Suits: A Lawyer Surviving TV Chaos

The next day, Martin still woke up at 6:30 a.m. sharp and headed to the hotel gym in his workout clothes.

After stretching and warming up, he jogged on the treadmill for an hour, did a few sets of weightlifting, and finally put on fingerless boxing gloves to practice with the punching ball.

Since high school, Martin had been practicing boxing. Later, in college, he also studied Krav Maga a bit , a combat-proven Israeli martial art. His excellent physical condition could have easily earned him a spot at college sports team. However, upon learning that being in a sports team required daily training, he promptly gave up.

As he punched and dodged the rebounding punching ball, Rachel Zane walked in wearing a professional skirt suit and three-inch heels, instantly drawing the attention of all the men exercising in the gym.

All except Martin, who was used to her presence after seeing her so often.

After admiring Martin's muscles and physique for a moment, Rachel spoke. "Priya arrived at the hotel half an hour ago. I told her to grab breakfast and rest."

"At ten o'clock, have her sign the contract with Mark. From now on, she'll be Facebook's nominal Chief Legal Counsel."

Martin continued focusing on the punching ball as he casually replied.

Rachel frowned slightly. "Martin, isn't Priya too inexperienced? After all Facebook is a company valued at over tens of billion dollars. Appointing a freshly graduated paralegal as Chief Legal Counsel seems…"

Hearing this, Martin stopped the punching ball, turned to Rachel, and asked, "Then who should take over? Harvey? Or Louis?"

He then made an ambiguous gesture. "They're not my people and I don't trust them."

Rachel still looked worried. "But what about Facebook's board of directors?"

Martin chuckled, shook his head, and resumed punching. "If it weren't for corporate law explicitly prohibiting a lawyer from serving as both a board member and legal counsel to avoid collusion against other shareholders, do you think I'd give up this position? Priya is one of my pre-selected team members—only she can make me feel at ease."

"Priya is just the nominal Chief Counsel. I'm still in control of the actual operations. Not only does Mark know this, but Facebook's board knows it too. They won't object."

To prevent collusion between shareholders and legal counsel, many countries' corporate laws indeed included such a provision.

However, clever lawyers naturally found ways to circumvent it, such as through the partnership system in law firms. One partner handles key board members, while another manages corporate affairs. On paper, there's no connection, but in reality, the firm controls all legal matters of the company—manipulating things however they want.

Martin had only signed personal legal contracts with the mutual aid group members. Originally he planned to gradually build a legal team over the next few years to handle the enterprises behind those members and his personal projects. But Zuckerberg's impulsive move caught him off guard.

Fortunately, he still had Priya to rely on; otherwise, this opportunity would've gone to the bigwigs at the firm.

Martin wasn't worried about whether Priya might oppose him once she grew into her role. Enterprises were ultimately controlled by people. Even if Priya excelled at Facebook, she'd still follow Zuckerberg's directives.

In other words, as long as Martin maintained a good relationship with Zuckerberg, Facebook's legal decisions would always align with Martin Scott's will!

This incident reminded him not to drag his feet. He needed to accelerate building his legal team faster than planned.

If Leonard's genius older brother weren't already a tenured law professor at Harvard Law School and a permanent lawyer at the U.S. Supreme Court—with qualifications far surpassing his own—Martin would've loved to poach him.

This made Martin suddenly think of Mrs. Hofstadter's differing attitudes toward Leonard and his siblings, and he couldn't help but feel sorry for Leonard.

Unless something unexpected happened, Leonard would spend his entire life overshadowed by his extraordinary siblings.

As Martin played with the punching ball and let his mind wander, Rachel stood quietly beside him, her gaze filled with admiration and a hint of infatuation.

Beads of sweat slid along his well-defined muscles, surrounding him with an intoxicating aura of masculinity. Combined with his handsome face exuding confidence and focus…

After a long while, Rachel suddenly spoke. "What about me? How do you plan to arrange things for me?"

Martin turned back and smiled. "What do you think it means when I let you take the LSAT next year?"

Rachel felt a surge of joy, but then noticed the punching ball rapidly rebounding toward Martin's left cheek.

Before she could warn him, Martin didn't even glance, ducked back instinctively, and delivered a powerful left hook, knocking the bobbing punching ball flat!

Martin turned around and gave Rachel, who was frozen in place, a victory sign.

"K.O.!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Priya originally thought she was just running errands, but unexpectedly, she had ascended overnight to become the Chief Legal Counsel of a multi-billion-dollar tech company.

Before this, Rachel had already made her sign another cooperation agreement between lawyers, stipulating a 70-30 revenue split for all clients Martin referred to her within five years.

Martin got 70%, Priya 30%.

Even so, this Chief Counsel position would bring Priya nearly $400,000 in annual income after splitting with Martin and the firm.

Not only that, but this position would also significantly elevate Priya's status in the legal industry. At least nominally, she could now sit and drink coffee with the firm's senior lawyers.

After signing the employment contract, Zuckerberg noticed Priya seemed tense and uneasy. He reassured her with a smile, "Don't worry. If you have any questions, ask Martin. This guy always has unexpected ideas!"

Priya nodded gratefully.

She knew she was just a pawn Martin pushed forward to circumvent legal restrictions.

But she also knew countless lawyers would willingly strip themselves bare in front of Martin—regardless of his gender or even if he were a monkey—for the chance to be this pawn.

This trust and opportunity weighed heavily!

After collecting the contracts, Priya sat somewhat dazed in the new Audi A6 Facebook had assigned her. Returning to the hotel, she immediately went upstairs and knocked on Martin's door.

Opening the door, Martin stepped aside with a smile and asked, "Finished signing the contract?"

Priya nodded blankly.

Martin turned and walked into the room. "Facebook has its own legal department. They'll send you daily briefings, which will also be copied to me. You can familiarize yourself with corporate legal matters since that'll be your main focus going forward. I'll mentor you for two years, after which you can handle things independently. As for this negotiation with Microsoft, I'll…"

Before he finished, Martin's body was suddenly shoved onto the bed. A curvaceous, fiery figure pressed herself against him.

To be honest, if this woman weren't Priya, Martin would've made her beg on her knees hours later!

Throughout history, men have always cared deeply about their prowess in that area.

Martin struggled to suppress his desire, using his long-term combat training to quickly regain control of the situation.

"You know we can't do this!"

Martin sat up on the bed, pulled Priya to the couch, and handed her a glass of ice water.

After a long silence, Martin felt Priya had calmed down and finally spoke.

"Professionally speaking, I'm your superior. Whether you're willing or not, if anything happens between us, I can't avoid the suspicion of using my position to coerce sexual favors."

American law was extremely strict about sexual harassment. As long as there was a power imbalance, the dominant party was always legally more vulnerable.

For example, between a boss and subordinate, or a teacher and student…

Looking at Priya, who now seemed embarrassed and ashamed, Martin's eyes inadvertently glanced at her disheveled shirt collar.

"On a personal level, we're good friends. I don't want to lose you someday because of emotional complications—it would be an unbearable loss for me!"

"Just stay like this, okay? We can be colleagues and good friends for life."

Priya held the glass of water, lowered her head in deep thought for a long time, and finally looked up at Martin with a mix of disappointment and acceptance.

"No sleeping with colleagues, no sleeping with close friends' female relatives, right?"

"I didn't expect you to be so principled. The men I've met before only think with their lower halves."

Martin chuckled. "Like… Leonard?"

"He told you about what happened between us?" Priya looked both surprised and embarrassed. 

Martin shrugged indifferently. "Don't worry. I'm not judging you."

(End of Chapter)