The Assembled Team
For the 2008 case negotiations, Epstein assembled a legal defense team that included:
- Alan Dershowitz Harvard Law professor, celebrity defense lawyer (OJ Simpson, Claus von Bülow cases)
- Jay Lefkowitz former Bush White House official and partner at Kirkland & Ellis
- Martin Weinberg specialist in white-collar criminal defense
- Roy Black prominent Miami defense attorney
- Jack Goldberger Florida criminal defense attorney
The Prosecution Asymmetry
The assembled team represented one of the most powerful and expensive legal defenses any individual had ever faced in a sex crimes case. The federal prosecutors in the SDFL were at a significant resource and experience disadvantage.
The Lobbying Dimension
Epstein’s lawyers did not merely litigate they engaged in active outreach to Department of Justice officials in Washington. Jay Lefkowitz’s Washington connections were particularly valuable in this regard.
The Dershowitz Harvard Connection
Dershowitz later claimed his Harvard position and academic stature were used in some communications to influence the federal proceedings. These claims were disputed.
The Fee Scale
The legal fees for a defense of this magnitude and duration would have been tens of millions of dollars. Epstein’s financial resources meant money was no constraint on his defense.