Allen & Overy has been dragged into the Harvey Weinstein scandal after one of his victims criticised the manner in which it negotiated her non-disclosure agreement while acting for Weinstein's company, Miramax. Meanwhile, ex-Miramax staff told RollOnFriday that they believed the firm "knew exactly" what the serial abuser was up to.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Zelda Perkins, who worked as Weinstein's assistant in London during the 1990s, said the producer repeatedly sexually harassed her. Perkins signed an NDA in 1998 in exchange for a £250,000 payment which she split with a co-complainant. Sources who wished to remain anonymous told RollOnFriday that the other woman, who does not wish to be named, bore the brunt of the mogul's attentions and that the pair decided to instruct solicitors after the second woman endured a "Clintonesque" encounter with Weinstein.

Rather than taking the money and running, the two women instructed their legal team, comprising solicitors from Simons Muirhead & Burton and a barrister now at Doughty Street Chambers, to include several provisions in the NDA to protect the women left behind. They included requirements that Weinstein would seek therapy and an overhaul of Miramax's HR procedures. A source with knowledge of the situation told RollOnFriday that if one of the recently-revealed accusations of assault is accurate, Weinstein probably breached the terms of the NDA within nine months of its execution, 19 years before Perkins did so by going public. The source suggested that when the full NDA emerges, it will show that it is highly likely that Miramax also breached its obligations.

 

 

  "No, Mr Weinstein, it's a non-disclosure agreement."


Perkins told the FT that she was breaking her NDA to provoke "a debate about how egregious these agreements are and the amount of duress that victims are put under”. Perkins said she was "broken" after several "incredibly distressing" and "intense" negotiation sessions at Allen & Overy's London office. Perkins said her grilling culminated in a 12-hour marathon before a squad of A&O lawyers which finished at 5am. 24 years old at the time, she said, “I was made to feel ashamed for disclosing his behaviour and assault, and expected to name those I had spoken to, as if they too were guilty of something". The Magic Circle firm is understood to have acted for Miramax on several film productions, and if it threw Harvey the NDA as a freebie, it will be ruing the decision.

One provision of the NDA which has raised eyebrows is a requirement that Perkins and her colleague "must not disclose confidential information" in any civil legal process, "or where reasonably practicable in the case of any criminal legal process" without giving "not less than 48 hours prior written notice to [Miramax] through Mark Mansell at Allen & Overy". It is understood to state that "if any such disclosure is made you will use all reasonable endeavours to limit the scope of the disclosure as far as possible".

A former employee of Miramax's London operation speculated that Allen & Overy "must have put together a load of NDAs" given the stories that have not yet emerged about Weinstein's behaviour in the UK. She said, "Certainly my boss cannot speak about anything because of what he signed".

In correspondence with RollOnFriday, one ex-Miramax staffer said, "I would think that any lawyers involved in Miramax business, namely Allen & Overy, knew exactly what was going on given that Harvey's 'antics' were an open secret". Although staff knew he was "trying it on" with the "talent", she said she "had no idea that my fellow workers, basically at assistant level, were being harassed. I didn't realise it was that close to home". However, "people higher up the food chain must have known", and "most certainly his legal team - how could they not?"

Ex-staff also described how in London "the entire culture at Miramax (where I lasted less than a year) was incredibly cutthroat and horrible. Most of the top bosses were bullies and everyone was out for themselves".

Allen & Overy and Simons Muirhead & Burton declined to comment.

 

 

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Comments

Anonymous 27 October 17 09:17

And in other news, lawyers protect their client's interests and do a proper job drafting an NDA while woman accepts life changing amount of dollar rather than speaking out publicly. Coming up next, news on the Pope's religious affiliation.

Anonymous 27 October 17 09:50

Take your point about lawyers doing their job, but your sneeriness about her comp betrays your ignorance. "Life changing amount of dollar" doesn't make up for life changing psychological impact of sexual harassment by your boss.

Roll On Friday 27 October 17 09:54

She has done the right thing to come forward now and the appropriate thing at the time- no other choice as a 24 year old. The decision to force measures to be put into place to protect other women is extremely good of her and her then law firm. Let us see if those measures were actually followed through.

Anonymous 27 October 17 10:04

What a surprise, in only a few minutes the comments on here already criticising the victim of harassment; put yourself in her shoes for just one second and you might realise that the need to feed, house and clothe oneself is necessary when you most likely will lose your job for speaking out about your abusive employer. Its comments like the one above that mean women have to protect themselves first.

No-one criticises the men for continuing to collect the dollar from a slime ball and saying nothing.....

