Biglaw

Will Biglaw Firms Get Caught In The Weinstein RICO Lawsuit?

Which firms could be involved?

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(Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images for TIME)

As you may have heard, yesterday a complaint was filed in New York alleging Harvey Weinstein, the Weinstein Co., the company’s board members, Miramax Film Corp., and others violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), acted as the “Weinstein Sexual Enterprise,” and helped “facilitate and conceal” a pattern of sexual assault and harassment. The novel legal theory parallels another suit filed in California that similarly alleges the named defendants — which include Bob Weinstein; the Weinstein Company; Miramax TWC board member Tarak Ben Ammar; and former TWC board members Dirk Ziff, Tim Sarnoff, Marc Lasry, Paul Tudor Jones, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg, Jeff Sackman, and James Dolan — and others were part of a criminal conspiracy that allowed the sexual harassment and assault to continue:

Weinstein’s widespread sexual misconduct did not occur without the help of others… Rather, over time, Weinstein enlisted the aid of the Complicit Producers, along with other firms and individuals, to facilitate and conceal his pattern of unwanted sexual conduct.

In addition to Harvey Weinstein’s business partners, the lawsuit also casts aspersions on the law firms — though unnamed — that worked with the “Weinstein Sexual Enterprise”:

“The law firm participants provided cover and shield to the Weinstein participants by contracting with the intelligence participants on behalf of the Weinstein participants and permitting the Weinstein participants to protect evidence of Weinstein’s misconduct under the guise of the attorney-client privilege or the doctrine of attorney work product when that was not the case,” the complaint said. “The law firm participants also approved the intelligence participants’ ‘operational methodologies,’ which were illegal.”

David Boies and his eponymous law firm have already been dragged through the mud over their involvement with Harvey Weinstein. A New Yorker article  named Boies as the person who contracted a private intelligence agency, Black Cube, to dig up personal information about women who may speak out against Weinstein and to squash any news story that may be written about the allegations. Boies Schiller & Flexner has already lost a client over the debacle, and they now appear to be implicated by this RICO lawsuit. But BSF isn’t the only firm that may be involved in the case; as Law.com reports, there are more firms, though not named in the suit, that may be involved in the alleged scheme:

Although it does not specifically name lawyers or law firms as defendants, Wednesday’s complaint casts the lawyers and law firms surrounding Weinstein—including Boies Schiller, K&L Gates, U.K.-based BCL Burton Copeland, and Israel-based Gross, Kleinhendler, Hodak, Halevy, Greenberg & Co.—as central figures in the alleged scheme to cover up his misconduct. The firms are described as “co-conspirators” along with others that included Weinstein’s business associates and private intelligence firms.

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It will be interesting to see if lawyers’ feet are held to the fire for their role in perpetuating the culture of silence around sexual assault.

UPDATE: A spokesperson for K&L Gates provided the below statement:

We are aware of the lawsuits filed against Harvey Weinstein and others that mention K&L Gates. K&L Gates is not named as a defendant in the lawsuits but the suits attempt to claim that the firm was involved in a scheme to facilitate or cover up Mr. Weinstein’s activities. The claims relating to K&L Gates are false. K&L Gates has never represented Mr. Weinstein or any other person or entity concerning investigations or inquiries relating to Mr. Weinstein.

headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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