I heard Harvey Weinstein hired an all-star legal team (high-powered lawyers). Will this really make a difference to him? He seems, in the public eye, to be guilty. Is he just wasting his money?
More generally, what can high-powered, high-profile lawyers offer that your average lawyer cannot? I mean, only Weinstein truly knows right now if he is guilty or not. His decision to acquire a high-powered legal team means that he thinks he can be proven innocent, correct? So what is his money getting him? Would an average jury be more likely to acquit if the accused has the “best” and most expensive lawyer? Sorry in advance for any ignorance but that is why I am on this site!
Well, just look at OJ. A dream team of lawyers can buy you a lot, including freedom. Those expensive lawyers have the means to get better information that could damage the women’s testimonies (through private investigators, etc.), they can plant reasonable doubt more easily because they’re more experienced with the law, and they can afford to have more assistants working around the clock on behalf of their client. All good stuff for Harvey.
Good lawyers do what average lawyers do, but presumably with more skill, resources and experience. There is not a perfect correlation, of course, between reputation (and price) and abilities.
Good lawyers produce good briefs attacking plaintiffs’ cases and may limit or even preclude some claims. Good lawyers are skillful in cross examining plaintiffs and may raise questions of credibility or acquire concessions that help the case.
Good lawyers fight hard and may motivate plaintiffs to “settle for less” to avoid the risk and expense of a long litigation battle.
And good lawyers have experience and credibility to advise their clients concerning settlement options.
If he has the means (or insurance) to hire the “best” lawyers, it could certainly shave millions off what he ultimately pays out.
The above applies specifically to civil litigation, but similar factors come into play in criminal cases as well.
A lot of law comes from past court decisions which are time-consuming (i.e. expensive) to study because they’re poorly organized and often reference several (i.e. a dozen plus for all but the clearest of rulings). A high-powered legal team will have more researchers and each one will be more experienced than a less-expensive firm.
It’s getting him lawyers with years of experience operating in the courts.
Finally, public opinion is completely meaningless in a court. Juries are specifically chosen to **exclude **people with prior knowledge of the case (including media coverage of the allegations). Judges are used to handling cases that have received media coverage and learn early on to separate personal opinion from legal fact.
Plus, we see in the news now that Boies, who is Weinstein’s lawyer, has been hiring a PI firm for several months to track what was going on and attempting to stop the NYTimes story, discredit accusers, etc. Sounds like this trainwreck has been ramping up behind the scenes for months.
The set of incredibly high powered/paid lawyers he had up to now are basically in the PR game (as witness by the incredibly dodgy story of the PIs they hired to investigate his accusers). Trying to make sure the civil suits and other revelations result in as little damaging revelations becoming public as possible (and he pays as little as possible in payouts the process, but that is a secondary consideration). They have (to everyone involved lasting shame) done a very good job of that up to now (but I think it’s safe to say that ship has sailed).
Now criminal cases are (thankfully) a serious possibility, I’d imagine he is going to get a whole different set of incredibly high powered/paid lawyers, who are in the making sure their clients don’t go to prison game, not the PR game.