Chapter 45: The First Response - Part 1
MIKE ROSS - PEARSON HARDMAN
The motion landed on Mike's desk at nine-fifteen AM via courier. Forty-seven pages. He flipped through it, noted the citation density, the exhibits section that went on for twenty-three more pages.
Standard discovery motion. Just thorough.
He set it aside, turned back to the contract he was reviewing for Harvey. Something about offshore accounts and shell corporations that made his head hurt. The Kessler case was supposed to be easy—wrongful termination, weak plaintiff, corporate defendant with clean documentation. Settle for nuisance value, move on.
Except Scott Roden didn't do easy, apparently.
Mike picked up the motion again around eleven, started reading properly. The first section laid out the timeline—Kessler reports fraud on October third, performance reviews flip negative exactly thirty-two days later, termination follows ninety-eight days after that. The dates were highlighted, cross-referenced with Meridian's own HR policy manual requirements.
Okay. That's actually pretty damning.
Page eight, footnote fourteen caught his attention. Scott had anticipated the standard "overbroad and burdensome" objection, preemptively narrowed the request to specific custodians and date ranges, then cited three cases where judges had granted similar discovery despite defense objections.
Mike sat back. This wasn't padding. This was someone who knew exactly what he was doing.
He kept reading. Request two targeted emails between Kessler's supervisor and HR—narrowed to the two weeks after the fraud report. Request three asked for the complete HR investigation file, citing company policy that required written documentation of all witness interviews. Request four asked for performance reviews of the employees Kessler had reported, establishing that they'd been promoted while he was terminated.
Each request built on the last. Each one was justified with case law. Each one would be hard to object to without looking like obstruction.
Mike's stomach tightened. He'd underestimated this. They all had.
He grabbed the motion and headed to Harvey's office. Donna glanced up from her desk, expression neutral.
"Is he available?"
"For you? Always. For that motion?" She nodded at the papers in his hand. "Probably not."
Mike pushed through anyway. Harvey was on the phone, feet up on his desk, looking out at Manhattan like he owned it. He waved Mike in without looking.
"—don't care what the board wants. If they don't like my terms, find another lawyer." He hung up. "What?"
"The Kessler motion. From Scott Roden." Mike set it on Harvey's desk. "It's really thorough."
Harvey picked it up, flipped to the first page, skimmed for maybe ten seconds. "Discovery padding. Standard desperate associate trying to look smart. Object to everything, cut it down by half."
"Harvey, he anticipated that. See footnote fourteen?"
Harvey's eyes flicked to the page, then actually focused. He read silently for thirty seconds. A minute. Two minutes.
"Son of a bitch is actually good."
"That's what I'm saying. This isn't standard work. He's identified procedural issues with Meridian's HR investigation that I didn't catch in the initial review."
Harvey kept reading, flipping pages faster now. His jaw tightened—that particular tell that meant he was annoyed at being surprised.
"He's trying to bury us in document review," Harvey said finally. "Make it expensive for the client, force settlement."
"Or he actually thinks he can prove retaliation."
"On what? One terminated employee's word against corporate documentation?"
"On this." Mike tapped the timeline section. "The pattern. Kessler reports fraud, suddenly everyone turns on him, investigation is cursory at best, and the people he reported all got promoted. That's going to look bad to a jury."
Harvey dropped the motion on his desk, leaned back. "How long to draft a response?"
"Two days if I do it alone. Maybe three—he's got six separate discovery categories, each one needs individual objection and supporting case law."
"You have until tomorrow afternoon."
"Harvey—"
"Take Rachel for paralegal support. I want a response that buries every single request." Harvey's voice went cold. "Scott Roden needs to learn there are levels to this game. He's playing associate-level chess. I want you to show him what partner-level looks like."
Mike hesitated. "That's going to cost the client double in legal fees."
"Bill it. Meridian has deep pockets and they care more about winning than cost." Harvey pointed at the door. "Go. And Mike? Make it hurt."
Rachel was in the library when Mike found her, surrounded by deposition transcripts for one of Louis's cases. She looked up as he approached, smiled.
"Hey. What's up?"
"Need help on a motion. Harvey's orders. Going to be late nights for the next two days."
Her smile faded slightly. "How late?"
"Probably midnight."
"Great." She stood, gathering her materials. "What's the case?"
"Wrongful termination. Defense side. Plaintiff's lawyer filed an aggressive discovery motion that we need to shut down."
"Who's the lawyer?"
"Scott Roden. Used to work here."
Rachel paused. "The one Harvey forced out?"
"Jessica forced out. Harvey just made it uncomfortable enough that she had to."
They walked back to Mike's office together. Rachel commandeered the second desk, pulled up the case management system on her laptop.
"What do you need?"
"Start with the HR investigation requirements. Meridian's policy manual versus what they actually did. Scott's claiming they cut corners—I need to prove they didn't."
"And if they did?"
"Then we argue it doesn't matter because the termination was justified by legitimate performance issues."
Rachel gave him a look. "Was it?"
"Does it matter?"
