Wigdor LLP currently represents Plaintiff Jane Doe in a civil sexual assault lawsuit against disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein, The Weinstein Company LLC (the “Company”) and The Weinstein Company Holdings LLC. Former Company Directors Robert Weinstein, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg, Tarak Ben Ammar, Dirk Ziff, Tim Sarnoff, Marc Larsy, Paul Tudor Jones, Jeff Sackman and James Dolan (collectively, the “Director Defendants”) are also named as Defendants in the lawsuit.
Plaintiff met Defendant Weinstein at a party in late 2011, where he offered to assist with her acting career and proceeded to communicate with her every few months thereafter, according to the Complaint. As alleged, in late 2015, Defendant Weinstein brutally raped Plaintiff after she arrived at his hotel room at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills, California under the premise of discussing potential acting opportunities. The lawsuit alleges that Defendant Weinstein had a decades-long pattern and practice of sexual misconduct, such as using the promise of a role in a Company production to lure aspiring actresses such as Jane Doe to hotel rooms and then sexually assaulting them.
The Complaint further alleges that the Company and Director Defendants were fully aware of Defendant Weinstein’s pattern of misconduct, yet they did not take reasonable steps to investigate or stop the harassment because of the enormous power and influence that Defendant Weinstein wielded over the Company. Instead, the Director Defendants unanimously voted to renew Defendant Weinstein’s 2015 employment contract “that effectively anticipated Mr. Weinstein’s rapaciousness and priced it into his employment,” according to the Complaint.
As alleged, the contract prescribed that Defendant Weinstein pay liquidated damages for each instance of sexual harassment or “misconduct” that resulted in a settlement or judgment against the Company: $250,000 for the first instance, $500,000 for the second, $750,000 for the third and $1,000,000 for every instance thereafter; as long as Defendant Weinstein reimbursed the Company and paid the liquidated damages, the misconduct was “cured” from the perspective of the Board members, thereby allowing Defendant Weinstein’s sexual harassment to continue unabated.
Wigdor LLP Founding Partner Douglas H. Wigdor quoted on the front page of today's @NYLawJournal regarding his representation of Jane Doe in her claims of civil sexual assault against #HarveyWeinstein & The Weinstein Co. https://t.co/fgt4KKgtFc
— Douglas Wigdor – Wigdor Law (@WigdorLaw) December 17, 2018
Plaintiff is represented by Founding Partner Douglas H. Wigdor and Senior Associate Bryan L. Arbeit of Wigdor LLP, and Kevin Mintzer of The Law Office of Kevin Mintzer, P.C.
