Being a lawyer is hard work: long hours, big pressure and tons of paperwork. In that sense, it’s just as involved as adapting a hit novel into a television series — which makes the evolution of Helen Wan’s 2013 novel The Partner Track into a Netflix series sound even more daunting. But showrunner Georgia Lee knew she had to adapt the novel from the jump. The book, which follows idealistic young lawyer Ingrid (played in the series by Arden Cho) as she competes to climb the partner track at a New York law firm, spoke to Lee. On a drive while listening to the audiobook version of Wan’s novel, she had a minor epiphany. 

“There's a flashback sequence when young Ingrid first goes to Manhattan. She has the perfect day in the big city. Then later, they go to visit her father’s mentor in a fancy Fifth Avenue building,” Lee tells Tudum. “The doorman mistakes her father for a delivery boy and a racial incident takes place. Little Ingrid is confused, angry and humiliated. It’s her first encounter with racism. She runs to her father and…I just started to cry. I had to pull the car over.” 

From Page to Screen: The Corporate Retreat in Partner TrackUzo Adoba shows us how the tension was brought to life in the new series.

The novel’s keen understanding of the experience of being a woman of color in a male-dominated field called out to Lee. “I completely understood what Ingrid was going through, where she was coming from,” Lee says. “She thinks that making partner, winning all the shiny signifiers of success in that world will somehow protect her from the ugliness of sexism, racism, etc. Anyhow, at that moment, I knew I wanted to adapt this into a show.”

That doesn’t mean the now nearly-decade-old novel was completely true to contemporary experiences Lee is familiar with. Scenes like the cringeworthy retreat sequence (in which a racially charged stand-up set goes horribly wrong) had to be updated from their place in the book. 

“In the book, the scene at the retreat showcases more overt racism,” says Lee. “The book was written [almost] 10 years ago — and while these issues are still very much present, they have shifted form. We wanted the show to feel current, but no less powerful. So we changed the ‘Gangsta's Paradise’ rap scene into Dan doing a skit about white fragility in order to better reflect how these issues might manifest now.”

Other characters also shifted in form during the transition from page to screen. “We added the character of Lina, Ingrid’s younger sister, which we thought would be fun and a good foil to Ingrid,” she says. “[Ingrid’s best friend] Rachel in the book has kids and is married, but in the show, we thought it would be fun to have her at Parsons Valentine working alongside Ingrid because I always wondered what made Rachel ultimately choose to leave the firm?”

And of course, the series makes a big change to the ending of the novel — spoilers ahead. On the page, Ingrid leaves to found her own firm, Yun & Associates. In the series, after being betrayed by her colleague and love interest Jeff (Dominic Sherwood), Ingrid misses out on a promotion to partner. So she goes off and tries to make things right with the green energy tycoon she had spent most of the season screwing over in an attempt to impress her bosses and make partner. But the move pays off karmically when the newly elevated tycoon (Desmond Chiam) refuses to work with Ingrid’s law firm unless she’s made partner. 

“We did this because we felt like her emotional journey is about learning that real power comes from being true to yourself,” Lee says. “And only when she is able to let go of the things she thought she wanted the most at the beginning of the story — making partner — and only when she truly is doing the right thing for the right reasons, does she actually end up getting the prize. But that prize is no longer what is truly important to her anymore.” 

So what’s next for Ingrid? Lee is keeping her lips tightly sealed. But one way or another, it will mean new territory. “Season 1 of the show pretty much follows the full story of the book,” she says. “So going forward we’re excited to explore new adventures for Ingrid and her friends.” The first thing on the agenda? Hopefully it’s settling things with that backstabbing traitor Jeff. 

Partner Track is currently streaming on Netflix.