About SUITS

Smart, classy, sophisticated and clever; SUITS is a story of some of the finest corporate
lawyers of Manhattan, NY. It is a legal drama series created by American T.V. producer
Aaron Korsh. The story revolves around the central character, Harvey Specter, who is a
Harvard graduate and works for the firm Pearson Hardman (the name of the firm changes
over the seasons as leadership changes and dynamics come to play.) He hires Mike Ross as
his associate. Mike is a veritable genius; brilliant mind and good heart; the best you could
think of. Only thing, he never actually went to a law school! This is the truth which Harvey,
Mike and others hide as the show moves on further across seasons, bifurcating the story line
and bringing in more powerful characters. Most interestingly, we see a lot of relationship
dynamics in the personal and professional sphere, which somehow helps us viewers in
understand human relationships and behaviours in a better manner.

As of now, the final season 8 has been aired on USA Network, and the show has been
wrapped up.

Throughout season 5, we see the battle the firm puts to protect Mike from going into the
federal prison on charges of fraud. However at the end of season 5, Mike pleads guilty in
order to get a deal with the Federal Prosecuting Attorney where the firm and its lawyers are
absolved of any involvement; and he goes to prison and gets barred from practising ever
again. This marks the scope of our project. We will be discussing the turn of events which led
Mike Ross to jail. Also, we will be dealing with degree & impersonation and fraud as a crime
in USA and India, taking into account the course of the show and the individual perspectives
of each of the characters.
 Plot of the Show

The show features around a big shot law firm Pearson Hardman in the heart of Manhattan,
New York. The central character is Harvey Specter, who is a confident, handsome man;
undoubtedly the best attorney of the firm, and as put by his mentor and managing partner
Jessica Pearson: “the best closer in the city.” Other important characters are Louis Litt, a
fellow attorney at the firm who is a financial genius, but at times childish and immature as he
cannot keep his emotions under control. Furthermore, there’s Donna Paulsen who is Harvey’s
secretary, who in essence holds the firm together. Donna has a way with people; her
compassion and wits help her say the right thing to the right person at the right time, hence
making her one of the best legal secretaries in the town. There are many other characters as
well, who make the plot interesting and weaved, and help us understand the various aspects
of our interactions, our relations, and our behaviours as human beings.
In the initial episodes, we see that Harvey hires Mike Ross as his associate. An important
point to be noted would be that the firm had a policy to recruit Harvard Law graduates only,
but Harvey thinks that such degree is of no use if one is not actually good enough. Harvey
saw something in Mike and hired him, regardless of the fact that Mike never actually went to
Law School. Mike is a genius fellow with tremendous love for the law, and constant
willingness to help people out. He possesses a photographic memory, and knows every
element of the law and jurisprudence of the Federal USA. Across seasons, we find Harvey
and Mike and the firm battle off enemies and make way in the cut throat competition of the
corporate world where someone’s always ready to stab you in the back if you’re not prepared.
As the show moves on, there are a number of incidents when someone or the other is about to
find the truth about Mike Ross, but he and Harvey make something work and the crisis gets
averted temporarily. A part of this was when Mike Ross used the help of a hacker to hack his
name into the records of the New York Bar Association. Also, he got his name hacked into
the class records of Harvard Law School. This is important as this leads to framing of one of
the charges of cyber fraud against Mike in the future.
We also see relationships build over seasons; Mike fell in love and got engaged to a paralegal
at the firm, Rachel Zane. The dynamics and leadership of the firm keep changing through all
of this time. Such changes help the viewers understand different perspectives and question
their existing beliefs and stereotypes about the characters.
Things run smooth until the US Attorney’s office gets an anonymous tip about Mike Ross
never actually going to Harvard. The Federal prosecuting attorney Anita Gibbs is a bold and
shrewd woman who is adamant to put him in jail. She frames a charge of conspiracy to
commit fraud against him. It was the day when Mike decided to resign and start a new life,
that he was arrested in the hallway of the firm. Mike and Harvey try to find a way out of the
situation to make a deal and get away with it, but nothing was of avail. This put the firm in
trouble, as the main motto of the US Attorney’s office was to book a name partner of the firm
for the crime. The presumption was that there was no way that Mike Ross made his way into
the firm and kept working without the knowledge of the partners: Jessica Pearson, Harvey
Specter, and Louis Litt of Pearson Specter Litt (the firm’s name at that time).
The thing moved to trial then.
Anita Gibbs contended that Mike Ross had committed a fraud every single time he signed a
piece of paper, or picked a phone, or talked to a person as a lawyer. She argued that every
single case from the past which had Mike’s name on it should be overturned and reopened.
She further said that Mike Ross had defrauded his clients, and the New York Bar
Association, and the people of the US.
Mike defended himself by saying that all he was doing was help people. He never actually
admitted that he was not a lawyer, but he expected the jury to believe in his goodness and let
him go. But this was a risky option as there was no surety of it. If convicted, he would end up
in jail for seven years and the firm along with the partners and every person working there
would be put in danger. Ultimately, Mike Ross took a deal from the prosecuting attorney
whereby he accepted the charges against him and agreed to go to federal prison for 2 years, in
exchange of the guarantee that the firm and all other people there would get absolute
immunity in the matter and that there would be no further lawsuit.
 Introduction

This project is based upon an American TV show, SUITS. The project aims to demonstrate as
to how cinema and media content relates to law, and how they can help us as law students to
learn about not only law, but also other factors of human interactions. This is somewhat the
motive of the subject Law, Literature, and Films; to find an underlying common ground
when it comes to the relation of literature and films as viewed in the light of law. There is,
and has always been a co relation between films and societies. Films and other media content
including literature have shaped our societies more than any other thing. When it comes to
societal interactions, law is always at the background of it. One cannot talk about societal
order without law; and where there is no law, there is no question of order. So in essence, law
and films have a common connection; i.e., society and human interactions. Subjects such as
gender roles, justice, identity, truth, community are constructed by means of law and films as
both of them offer socio cultural dimensions to the public and society at large. Such relation
between both of these streams invites interdisciplinary brainstorming into the world of Law,
Literature, and Films.

SUITS, as a show is based on a group of lawyers; it depicts their daily struggles in the world
of corporate law, and their interactions with each other in personal and professional
capacities. We have taken up a particular issue of Degree and Impersonation Fraud in
connection with specific events of the show.

Ultimately, we aim to establish a relation between cinema and real life, with reference to
legal aspects. We also aim to show how a particular instance or happening (in this case,
fraud) may have different implications in different countries and jurisdictions.