree.

Throughout this series, we get a glimmer of the world of corporate law. This includes routine 60-hour work weeks and occasional all-night sessions. This is the world of law partners who receive salaries of hundreds of thousands of dollars and senior partners who receive millions. This is the world of astronomically expensive clothing, routine meals at the most expensive restaurants, and opulent office space in New York City, one of the most expensive cities the world. Pearson Hartman, being one of the top law firms, only considers graduates from Harvard Law School to become members of the firm. 

Why are these lawyers paid so much money? Answer—billable clients. 

The plot to this series is about the squabbles members of this firm need to deal with, and how these divergent perspectives cause the powerful lawyers to feel their livelihood might be taken away. I admit that the fast talking legalistic and emotional dialogue is what kept me addicted to these shows. However, we might also consider something the show only skirts around. This is that one word—reality.

The story

In one of the episodes, Harvey Specter represents the owners of a hospital where there is a possible strike of the nurses. It is Specter’s job to convince the nurses that the wage increases they were demanding would put the hospital out of business. 

Mike Ross has a grandmother who was cared for by nurses. He learns of the long hours nurses need to work under stressful conditions to care for his grandmother. So, he asks his boss Harvey Specter if there is a way for the hospital to come up with the money for the wage increases the nurses are demanding. Specter answers that the law firm is in business to support the interests of the clients. He argued that Ross needs to “get on board” with that perspective or to get another job.

The reality

Above is a chart showing what the health care payments are for people living in various countries in the world. These payments are contrasted to the life expectancy of the people who live in those countries. 

The United States pays more per person for health care than people who live in any other country. Yet there are several countries where people live significantly longer than people who live here.

We also might think about how literally hundreds of hospitals in this country closed because they weren’t generating enough money in profits for their owners. So, why would so many hospitals close while this country spends more money on health care than any other nation in the world?

We can begin to answer that question by looking at all the corporations who profit from health care in this country. Literally dozens of corporations profit from routine operations. Drug companies are so profitable they pay thousands of dollars in advertising for every doctor in this country. Then there are the banks and insurance companies who never directly provide health care but receive outrageous amounts of money by profiting off of the health care system. Corporate law firms among the corporations that never provide health care yet derive enormous profits from all the health care corporations they represent. Some of those law firms represent the owners of hospitals in their effort to compromise the demands of nurse’s unions for a decent wage. 

What does all this mean?

The only reason why most employers hire workers is to derive a profit from their labor. However, the individual employer is only one of the corporations where profits are derived from our labor. There are the banks, insurance companies, advertising agencies, landlords, and corporate law firms. None of those enterprises contribute directly to the goods and services we all need and want. However, every minute we are on the job, and for every commodity we purchase, all those enterprises get their piece of the action. 

So, when corporations argue that they have no money for the wage increases for workers, we might keep all of this in mind.

The story

Jessica Pearson is the fictionalized managing owner of the law firm Pearson Hartman. Pearson happens to be a Black woman who becomes obsessed with attracting and maintaining billable clients.  

In the make-believe world of Hollywood, Pearson saw potential in a mailroom worker, Harvey Specter. So, she did what any other corporate executive would do in this make-believe world. She financed Specter’s education through to Harvard Law School, hired him upon his graduation and, of course, made him a senior partner of the firm. 

Pearson then relies on Specter to take on challenging cases, as well as take-over attempts by her nemesis. Well, I haven’t viewed this entire series, but apparently Pearson and Specter are successful their efforts.

The reality

The character Jessica Pearson is portrayed by the actress Gina Torres. Today Gina Torres is one of the actors who are on strike against the motion picture industry. Above is a photo of Torres on a SAG-AFTRA picket line. This is what she has to say about the strike. 

“It’s about reminding people that it’s not just our fight, it’s everyone’s fight that corporations are slowly squeezing us out at every level, in every industry. So, we’re fighting for the little guy—and the medium guy.”

Perhaps one of the little or medium guys Torres was thinking about was her father Richard Torres, who was a typesetter for La Prensa and the New York Daily News. Both of Gina Torres’ parents were born in Cuba. Gina Torres speaks fluent Spanish and was raised in the Bronx, New York. She attended the High School for the Performing Arts and was trained to be a choral and operatic singer. Like may young people today, Torres found the astronomical expense of a college education to be prohibitive. So, she pursued an acting career.

