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O
n the August Saturday that
Jeffrey Epstein was found dead
in his Manhattan jail cell, Lisa
Bloom spoke to two of the four
victims she is representing. “The first
was furious,” says Bloom, the
powerhouse civil rights lawyer who
represented victims of Bill Cosby and
US talk-show host Bill O’Reilly, and is
now filing a civil case against
Epstein’s estate. “It had taken her so
many years to feel mature and strong
enough to talk to me, and she just
really wanted him to face justice – so
now she would be deprived of that.
“The other one told me that
although she wouldn’t wish death on
anybody, it had given her some peace
to know that Epstein could never
hurt another girl or woman, and that
at least she wouldn’t have to fear
retribution from him for the civil
case that we have now filed.”
Bloom herself says she’s “angry as
hell”. The daughter of trailblazing
women’s rights lawyer Gloria Allred,Lisa Bloom, the lawyer representing four of the disgraced financier’s alleged
victims, tells Celia Walden that she’ll fight for justice for as long as it takes
‘I’m angry as hell that
Jeffrey Epstein is dead’
REDUX/EYEVINE; GETTY IMAGESshe has spent 33 years representing
women against a number of high-
profile sexual assaulters and harassers;
during the 2016 US presidential
election, she offered to help four
women with sexual misconduct allega-
tions against Donald Trump. And
when I suggest that Epstein – a
convicted paedophile and sex-traf-
ficker who was accused of running a
“vast network” of under-age girls for
sex – appeared to have gamed the
system from beyond the grave, the
lawyer is in no doubt.
“He clearly did!” exclaims Bloom, an
ageless blonde with a gravelly voice
who would be dismissed as unfeasibly
good-looking were she the star of a
legal drama. “With the help of his
attorneys. Because we know now that
Epstein made a new will two days
before he killed himself, and that’s a
loud trumpet call that they are likely to
try [suicide] again soon. So the lawyers
who didn’t alert the jail officials that he
should be back on suicide watch really‘I am mortified that I
have ever been
associated with
Harvey Weinstein’
have something to answer for.
And I want everybody to know
that his criminal case may die
with him, but our civil cases
can and will proceed
against his estate.”
Thanks to Epstein’s
new will, which puts
$577 million (£472 mil-
lion) in assets into a
trust fund, making it
more difficult for his
accusers to collect
damages, Bloom
accepts that these cases
could take years to win.
“But we now have 12
women who have come
forward, and I’d expect
others to because I’m
sure there are women
out there thinking: ‘I was
a victim of Jeffrey Epstein.
I’ve never told anyone and
I’m so scared.’ Those are
the kind of people who callBloom with her lawyer daughter Sarah,
and her mother, the trailblazing
feminist attorney Gloria Allredthe Bloom Firm every day, and we get
them compensation.”
An award of $5-10 million is “not at
all unusual out here,” she tells me, “but
for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims I would
expect it to be well in excess of that.
And I personally think that every
penny of his estate should go to his
victims, so I would call upon his
beneficiaries to do the right thing: a
good thing. Just think how remarkable
it would be if they did that.”
Philadelphia-born Bloom, 57, is a big
believer in the power of compensa-
tion. “People will say ‘money doesn’t
give them justice’ but actually it does
give them a measure of justice,” she
insists, adding that abuse “can cause
severe lifelong injuries. It can derail
people’s careers, relationships and
sexualities. And we put
numbers on that pain and
suffering so that my clients
are able to pay off medical
bills, get the therapy
they often desperately
need and maybe even
go back to school.”
Almost as
important is the
information that
lawyers like
Bloom are able to
get hold of when
filing civil suits.
“I have the right
to subpoena
documents and
people. I can
force people to
come into my
law firm and
answer
questions
under oath.
And for victims
that is also very
important.
Because someaccounts say that Epstein was
abusing as many as three girls a day.
So how did that happen? Who were
all the people involved? And how can
we hold them accountable?”
Bloom’s suit alleges that two of her
clients were recruited to give Epstein
massages, and subsequently as-
saulted. It also states that at least one
“recruiter” – named in the court
documents as “Sue Roe” – “was a
young woman at the time and may
also have been a victim. So our first
step was to reach out to her and talk
to her and get her to work with us.
She’s not the primary target, but
there are victims who are also recruit-
ers. It doesn’t make it right, but we do
have a little more understanding.”
Bloom has been fighting sexual
injustice ever since, at the age of 12,
she and her mother staged a protest
outside her local drugstore for
dividing its toy aisle into “boys” and
“girls”, and recently revealed she
herself has been a victim of abuse. “I
was sexually abused as a child by a
family member. I was sexually
harassed in the workplace multiple
times in multiple places. And
sometimes I complained about it and
sometimes I didn’t.”
She has risen to prominence in the
MeToo era, though in 2017 made
headlines for the wrong reasons
when she acted as an adviser to
Harvey Weinstein, ahead of bomb-
shell reports exposing the media
mogul’s alleged decades of sexual
harassment and assault. She resigned
from the role as soon as the extent of
the allegations became clear, and
called the decision “a colossal
mistake”, despite her explanation
that she thought: “Here is my chance
to get to the root of the problem from
the inside... and get a guy to handle
this thing in a different way.”
“In my experience, an apology and
a change of behaviour go a long way,”
she sighs today. “I thought that was
what I was getting him to do but, of
course, immediately [after] women
began accusing him of sexual assault
I realised it was an entirely differentsituation than I’d thought, and I
withdrew. Now I am mortified that I
have ever been associated with
Weinstein.” She pauses. “But I have
represented victims who also had
stories that turned out to be very
different to what I’d thought. So
when you work with human beings,
sometimes you’re disappointed.”
Bloom’s firm has an “elaborate
process” in order to confirm the
veracity of a victim’s claims but, in
the legal process, “there are always
going to be people who are going to
make false accusations”, she con-
cedes. “You’ll never hear me say
‘every woman is right’ and ‘every
man is wrong’. I have a husband and
a son, men are half of our population- and many of them are very good
people.” She is concerned, though,
that a culture of “trial by social
media” has blossomed since MeToo.
“However, we would have less trial
by social media if we had a better
legal system where women could
present claims in an expeditious way.
And MeToo was a very powerful
moment for the victims. So I hope it
continues to build steam.”
She has little patience for those
who complain that the post-MeToo
workplace rules are too constricting.
“Other than a handshake, and unless
you are a massage therapist, I just
don’t think there is ever any need for
touching in the workplace. Just as
there is never any need to have a
meeting in a hotel room.
“But I would also say to women
that if you are in a social situation
and you go to a guy’s hotel room,
99.9 per cent of the time he will be
thinking that you’re going to have
sex. So don’t be shocked when he
makes a move. Be realistic about
what people’s expectations are.”
Another cast-iron rule Bloom has
stuck to throughout her career is
“only ever have one drink at any kind
of professional gathering. And that
goes for both sexes”.
Despite this, Bloom does feel that
“tremendous cultural progress has
been made”. And although she’s
under no illusion that the Epstein
cases will be “a big fight, we’re up
for that fight. And we will not rest
until we get the best compensation
for our clients – even if it takes years
and years.
“So if the other side thinks that
they’re going to outlast us,” she
warns, with a side smile: “I suggest
they look at my track record, because
that’s not going to happen.”
Payout: Lisa Bloom
with her client, the
model Janice
Dickinson, who had
sued Bill Cosby for
defamation after
he called her a liar
when she accused
him of drugging
and raping herThe Daily Telegraph Tuesday 27 August 2019 *** 17
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