Suits | Charles Van Dyke

 Charles Van Dyke, J.D. is a corporate attorney and was the name and managing partner of Gordon Schmidt Van Dyke before Jessica Pearson and Daniel Hardman took over the firm and rebranded it as Pearson Hardman. He made his sole appearance in "Know When to Fold 'Em" in an attempt to take Jessica down, although he was bested when Jessica had Louis Litt dissolve Pearson Specter as an LLP and have it restructured as an LLC.

History

Charles Van Dyke was a senior partner working for Arthur Reeves and his law firm. Along with fellow partners Stanley Gordon and Schmidt, they ousted the firm from Reeves, forming Gordon Schmidt Van Dyke in the process. Charles Van Dyke was responsible for the hiring of Jessica Pearson, although he only did so because she was female and black, and wanted to fulfill a diversity quota, something he shared with Daniel Hardman.

In 2003, Daniel and Jessica gained the support of the other senior partners and had Gordon, Schmidt and Van Dyke ousted, creating Pearson Hardman. However, Van Dyke retained dividend and certain rights in exchange for his partnership being bought out.

Over a decade later, Van Dyke paid a visit to Pearson Specter, demanding an increase to his dividends; when Jessica refused, he filed an action to audit their books. Jessica enlisted the aid of Louis Litt, who dissolved and restructured the firm from an LLP to an LLC to prevent Van Dyke from succeeding.^[1]

Two years later, Jessica was disbarred, necessitating the firm to undergo another name change and have her partnership bought out. Knowing that paying Jessica off would cause an issue since they didn't pay any of the other partners when they left, Louis informed Harvey Specter that they would have to dissolve and restructure once again, but because they had already done so before, they would require the signatures of either Gordon, Schmidt or Van Dyke. Louis notified Harvey that Van Dyke hated them after being defeated, and as Schmidt had gone off the grid in 2012, Gordon would be their only option.^[2]