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Harvard Law School's Dershowitz Moves To Disqualify Boies Schiller In Sex Trafficking Case

Here's an issue-spotter for you.

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(Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images for Hulu)

Soon after Alan Dershowitz went on TV and “challenge[d]” his accusers to “sue me for defamation,” Boies Schiller promptly took Dershowitz up on his gracious invitation. Boies Schiller represents Virginia Guiffre, who alleges that she was directed by Epstein to have sex with Dershowitz while she was an underaged girl in Epstein’s orbit and BSF’s Sigrid McCawley (with the assistance of Meredith Schultz) filed a lengthy complaint detailing all the shots Dershowitz has taken at their client.

It seems that “television Dershowitz” may want a trial… but “reality Dershowitz” doesn’t seem to want any of the trials he’s being offered. On Friday, Dershowitz — through his attorneys Aidala, Bertuna and Kamins — moved to disqualify BSF from the case.

This isn’t even the first potential trial on these claims that Dershowitz has shut down. He settled his fight with former federal district judge Paul Cassell and Bradley Edwards over related allegations and claims that the settlement exonerated him. Judge Cassell and Edwards have publicly stated that Dershowitz’s claims are “at best misleading” and that it would be “a mistake for anyone to conclude… that the case against him was abandoned due to lack of factual support.” Still, this didn’t deter Dershowitz from including in his latest filing the claim that Cassell and Edwards admitted the allegation was a “mistake.”

The present motion revolves largely around two major plot points in the Dershowitz-Epstein saga. First, a claim that another BSF partner, Carlos Sires, offered to represent Dershowitz in January 2015 before learning that the firm was representing Guiffre and terminating any relationship with Dershowitz. However, in the eight days before informing Dershowitz that he couldn’t represent him due to a conflict, Sires received material that Dershowitz claims created an incurable conflict.

Second, that statements made by BSF attorneys, including David Boies, during settlement negotiations that Dershowitz claims makes BSF Advocate-Witnesses. Dershowitz has claimed that Boies is trying to extort him — for some unknown reason — and that therefore Boies and the firm as a whole are fact witnesses. On the one hand, this seems to make sense as BSF’s handling of the prior case is intertwined with the instant defamation matter and the credibility of Guiffre’s BSF attorneys could be important to getting to the truth of the matter. On the other hand, BSF’s credibility is only really implicated because Dershowitz is claiming that the firm is trying to extort him, seemingly by mere virtue of its representation of Guiffre, and that he intends to depose a litany of BSF attorneys if the case goes forward. A party’s chosen defense probably shouldn’t be used as a sword to disqualify the plaintiff’s counsel of choice absent something truly extraordinary.

A lot to chew on here. Looking forward to reading the response to this one.

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Earlier: Dershowitz Wanted A Trial Over Sex Trafficking Accusations — He’s Getting One

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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