Suits Wiki
Advertisement
Suits Wiki

"They stole everything I built, Robert, forced me out in disgrace, and I have been in the wilderness ever since. And until my name is up on that wall, I'm not dropping this."
— Daniel Hardman to Robert Zane

Daniel Hardman, J.D. was the co-founder of Pearson Hardman. He is an attorney and was the former managing partner before Jessica Pearson and Harvey Specter ousted him from the firm by threatening to expose his extramarital affair with an attorney at the firm to his wife Alicia, who was dying of cancer. Five years later, following his wife's death, he returned to the firm to regain control and attempted to have Jessica and Harvey removed. His actions forced Jessica to merge with Edward Darby to end Hardman's plans, creating Pearson Darby in the process.

History

"When Jessica and I found out that Daniel was embezzling from clients, we confronted him. He broke down. He said his wife had cancer, and he needed the money to try and save her life. Turns out, he needed the money to support his mistress. Now he's saying he's different. But a man who would do that is a man I find very difficult to trust."
Harvey Specter to Mike Ross[src]

Background

Before the year 2003, Daniel was a senior partner at Gordon Schmidt Van Dyke. Sometime in 2003, Daniel, along with Jessica Pearson, had successfully staged a coup by convincing majority of the senior partners to vote out Stanley Gordon, Schmidt and Charles Van Dyke, creating Pearson Hardman. The coup was said to be very swift as described by Harvey Specter "...you got [your name] up there fast" to Jessica.

Flashbacks

In 2009* (six years ago according to "Fork in the Road" and seven years ago according to "Full Disclosure"), Daniel pitted Harvey and Louis against one another with the promise of partnership on the table, promising to give it to whoever does what needs to be done. Hardman had Harvey sign McKernon Motors but then told him to drop him for a firm triple the size of that. When Harvey refuses due to the fact that he gave McKernon his word, Daniel claims he isn't partnership material since he can't put the firm's needs above his own word, and instead promotes Louis to junior partner, since Louis managed to sabotage Harvey's game plan and caused him to lose the court case.

In the year 2007* (five years ago according to "Rewind") Jessica had noticed someone had been stealing from the firm after looking at the accounting books. Hesitant to go to Daniel without any concrete proof, Jessica sends Harvey to investigate, promising him partnership if he succeeds. Harvey soon finds the culprit to be Louis, only to find out that the real culprit had made Louis out to be the fall guy. With Louis's help, Harvey proves that Daniel Hardman had been the one stealing from the firm. When confronted about this by Jessica, Daniel reveals that his wife has cancer and he has been stealing this money to help her. This was enough to satisfy Jessica but not Harvey who really wanted his partnership. He soon discovered that the money was not for Alicia but for Monica Eton, with whom Daniel was having an affair. Threatening to tell his wife, Harvey asks Daniel to sign a piece of paper saying Daniel is walking away from the firm. Daniel reluctantly agrees.

Season 2

Hardman is ousted

Daniel being voted off by every senior partner in the meeting

Five years later, when Alicia loses the fight against her cancer, Hardman comes back and manages to take over the firm once again and takes advantage of a lawsuit filed against Harvey by Travis Tanner, saying Harvey had buried evidence in a case. Harvey, who had done no such thing, ordered Donna to find any such evidence in the file room. When Donna found the evidence stamped with her name on it, she destroyed it in an attempt to protect Harvey. Later, it was revealed that Hardman had planted the CM memo to make it look like Donna had buried it, and then had Travis Tanner attempt to sue the firm. Hardman was then dismissed from the firm for fraudulently suing the firm.

Daniel then started working with Robert Zane to try take the firm down by defending Folsom Foods on a gender discrimination civil case being handled by Pearson Hardman. While defending Folsom, he files a gender discrimination suit on behalf of Monica Eton using, word-for-word, the lawsuit Mike Ross had filed against Monica. He also has a bunch of people filing lawsuits against Pearson Hardman. Although the lawsuits held no weight, Daniel knew that either Jessica and Harvey would have to settle the cases or go to court and fight them all off, both bankrupting the firm in the process. This causes Jessica to merge with Darby International to create Pearson Darby, and with Darby's funds they manage to get rid of and settle every case Hardman had against them.

Season 5

More than two years later after his dismissal, Hardman once again returns to New York and is trying to take over the firm from Jessica and Harvey, by using senior partner Jack Soloff. Hardman puts his plan in motion in the episode "Uninvited Guests", where it's revealed that he has signed a client worth billions of dollars. Jack Soloff, during a partners meeting, tells the partners that Daniel would share the client with all the partners, should they agree to bring Hardman back to the firm on "trial basis". Of course, Harvey and Jessica immediately object to this and end the meeting. Hardman privately explains to Jessica that the client is looking for acquisitions and since Jessica turned the offer down, he is going to start targeting Pearson Specter Litt clients. Mike and Harvey decide the one way to beat Hardman at his own game is top whatever he could offer their clients, and go to Jonathan Sidwell and Tony Gianopolous, two hedge fund managers, to get equity and loans. However, Hardman is able to top whatever Sidwell and Gionopoulous could offer, despite it being impractical. Harvey then realizes there's only one person who could and would actually give Hardman that much money, and it is revealed that Hardman is being backed by none other than shady billionaire Charles Forstman.

Season 8

After Harvey breaks attorney-client privilege, Simon Lowe hires Hardman to represent him. Hardman uses the lawsuit as an attempt to have Harvey disbarred, although he agrees to drop the suit if he is brought on to Zane Specter Litt Wheeler Williams as a name partner and Harvey resigns from the firm. As Robert Zane is the only name partner of their firm he gets along with, Robert offers to have Hardman become a name partner at Rand Kaldor if he settles the case, and Hardman agrees. However, after Harvey has Simon fired from his company, Hardman reports Harvey to the New York State Bar, triggering an ethics hearing. During the hearing, however, Robert takes the blame for breaking privilege, much to Hardman's shock, who did not wish to have his friend punished, although Robert's confession causes the Bar to order him to forfeit his license to practice law.[1]

Trivia

  • The original founding partner was Phillip Hardman, portrayed by Victor Garber, who willingly passed on his position to Jessica, though this scene is deleted therefore not considered canon.[2]
  • In season 2, it is said that Daniel was ousted from the firm in 2007, yet a flashback during season 4 shows him still in the firm in 2009 while Harvey and Louis were still 5th year associates.
Pearson (2x16)

Hardman's name is removed

  • At some point after Hardman was fired, his name was taken off the wall changing it from "Pearson Hardman" to just "Pearson".

Gallery

Appearances

References

Advertisement