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"I don't only talk a big game, I walk it. And ethics is not about never doing anything wrong, it's about making choices. And I'm not gonna let you make my choice for me."
— Henry Gerard to Harvey Specter

Professor Henry Gerard, J.D. is a legal ethics professor at Harvard Law School and a novice gambler. He is notorious for never granting a student a grader higher than an "A" in his class, causing Louis Litt to suspect Mike Ross when the latter has an A+ listed on his transcript. Gerard himself later becomes aware of the secret, but he chooses not to expose Mike as a fraud after Mike and Harvey Specter save his career.

History

"His favorite quote is, "For the law to work, there must be honor in one's word.""
"Who's he quoting?"
"Himself. Pompous prick. Guy never practiced a day in his life, thinks he can write the book on real world ethics."
Harvey Specter and Donna Paulsen[src]
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Henry becomes one of Harvey's clients after being accused of accepting a bribe for a job that he's taken. Gerard lies that he got the $25,000 dollars from playing backroom poker, but Harvey later discovers that it was actually from one of his students named Ian to change his grade. In order to put the allegations to rest and to prevent Gerard from being exposed, Mike has Ian sign an affidavit stating that the money paid was for a loan, which Gerard is to pay back. Henry is impressed by Mike to the point of wondering why he'd forgotten such a student, causing Henry to look into his records and discover the truth that Mike wasn't actually his student and that Harvey had visited him the year before in order to prevent Henry from exposing Mike as a fraud. As gratitude for Harvey and Mike saving him, Henry chooses to keep Mike's secret rather than expose him as a fraud and Harvey decides to pay back the loan to Ian himself in gratitude. It also results in Ian's grade not being changed and him failing Henry's class.[1]

Henry later reaches out to Mike revealing that he knows that Mike is a fraud and promising not to expose him. He asks Mike to get Harvey to take on the case of a whistle blower for Liberty Rail.[2]

After Mike is facing prison for his fraud, Henry is suspected as being the one who exposed him, but it's later revealed to be Sheila Sazs. Mike tries to get Henry to help him by signing an affidavit that gives him reasonable doubt if nothing else. However, while Henry is sympathetic to Mike which is why he didn't expose him in the first place, he is unwilling to risk going to prison to help Mike. Instead, Henry agrees to write a vaguely worded letter about Mike's skill without directly saying that he was in Henry's class. Mike and Harvey are able to use Henry's letter as leverage to get Anita Gibbs to drop her case against Jim Paulsen.[3]

Following Robert Zane's disbarment, Louis calls Henry and explains that he wishes for Henry to help sway candidates their way since Zane Specter Litt Wheeler Williams does not have a single applicant from the top ten law schools in the country. Louis suggests that Henry make him keynote speaker at the upcoming ethics conference, although Henry adds that Harvard Law School would have to approve of it first. Henry then adds that he does not believe that Robert broke privilege just to stick it to him and Harvey, and realizes it was because of Harvey. While he admonishes Louis for allowing such a crime on his watch, Louis retorts that Henry did worse things and the firm covered it up on his behalf, and tells Henry to have him be keynote speaker by the end of the week.

Sometime later, Henry calls Louis to inform him that not only has Harvard denied having Louis become keynote speaker, but that the students are not going to won over by speeches but rather by action, and would not consider his firm unless Louis took action by removing Robert's name.[4]

Harvey later tries to enlist Henry's help with getting Mike to become a legitimate lawyer. However, while Henry is sympathetic and agrees that Mike should become a real lawyer, he can't help as it's the New York Bar and he's a Massachusetts professor.[5]

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