‘Partner Track’ Is Every Woman’s Story, Says Arden Cho Of Netflix Legal Drama

As far as women have come, in some ways, it’s still a man’s world. Though things are improving, we continue to knock our heads into glass ceilings that men with equal or lesser talent never seem to come close to hitting.

Such is the case for Ingrid Yun (Arden Cho), a young woman gunning to make partner at her elite and very old-school New York City law firm, Parsons Valentine. As she fights for justice for the firm’s high-end clientele, she’s also forced to fight for her seat at the table.

The 10-episode legal drama Partner Track, which premiered on NetflixNFLX
today, is based on Helen Wan’s bestselling novel of the same name. The story centers around Ingrid and her two best friends, Rachel Friedman (Alexandra Turshen) and Tyler Robinson (Bradley Gibson), who aim to make partner. Each will come up against many obstacles along the way.

“Women face micro-aggressions every single day. I can’t tell you how many times in my life I suggested something and it went unheard until a man suggested it,” Cho said in a phone interview. “When I was younger, I’d try a few times and then give up but not now.”

She tells me that though the series has only been out for about 12 hours, she’s already received hundreds of personal and social media messages from women who say they stayed up all night watching the whole season. “They’ve been waiting for a show that represents them.”

Ingrid is bold and isn’t afraid to make the first move when she wants something or someone, and Cho loves this about her. “How nice to have a woman do that.”

For Ingrid, a first-generation Korean American, life is intense. She’s the first lawyer in her family and feels pressure from her parents. She’s also working in a law firm that is a notorious boys club.

To make things even more complicated, she finds herself in a love triangle with Jeff Murphy (Dominic Sherwood) and Nick Laren (Rob Heaps). As she juggles her personal life, Ingrid must also fight to prove herself to her hard-as-nails boss Marty Adler (Matthew Rauch) and co-workers Dan Fallon (Nolan Gerard Funk) and Justin Coleman (Roby Attal).

Though it seems like the role was written for Cho, she admits she wasn’t sure at first that she was the right fit to play Ingrid. She read the novel and pilot script and fell in love with Ingrid’s story. “I needed to read more episodes,” she reflects. “It was so wonderful to have women telling a woman’s story.”

Months went by, and the timing ended up being perfect, and Cho was cast. In the book, Ingrid is Chinese American, but she was rewritten as Korean American like Cho. “This helped me tell a more authentic story. Helen and I share so many of the same pains and struggles. We wanted this to be a universal Asian American woman’s story but also a story that every woman could relate to,” Cho explains. “This show is for any woman trying to break the glass ceiling in a male-dominated world. It’s also a story for anyone, male or female, who has ever felt “othered” because of where they come from, who they love, or how they identify.”

In a separate phone interview, series creator Georgia Lee explained what drew her to this story. She knew Netflix had optioned the book and decided to listen to the audio version as she drove around Los Angeles. Lee was so struck by one scene that she pulled her car over and cried. In the scene, Ingrid experiences her first encounter with racism as she and her father return home to their upscale New York highrise. The moment impacted Lee. “Though I didn’t have that specific incident happen to me in my life, I’ve had a very similar type of experience. At that moment, I understood the character. The question is, why is Ingrid Yun so ambitious? Why does she do the things she does? At a deep subconscious level, that scene made me understand more of who she is and made me want to bring this book to life.”

As thirtysomethings, Ingrid and her friends stumble along the way. She, in particular, does some terrible things. “She’s just human, and she makes a lot of mistakes. But, we’re all flawed and perfect is unrelatable,” says Cho. “We’re all just doing the best we can. It’s ok to have a falling out with a friend or disappoint your family. It’s not the end of the world. Ingrid realizes this, and she keeps getting back up. That’s life, and she’s very human.”

For Wan, the stars aligned regarding her first and only novel, “The Partner Track,” which made its debut in 2013. It wasn’t until mid-2019 that she got the call from her literary agent that Netflix wanted to tell her story. “It was one of the best phone calls ever,” she said in a phone interview. “There were serendipitous factors that brought this book to life.”

At the time, Wan was busy as a lawyer specializing in IP and media at a New York law firm and raising her young son. She admits there’s a bit of Ingrid in her, but the partner track was never her end goal. Ingrid’s is more of a what-if story that she wrote during her first year as a lawyer. “Many friends went that route, and I know Ingrid’s story is still timely.”

Lee serves as a co-showrunner and executive producer with Sarah Goldfinger. Kim Shumway, Kristen Campo, Tony Hernandez (for JAX Media), and Julie Anne Robinson executive produce. Robinson, Kevin Berlandi, Tanya Wexler, Lily Mariye, and Adam Brooks each direct two episodes.

Partner Track is the perfect binge to wrap up summer. No spoilers, but it ends with a great cliffhanger, so there will likely be a second season. “It’s very layered. The story could go many ways,” Cho hints. “Ingrid might have to rethink some of the choices she’s making.”