You're Still the One

Trust Among Lawyers

I've never got a new client so easily before.

"Ms Paulsen, I would suggest heading back to your desk, I believe that Richard should be calling you in 5 or so minutes. And I know he would prefer to speak to you directly instead of your answering machine" said Meredith

Donna was surprised, she could honestly say this woman impressed her, not only did she knock Louis and Jessica down a peg, but she knew her last name, something that no one knew at the firm. Donna nodded at Harvey and then Meredith before leaving, making a note to herself to interrogate Mike about his sister, she wanted to know more.

"What did you just do? You expect us to believe that you aren't planning to harm us, but you just stole our client" said Louis

"I didn't steal your client, he simply changed lawyers. There is nothing harmful about that. I mean I didn't even do anything, I simply had a conversation with a friend and an old client" replied Meredith, loving the lost look on Louis's face.

"You manipulated him," said Jessica, crossing her arms to try and get some authority back that the Ross woman took.

"I spoke to him. I never told him to change lawyers. I simply spoke to an old client," said Meredith before delivering her clincher, "any goodlawyer knows how to control a conversation with a client, current or potential."

"She's right," said Harvey, speaking for the first time.

"Harvey..."

"Weren't you listening, the first thing Bailey asked was if she was back in the game. Bailey has been waiting for her to make a move and he decided having Mike was the closest thing he was going to get, so he went for it. She may have manipulated the conversation, but she didn't outright tell him to change lawyers" said Harvey, "We should be more worried about how many more of our clients are on that phone."

"That was a one off, if she had so many clients wanting her to their lawyer, she would be their lawyer," said Louis.

"Bradley James, Dean Parker, Grant Dixon, Taylor Dawson, Fraser Willis, is that enough clients for you?" asked Meredith, "I could start a law firm if I wanted, that's five of YOUR clients that I could call right now and would move immediately, and that's just from Pearson Hardman, don't even get me started in other firms or the ones I could get if I called Anthony Barnes. I'm not a lawyer because I can't trust lawyers not because I can't get clients, Mr Litt."

"No one trusts lawyers," said Jessica.

"I can't trust lawyers to have my back, Ms Pearson. The reason I allowed Mike to work here was because of your employee record. Most of your employees are here for life, a company that instils and values that sort of loyalty is the only place I'd let my brother work in. I'd never let him work at somewhere like Donahue, Williamson & Barnes."

"Obviously there's no loyalty there, you took them down," said Harvey.

"That's not why I said that. Out of all the employees there," said Meredith, anger rolling off her, "five testified during the case, five were willing to come forward. I know there were more, I know people saw or heard what happened because when I walked into work on Monday, everyone, the associates, partners, assistants, they were all talking about it, whispering about it behind my back. When Mike wanted to work somewhere, I told him it was Pearson Hardman or nowhere. This is the only law firm that I could trust him to be safe in, that hasn't had any suspicious firings or resignations, there hasn't even a complaint since Ms Pearson became Managing Partner. I told Mike to apply here, I told him he could only work for Pearson Hardman, that he could only work for Harvey Specter because I thought, I believed you had some morals"

"Believed?" asked Harvey

"I thought you were better than her" said Meredith, pointing at Jessica. "I thought that he would be treated like I was. Instead you let him be treated like he was. I thought you wouldn't let him be hurt but you didn't stop a stupid mock trial that could hurt him."

"I didn't think I needed to. I don't understand why it caused him to react that way. He didn't tell me anything. He tried but I didn't listen."

"You don't know about the accident?" asked Meredith. She continued when Harvey shook his head, "Our parents were killed in a car accident by a drunk driver."

"Jessica?" questioned Harvey, he didn't want to think his old mentor had known anything, but he had to check.