"To our credibility with the judge? Yes."
Mike didn't answer. He pulled up the case file, started drafting objections. Rachel worked parallel, pulling HR case law, building the defense framework.
Around two PM, Louis stopped by.
"Heard Harvey assigned you extra resources for the Kessler case." He looked between them. "Scott Roden must have impressed him."
"Or annoyed him," Mike said.
"With Scott, those are usually the same thing." Louis leaned against the doorframe. "Fair warning—Scott doesn't bluff. If he filed forty-seven pages, he believes every word. You're not fighting standard associate overreach. You're fighting someone who calculated the exact amount of pressure needed to make you uncomfortable."
"Thanks for the confidence boost."
"I'm serious. Scott and I worked together on several cases when he was here. He's methodical. Patient. And he holds grudges." Louis straightened. "Just...be careful. This case might be about wrongful termination on paper, but it's really about Scott proving Jessica made a mistake firing him."
After Louis left, Rachel looked at Mike. "What was that about?"
"Louis and Scott were friendly. Before." Mike turned back to his screen. "I think Louis feels guilty about Scott leaving."
"Should he?"
Mike thought about the times he'd seen Scott in the halls, always professional, always composed. Thought about Harvey's dismissiveness, Jessica's cold calculation. Thought about how easily the firm had discarded someone who by all accounts had been a good lawyer.
"Probably."
They worked through lunch, through the afternoon. By six PM, Mike had drafted objections to four of the six discovery requests. By eight, Rachel had found case law supporting defensive positions. By ten, they'd assembled a thirty-five page response.
Mike's eyes burned. His back ached from hunching over the laptop. But the response was solid—technical, well-cited, professionally aggressive without crossing into obstruction.
"We need five more pages," Rachel said, rubbing her eyes. "Harvey said bury him. Thirty-five doesn't bury."
"Quality over quantity."
"Tell that to Harvey."
Mike added another section attacking the timeline as speculative correlation, included three more cases supporting corporate discretion in termination decisions. Thirty-eight pages. Close enough.
Around eleven-thirty, he stood up to stretch. Through his office glass, he could see Donna still at her desk, typing something on her computer. She'd been there all night, same as them. Harvey's door was closed but his light was on.
Donna caught Mike's eye, waved him over. He walked out, grateful for the break.
"How's it going?" she asked.
"Almost done. Thirty-eight pages. Should be ready to file tomorrow."
"Good work." She paused. "How's the motion quality? Honestly."
Mike leaned against her desk. "Honestly? Scott's motion is better than anything I've filed as an associate. It's tight. Anticipates objections. Makes me look bad if I try to stonewall."
Donna's expression didn't change, but something flickered behind her eyes. "And your response?"
"Solid. But he's going to counter it. This is going to turn into extended motion practice."
"That's expensive for the client."
"Harvey doesn't care. He wants to prove a point."
"What point?"
"That Scott Roden doesn't belong in Harvey's league."
Donna looked at him for a long moment. "And do you think that's true?"
Mike thought about the motion sitting on his desk, the precision of the arguments, the strategic thinking behind every request. Thought about how Harvey had initially dismissed it, then had to assign extra resources when he actually read it.
"I think Scott's better than Harvey gave him credit for."
"Most people are." Donna turned back to her computer. "Get some rest after you file tomorrow. This case is going to be a marathon."
Mike went back to his office. Rachel was adding final citations, cross-checking formatting. They finished around midnight, sent the draft to Harvey for review, then headed out together.
The elevator ride down was quiet. Rachel broke the silence.
"Do you feel bad? About this case?"
"Why would I feel bad?"
"Because we're defending a company that probably did retaliate against a whistleblower. Because Harvey's using this case to punish Scott. Because none of this is really about the client."
Mike didn't have a good answer. The elevator doors opened to the empty lobby.
"We're lawyers. We defend clients. That's the job."
"That's what Harvey would say."
"Doesn't make it wrong."
Rachel looked at him, disappointed in a way that made his chest tight. "Doesn't make it right either."
They parted ways on the street—her to the subway, him toward his apartment. Mike walked through late-night Manhattan, surrounded by people heading home from bars, from late shifts, from lives he'd never understand.
His phone buzzed. Text from Harvey: Good work on the draft. File it first thing tomorrow. And Mike—don't go easy on him just because you used to work together. Scott chose his side when he joined Hardman.
Mike pocketed the phone and kept walking. Chose his side. Like it was war instead of law. Like Scott leaving Pearson Hardman after Jessica forced him out was betrayal instead of survival.
But Harvey didn't see it that way. To Harvey, you were either with him or against him. And Scott Roden was definitely against him.
Which meant Mike was caught in the middle of something that had nothing to do with Gerald Kessler and everything to do with pride.
He got home, collapsed on his couch without changing clothes. Tomorrow he'd file the response, Scott would counter, they'd have a discovery conference. Standard litigation procedure.
But underneath was something else. Something personal. Something that felt less like practicing law and more like being a weapon in someone else's fight.
Mike closed his eyes and tried not to think about it.
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