page_title: List of Suits characters
section_title: Daniel Hardman
hierarchical_section_title: List of Suits characters / Recurring characters / Daniel Hardman
caption_attribution_description: American actor David Costabile at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con.
context_page_description: Suits is an American legal drama, created by Aaron Korsh. It premiered on USA Network in June 2011. The series revolves around Harvey Specter, a senior partner at a top law firm in Manhattan, and his recently hired associate attorney Mike Ross as they hide the fact that Mike does not have a law degree. Each episode focuses on a single legal case and its challenges while examining the work environment of the firm, Mike's and Harvey's personal relationships, and problems stemming from Mike's lack of a degree. The rest of the starring cast portray other employees at the firm: Louis Litt, a partner who manages the associates; Rachel Zane, a paralegal who develops feelings for Mike; Donna Paulsen, Harvey's long-time legal secretary, close friend, and confidant; and Jessica Pearson, the co-founder and managing partner of the firm.
context_section_description: Daniel Hardman (David Costabile) is the co-founder of Pearson Hardman, former managing partner, and former mentor of Jessica. Five years before the events of the series, he had been secretly embezzling money from the firm's clients. When confronted, he told Jessica that he needed the money to afford breast cancer treatments for his wife Alicia. However, Harvey and Donna discover that the money is financing Daniel's affair with a colleague. Once this is discovered, Harvey deemed Daniel a liability and forced Daniel to resign and name Jessica as his successor by threatening to tell Alicia about the affair. Daniel resigns to prevent his wife's distress. Daniel first appears in the season two premiere following Alicia's death. He returns to the firm, this time working under Jessica instead of above her. Though he is a self-professed "changed man", Harvey and Jessica are not convinced. His role at the firm is more like a guide and voice of logic rather than a disciplinarian. Though he disagrees with Jessica's decision to fight for Harvey when he is accused of suppressing evidence rather than settle and lose Harvey, he does not go against her decision and urges her to prepare for the trial. He has a strong work ethic and is willing to work around the clock to accomplish a goal. At the end of "Sucker Punch", he takes advantage of the partners' apparent lack of faith in Jessica and requests a leadership vote to regain control of the firm. He wins the vote in "High Noon", but Harvey and Mike discover that Hardman forged the supposedly buried memo and orchestrated the lawsuit against the firm. When this is revealed at a partners meeting, Hardman is voted out of the firm. Though he agrees to not sue the firm in return for Jessica not revealing the incident and signing a confidentiality agreement, he tells her that this is not the end of their battle.
  Hardman later returns to battle his old firm as a contractor, working for Rachel's father, Robert Zane, representing the name defendant in a class action gender discrimination lawsuit being led by Harvey against Folsom Foods, Robert Zane's client. Daniel manipulates the situation and the confidentiality agreement that Jessica signed on the night of his expulsion to get Monica Eaton to sue Jessica Pearson simultaneously for wrongful termination, knowing that the combined assault will box the firm into a corner and damage its credibility; as Harvey insists to Jessica, "you can't be the name defendant in a gender discrimination case while we're suing Folsom Foods for the same thing!". His efforts to drain Jessica's resources and ruin what is left of her firm by having Monica file suit against Jessica are thwarted by Jessica's decision to merge with Darby's firm, giving her an insurmountable advantage in resources and (not including Darby learning of Daniel's prior embezzlement from to the due diligence required for merger negotiations, nullifying the confidentiality agreement's repercussions). He later appears in season 4 during a flashback episode.
  In season 5, Hardman returns to make another run at taking back control of the firm from Jessica. He first appears when Jessica confronts him about having helped Jack Soloff to land Fletcher Engines as a client. He insists that Jack came to him looking for advice on Fletcher, with no ulterior motives or intentions against the firm itself; Jessica refuses to believe him. In the episode 'Uninvited Guests' Jack Soloff tries to convince the firm's senior partners to let Hardman back into the firm on a trial basis in exchange for sharing the revenues from a billion dollar client that Hardman just recently signed. It is later revealed that the client is the disgraced billionaire Charles Forstman, now incarcerated. Harvey is able to thwart all of Hardman's funding by agreeing to resign from the firm.
caption: David Costabile
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "1825", "Image ImageLength": "2738", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS REBEL T3i", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2015:02:01 17:14:09", "Image Copyright": "@chrisjortiz", "Image ExifOffset": "308", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "986", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9960", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/40", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1250", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "1250", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:07:24 13:48:01", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:07:24 13:48:01", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "665241/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "24", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "74", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "74", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1442", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2511", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1036800/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "152057006074", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[24, 105, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "000042b71a"}