It Shouldn't Surprise Anyone That Lisa Bloom Is Representing Harvey Weinstein

[jberryhill]

14. "defending victims of sexual harassment"

One does not "defend" victims of sexual harassment. Ordinarily, one proceeds to represent them as plaintiffs. It's the one being sued who is doing the defending.

But, more often, what Lisa Bloom does is to obtain clients who have a sexual harassment claim, seek to obtain money from the prospective defendant, and then ratchet up the media exposure of the claim to pressure the prospective defendant to settle. The pinnacle of the way this works is the "Lisa Bloom press conference" in which the allegations are aired as a dare to the prospective defendant to call the client a liar, and then to include a defamation claim on top of the harassment claim (which may be time barred or have other procedural problems).

It is precisely that misguided understanding of her craft which makes her useful at this point in time, at which Weinstein is being accused of things, but not actually being sued for anything. I mean golly, "if Lisa Bloom is standing up for him, then I guess he didn't do it". That has a value. And it has a lot more value if Bloom was unable to round up any of the accusers for her usual thing.

Lawyers, actual lawyers, are very different from the "As Seen On TV" version of lawyers.