Jessica Pearson, played by Gina Torres, is one of the main characters in USA Network’s series Suits. This captivating and popular drama aired in 2011 and was created by Aaron Korsh. Suits is a drama about a group of talented lawyers and their lives at Pearson Specter, a very prestigious but fictitious law firm set in New York City. Throughout the three seasons of suits, we followed this group of lawyers throughout each high priority case and experienced their obstacles alongside them. During the drama, we are introduced to the main characters known as Harvey Specter, Daniel Hardman, and Jessica Pearson. Harvey Specter, the main character, is a corporate lawyer or name partner at Pearson Specter alongside Jessica Pearson. Daniel Hardman is the original name partner of the firm. Finally, we have Jessica Pearson. Jessica is the co-founder and managing partner of the law firm under its prior name of Pearson Hardman. Jessica Pearson was mentored by Daniel Hardman when she was an associate fresh out of Harvard law, and she went on to mentor the great Harvey Spector. Jessica is a phenomenal, intelligent, and powerful lawyer, but naturally she faced many obstacles along her journey to becoming the powerful partner is she in season three of the series.

Jessica Pearson displayed many unique strengths on her journey to become a lawyer and survive at Pearson Specter. Getting into Harvard Law alone is an incredible achievement, but finishing top of her class is an example of her diligence, determination, and hard work. According to Harvard Law School’s Profile and Facts, only 15.6% of students who apply to Harvard Law receive acceptance (HLS, 2014). The diligence and the amount of work Jessica Pearson put in in order to receive acceptance into Harvard Law shows how hard working she is and how determined she was to accomplish her goal of becoming a lawyer. Studies show that women in male dominated organizations, such as a prestigious law firm, face barriers in advancing to upper echelon positions (Greenfield-Laborde, 2008). In regards to this study, Jessica showed great determination to overcome those barriers and become a name partner against all odds. Jessica Pearson also shows a great deal of wisdom and perspective throughout the show. Many of the senior partners in the drama come to her before taking on their cases because of the insight she has. Throughout her years of being an associate and being mentored by Daniel Hardman, she gained a great deal of wisdom when it came to dealing with different cases and clients. Louis Litt, a senior partner at the firm, is well known throughout the drama to always have his cases checked by Jessica before taking them to court. Another strength Jessica displays during her time at Pearson Specter is leadership. According to a study on the effects of leadership on a team, leaders are most effective when they specialize the members of the team into particular behavior roles in order to get the best final result from the team as a whole (Porter, 2013). Jessica Pearson embodies this role as a leader throughout Pearson Specter flawlessly. She designated and divides each specific case the law firm is given to a lawyer in her firm according to which lawyer can best accommodate to the case. Whenever a high profile or difficult case is brought to the firm, Jessica Pearson either takes it on herself or assigns it to Harvey Specter. This is a great example of leadership because Jessica and Harvey are considered “sharks” in the legal world. Harvey Specter is a brilliant lawyer that is known to always find a way out no matter how backed into a corner he may be. Even when the case seems completely hopeless, Jessica shows leadership by putting the case in Harvey’s capable hands. Research shows that giving up some control is an important thing to exercise in order to be a good leader (Dotlich & Cairo, 2002). By passing control of the cases to other partners, Jessica continues to show the characteristics