Anonymous 27 October 17 10:36

Anon @8.50 she had a choice - speak up publicly and be recompensed via the ET system, including for psycological damage if proven, and which may have prevented numerous others later having a similar experience or taking the money and keeping quiet leaving free to continue for decades. It was a cowardly choice she made and I hope she can live with her conscience although I expect the cash helps.

Anonymous 27 October 17 10:38

''And in other news, lawyers protect their client's interests and do a proper job drafting an NDA while woman accepts life changing amount of dollar rather than speaking out publicly. Coming up next, news on the Pope's religious affiliation."' - does ethics ever cross the mind of a City lawyer?

Anonymous 27 October 17 11:10

Drafting clauses that potentially pervert the course of justice isn't "doing a proper job drafting an NDA", its incompetent.

Anonymous 27 October 17 11:20

@9.36 why should the victim have to choose a legal claim / prosecution where she

(1) will not have a job or funds to pursue it
(2) will be judged publicly (just as you are) and her clothing and sex life made public, you know, in case "she was asking for it"
(3) would be against an exceedingly wealthy man
(4) probably wouldn't be believed
(5) would be accused of being a gold digger (just as you have)

It is never the victims fault that a perpetrator keeps abusing. Besides, she did try to help by requiring he attend training.

Anonymous 27 October 17 11:30

More ignorance at anon@9:36. It wasn't cowardly. It was self-preservation. It's cretins like you making sneery comments that is just one of the reasons women don't want to compound the hell of this situation by the public tarring and feathering that ensues when they dare to stick their hands up about it.

Cowardly is sitting behind a keyboard taking a pop at the victims of this kind of abuse.

Anonymous 27 October 17 15:06

I know Mansell, and he is a thoroughly decent guy. Which makes this story even more incredible.

Yes, the firm has a duty to its client, and if it's asked to negiate an NDA then fair enough. But clearly this happened again and again. At what point did A&O partners take their responsibilities as officers of the court seriously? When asked for the Nth time to go through the same process, why didn't they inform the board that something criminal was going on and they would no longer accept instructions?

Anonymous 27 October 17 16:27

A clause requiring you to keep confidential information is an essential part of any NDA, surely?

Anonymous 27 October 17 16:57

@anon at 09:36 Yeah, because 24 year olds love going through more adversarial processes with little to no money to seek proper representation against a millionaire's counsel. How cowardly. I note your comment says nothing about how Weinstein had a choice to not sexually abuse / harass the numerous women who have now come forward - and you know what, I'll bet he can live with his conscience. He's not sorry he did it, he's sorry he got caught. You'll notice he's the only common denominator in this whole fiasco, the responsibility should be pinned on him and frankly the high-horse judging of his victims is unacceptable.

Anonymous 29 October 17 08:19

Obviously none of this is the fault of the victim, and comments that suggest otherwise don't understand the pressures on victims of abuse, or how perpetrators get and maintain power over those they abuse.

But A&O assisting Miramax to compensate someone for the harm previously done by its employee is not the same as the firm condoning Harvey Weinstein's activities. The damage was already done, it's not as if Miramax asked A&O in advance whether Weinstein should act in a predatory manner and A&O said "yeah, why not, you can always pay people off". And A&O didn't need to report this to Miramax's board (as anon@27Oct/14:06 suggested) because presumably senior people at Miramax were already involved - no company would pay out £250k without serious HR approval. Those senior HR people definitely have a case to answer as to why they didn't stop Weinstein repeating the abuse, but I can't see that A&O does.

I've come across Mark Mansell too and I agree (again with anon@27Oct/14:06) that he's a thoroughly decent guy.

Anonymous 30 October 17 09:35

@10:10 - I genuinely can't see how this NDA (as reported) has the potential to pervert the course of justice. Disclosure in legal proceedings is allowed, subject to two lawful caveats (prior notice and restriction so far as possible). Where's the incompetence?

Anonymous 30 October 17 09:50

Anon at 08:19, presumably the point is that the damage wasn't already done - it was ongoing, A&O was aware of this, and A&O continued to help Miramax sweep this under the carpet by repeatedly negotiating these NDAs. It may not be incompetent, nor illegal, but it is at the very least highly ethically questionable.

Anonymous 30 October 17 11:31

Anon @ 10.10

I suggest that a term in NDA framed in that manner suggests that if the employee (of relatively limited means) was under cross-examination they may temper their answers for fear of subsequent litigation from the employer if the employer argues that any disclosure to the court was not 'reasonably practical'.

I suggest that in any litigation or prosecution every witness who is questioned (especially if there is any hint of a employee-employer relationship at any time between the witness and one of the parties) they should be asked (1) if there is any NDA in existence (2) if it includes anything resembling those terms. And if there is, an application should be made for it to be disclosed and to be put it before the judge. And the employer's legal representative to be summoned.

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