We might consider that the corporations that Gina Torres and her co-workers are striking against are represented by corporate lawyers. These are the same kind of corporate lawyers that Gina Torres portrays in the film series Suits. I take nothing away from Torres for playing that role. Actors, in spite of the pro-capitalist films they star in, enrich our lives by exposing us to compelling stories. My main point is that we need to develop is different vision to the reality we face.

Affirmative Action

We might also consider the fact that Gina Torres’ character Jessica Pearson is a black woman who is the managing owner of a prestigious law firm. This reflects a partial breakdown of the racist attitudes that prevented Black women from even being considered for that kind of position. However, there continues to be a long way to go in combatting discriminatory attitudes.

Today African Americans and Latinos are about 30% of the population of the United States. However, only about 10% of the lawyers in this country are Black or Latino. This disparity comes out of a long history of blatant and vicious discriminatory policies by the government, as well as corporations. We might also consider that the wages of women are about 82% of the wages of men on average. 

This is the background to the recent Supreme Court decision to force Harvard Law School to abandon their affirmative action program. In other words, the Supreme Court argued that since racist discrimination has a long history, they feel there is no reason why that history should not continue today. Because of this decision, it will become more difficult for Black women, like the fictionalized character of Jessica Pearson, to become partners of law firms in this country.  

The Cuban Revolution

When we look at the Cuban Revolution, as well as the history that led up to the Revolution, and the Cuban reality today, we see a different vision of how fundamental change can happen.

The First Cuban Revolution was waged against Spanish colonialism and slavery. One of the Generals of the revolutionary army was the Afro-Cuban Antonio Maceo. We might consider that while thousands of Black people in this country were being lynched by racist mobs, Antonio Maceo was leading his armed forces, and defeating the heavily armed Spanish Army in battle after battle.

Yet, when that revolution was on the precipice of victory, the United States invaded Cuba, forced the Spanish to surrender, and then imposed a constitution on the Cuban people. In that Constitution, the U.S. government reserved the right to veto any decision made by the Cuban government.

As a result, Cuba had one ruthless dictatorship after another. Then, after organizing a revolutionary army in the Cuban mountains, a new revolutionary government took power on January 1, 1959.

Almost immediately after taking power, the new Cuban government gave land to the landless farmworkers, organized a successful literacy drive, and brought health care to everyone on the island.

The U.S. corporations in Cuba didn’t like those initiatives. So, the managers closed factories attempting to destabilize the government. The Cuban government didn’t go to court and sue those corporations. They simply took the corporations out of the hands of their owners and made those enterprises property of the Cuban people. 

As a result, today Cuba has more doctors, per capita, than any other nation in the world. Cuban life expectancy is longer than in the United States. Cuban infant mortality is less in Cuban than the United States. Cuba has sent their doctors all over the world to treat patients who had no access to health care. Cuba has also trained doctors from all over the world for free.

Today Cuban women are equally represented in the government as well as the scientific community. Black people, who were once victimized by vicious discrimination and lived in dire poverty have made significant gains. During the 1970s and 1980s Cuba mobilized its armed forces to defeat a South African invasion of Angola. That defeat of apartheid paved the way for the abolition of the apartheid laws and the election of President Nelson Mandela.

I’ve written about this Cuban history to demonstrate how there is a different vision of women’s liberation than we see in this country. Clearly the working class needs to break down all discriminatory practices. However, working as a senior partner in a law firm does little to advance women and Black people.

However, with all of its limitations, the Cuban Revolution and the government on that island today are advancing the interests of all Cubans. There are Cuban women who helped to make this possible. These women include, Celia Sanchez, Vilma Espin, Haydée Santamaría, and Melba Hernández.

Conclusion

Today there are entire libraries filled with books on the law. Thinking about that reality, we might ask the question: What are the laws working people need?

There needs to be laws against murder, rape, theft, assault, and discrimination. Ultimately there needs to be laws specifically designed to stop the corporate drive to maximize profits. With those kinds of laws, working people would be able to begin to organize the world based on human needs and not profits. These are the stories that Hollywood is determined not to tell.