We had the chance to sit down along with a handful of other reporters and discuss the upcoming season of Suits with Patrick Adams at ATX Festival last month.

When we were introduced to Mike Ross back on Suits Season 1 Episode 1, he was stumbling into a job interview to avoid the cops with a briefcase full of weed.

From there, he transformed into a lawyer, and we witnessed over six seasons how the lie transformed not only Mike’s life but several other people’s as well.

Portions of the roundtable with Adams follow.

What is lawyer life going to be like for him? What challenges is he going to have to face?

Patrick Adams: This whole one on one thing that they are entering into is super interesting because it really represents the two sides of this character that we’ve been growing forever.

You know on the one hand he’s got the firm that’s taught him everything he knows, brought him up, his mentor, the guy who literally, literally taught him everything he knows about the law, and then he has his calling which is doing civil justice, helping families that are in need that don’t have anyone else to fight for them, fighting for good causes.

And he is entering into this season believing that he’s going to be able to balance both of these things and that one will sort of help him do the other, and, of course, I think he’ll learn pretty quickly through a series of events that those things can be at odds.

So Mike is still in that place where although even though he’s matured, he’s older, he’s figured out sort of what he wants, I think he’s still trying to play both sides of the game, and this is a season where he’s going to have to come…where he’s going to come face to face with like, you know, you probably can’t do that forever either.

So it’s been fun to play that. It feels like a little bit more nuanced like we’re in the same world, we’re in Pearson Specter, prison’s over.

You want it to sort of feel like the Suits you always knew and love, which I know is what fans want or say they want.

It’s like “let’s just get back to them hanging out,” but there’s this sort of cloud looming over it, which is that thing that I think we can all relate to, “man I want you to be there so bad and enjoy it, but I know this is not entirely what you are supposed to be doing,” and that’s frustrating.

Do you think Mike takes being a lawyer any differently now that he’s officially a lawyer as opposed to when he was pretending?

Yeah, I think he goes through some different stages. I think there’s some cockiness, which is the hardest part for me playing Mike because I’m like “don’t get cocky, dude.” I think there’s a little cockiness.

There’s some joy. He’s really happy, you know, he’s obviously gotten, his dream has come true. There can be a little cockiness at times.

You know, ultimately I think he’s approaching it with the same, there’s more confidence in that he is finally, he doesn’t have to hide behind it anymore, but it’s not like that still doesn’t follow him around, it doesn’t color who he is and how people perceive him.

I think he’s finally coming into his own, and what he wants to do. He’s just not quite ready to admit it to himself yet, and there’s that struggle of trying to figure out how to do it most efficiently.

We saw so much change in Mike last season. Now that he’s a lawyer, how is he going to change and grow this season?

I think it’s really again about he’s gone back into his old world thinking he can be the new guy, his new version of Mike, and I think he wants it so badly.

It’s his familiar. It’s his family. It’s the only people he has in this world are the people who are in this office. His wife-to-be is going to be is sitting, is working there. His mentor is working there.

All the people, he doesn’t have any other friends, but at the same time  I think from what happened last season, he learned that this is not entirely the place for him to be doing his work, so he’s always at odds with it, and that’s fun to play. There’s a lot of great conflict there.

It’s like everyone you love but the purpose of it is not quite in line with who you’re realizing that you’re supposed to be, and that’s a hard thing, that’s a hard thing to do, not just the technical aspect, the money of it, the logistics like, you know, he’s very successful.

He gets to work on high profile cases. He gets to be in rooms where the stakes are enormous. It’s very hard to remove yourself from that and go, “I really just want to do good,” and I think there’s some part of his brain that’s convincing himself that if he can do these that it will give him the resources to do more good.

But as you can probably expect, these two worlds come clashing pretty quickly, and all of the sudden you find yourself in a situation where you are really pulled between two sides.

What can you tease about Rachel and Mike this season?

You know it’s [in] an interesting place, their relationship. They’re finally together. All the walls have been taken down. The barriers are gone. All those external barriers are gone to their relationship.

And then what you really find is two young professionals who are at the peak of their careers. Finally, Mike gets to be a lawyer like gets to do what he’s always wanted to do without anything hold him back. She’s just graduated from law school.

They are super in love and, you know, together, and there’s no doubt that they are the person for each other, but that thing when you are at the middle of your career, you’re working that hard, it’s hard to take a step back from that and also invest in your personal life and your family and what you’re going to build.

So it’s not like a huge part of this season, but it’s more just me reflecting on like, “Oh this is, I can relate to what this feels like.”

When you’re like, “I’m here. I’m with you, I’m doing this, but I’m also just like we both love our jobs so much, and this is the moment that if we don’t capitalize on the energy of what we’re doing, we might miss it or not become what we really hope to become,” and they both have a lot of aspirations.

So it’s cool to play a young couple in love but not have it be everything that we do, you know. It’s not, “let’s plan a wedding, let’s go through the whole process of planning a wedding, and everything’s perfect.” These people don’t really have time for that.

It’s cool to have a love story where it’s just inherent that they’re in love, and really you get to see them struggle with, “how do we make time for each other when we don’t even have time for ourselves?”

Suits returns Wednesday, July 12 at 9/8c on USA. Remember you can watch Suits online anytime via TV Fanatic.