Last year, Wayne Levin resigned as General Counsel of Lions Gate Entertainment, the company behind The Hunger Games and Mad Men, citing personal and health reasons. But now, in an in-depth report from the Wall Street Journal, it’s been revealed those benign sounding words only came after a former employee’s allegations of sexual misconduct.
Wendy Jaffe, former Lions Gate Executive Vice President of Legal Affairs, left the company in 2016 and she alleges that Levin asked her to perform “dehumanizing” sexual acts and that his control over her didn’t stop even after the physical demands did:
“It was never really about sex, it was about controlling someone and asserting power and that continued even when the physical component stopped,” she said.
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She began working for Levin out of law school in 2000. She alleges the inappropriate behavior began shortly thereafter:
She said she interpreted the move as an attempt on his part to initiate an S&M-style relationship. In their final such encounter, in 2003, she said, he came to her apartment, where he then attempted to initiate a sexual act, before throwing her down and leaving while she was crying.
She agreed to some of his demands during that period out of “shame and fear,” she said.
Jaffe says that she didn’t report the incidents at the time because she was uncomfortable reporting the acts of a top executive — and head of the legal department to boot.
It wasn’t until 2016 that Jaffe finally left Lions Gate, and during the course of a dispute over stock options, she finally disclosed her allegations — including that Levin spanked her and wanted to offer her as a sexual gift to friends — to CEO Jon Feltheimer:
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During settlement discussions later in 2016, Ms. Jaffe told Chief Executive Jon Feltheimer directly about her accusations for the first time, including that Mr. Levin spanked her, groped her, asked her to negotiate her employment contract while sitting on his lap and said he wanted to offer her to friends as a sexual gift. The CEO expressed surprise at the sexual-misconduct allegations, according to Ms. Jaffe. Mr. Feltheimer declined to comment.
Jaffe refused to cooperate with a proposed investigation, fearing it wouldn’t be serious or independent. But Jaffe has two settlement agreements (the second was entered into after she believed the non-disparagement clause of the first was violated) and a $2.5 million payment from the company.
And Levin, well, he left the company. Through his lawyers he denied he left because of the allegations against him, and even points to complimentary correspondence between Jaffe and Levin in a kind of roundabout denial of the underlying allegations:
Mr. Levin’s attorney said Mr. Levin left Lions Gate for “personal and medical reasons,” and that he had been considering resigning before the allegations. People who worked with Mr. Levin confirmed he had health problems.
The attorney added that “Mr. Levin will not respond in the press to Ms. Jaffe’s allegations.”
But he did get a nice severance package on his way out the door.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. 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).