Today, everyone knows the infamous name, Jeffrey Epstein. But back in 2005, however, when initial police investigations into the frequent presence of young girls at his mansion took place, Epstein was largely anonymous to the general public, although his wealthy celebrity friends seemed to know what was happening behind the gates to his many homes. His victims hired lawyers, who hired private investigators, but the legal system gave Epstein every opportunity to avoid punishment for his crimes.
News of this harrowing sex trafficking story garnered mainstream attention after a Miami reporter reopened the case in late 2018, signaling the beginning of the end of Epstein’s saga of money, influence, and manipulation.
It took significant and remarkable bravery, dedication, and hard work on the part of survivors, attorneys, police officers, investigators, and others to bring the painful details of the case to light, and to express how hard they had to fight to be heard. Many of these individuals went on to provide interviews for Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, the powerful 2020 Netflix docuseries that sets the stage for this luridly continuous sex crime, featuring firsthand narratives from survivors and others who for so long battled for justice and an opportunity to be heard.
On July 29, 2020, FOLCS was joined by survivors’ attorneys, Sigrid McCawley and Spencer Kuvin; Director and Executive Producer of Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, Lisa Bryant; and Senior Editor at the Washington Post, Marc Fisher for a compelling discussion on the many layers of the Epstein affair.
Sigrid McCawley
Partner, Boies Schiller Flexner
Sigrid McCawley is a lawyer with a record of success in complex litigation as well as a deep commitment to public service. She was involved in a landmark case, Halliburton v. Erica P. John Fund, that was before the U.S. Supreme Court twice and resulted in a $100 million dollar settlement for the plaintiffs. Since 2015, she has been an avid advocate for survivors of serial child molester Jeffrey Epstein, and her work helped bring Epstein to justice in July 2019. A partner at the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, and a member of its Executive Committee, Sigrid also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of ChildNet, the organization that manages the protection of neglected and abused children in Broward County, Florida, and she serves on the Board of Directors of the Jack & Jill Children’s Center. She was recognized by the American Lawyer as a Litigator of the Year in 2019 for her work for Epstein survivors.
Spencer Kuvin
Litigation Director, Law Offices of Craig Goldenfarb, P.A.
Spencer T. Kuvin, Esq. BCS. is a Palm Beach County, Florida, Board Certified® Civil Trial lawyer and the Litigation Director with the Law Offices of Craig Goldenfarb, P.A. Mr. Kuvin attended Florida State University receiving a Bachelor of Science in Economics prior to graduating with honors from St. Thomas University School of Law with his J.D. (Juris Doctorate) in 1996. Mr. Kuvin served on the St. Thomas University Law Review as an Associate Editor and worked as a prosecutor on the St. Thomas Honor Court.
Mr. Kuvin began his career defending large multi-national corporations and insurance companies before dedicating his professional career for the last 15 years to representing personal injury plaintiffs. Mr. Kuvin comes from a long line of dedicated consumer-rights lawyers, including his widely-respected father Lawrence P. Kuvin, an accomplished lawyer in Miami for more than 50 years. His three brothers are also personal injury lawyers throughout Florida.
As litigation director, Mr. Kuvin handles many of the most critical personal injury cases for the firm. Cases are escalated to his level of expertise if the scope and the sensitivity requires it, and Mr. Kuvin then leads the initiative on the trial litigation process.
Though Mr. Kuvin is highly versed in handling any case related personal injury practice areas of the firm, he has been particularly successful orchestrating the litigation process on behalf of injured clients in critical cases related to Wrongful Death, Nursing Home Abuse or Neglect, Sexual Assault, Birth Injury, Product Defects, and Transportation Accidents.
LEADERSHIP, HONORS, & COMMUNITY
Mr. Kuvin boasts an array of distinctive honors such as being Florida Bar Association Board Certified® in Civil Trial by the Florida Bar. This is a certification designation reserved for attorneys of a particular field that meet the highest standards of competence and experience as determined by the Florida Bar and the Florida Supreme Court.
Mr. Kuvin is also recognized by the Martindale Hubbell peer review process with an “AV Preeminent” rating, which is a ranking issued by other lawyers for the highest level of legal professional excellence and ethics. He has also been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 2012.
Other notable honors include serving as President of the Palm Beach County Justice Association in 2011 of which he was a member of the Board of Directors between 2006 – 2012. His leadership extended to the Florida Justice Association where he held a seat in the Board of Directors from 2011 – 2012, while also being the Technology Committee Chair of the Palm Beach County Bar in 2012.
Mr. Kuvin also teaches extensively to other lawyers at continuing legal education seminars. Along the way, he has earned the respect of the national legal community because of the breadth and depth of his experience, as well as his unshakeable commitment to justice, fairness, equality and morality.
Mr. Kuvin lives in West Palm Beach with his wife and three children.
Lisa Bryant
Director and Executive Producer
Lisa Bryant is an award-winning storyteller with more than 25 years of experience as a Director, Showrunner, Executive Producer, and Development Executive for Netflix, NBC, Investigation Discovery, Spike TV, Oxygen, Travel Channel, History, and Court TV. Her wide range of interviewing experience includes sexual assault survivors, crime victims’ family members, death row inmates, former U.S. Presidents, celebrities, and professional athletes.
Prior to Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, Lisa served as Co-Executive Producer, Co-Director and Showrunner of Unspeakable Crime: The Killing of Jessica Chambers working alongside acclaimed true crime documentarian Joe Berlinger and also collaborated with Berlinger and Radical Media on GONE: The Forgotten Women of Ohio. Lisa started her career as a news anchor before moving behind the camera to produce and direct and has spent the last decade specializing in the true crime genre. Awards include: 2 Critic’s Choice Award Nominations (1 WIN) for Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, an Emmy nomination, 6 Telly’s, 2 Gracie nominations, and an AP award.
Marc Fisher
Senior Editor, the Washington Post
Marc Fisher is a senior editor at The Washington Post, where he reports and leads coverage of national, foreign and local issues. His reporting in recent years has taken him from the Arab Spring revolutions to the presidential campaign trail. In 2016, he co- authored a biography of Donald Trump, “Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power” (Scribner), which was a New York Times bestseller.
He has won two Pulitzer Prizes for his reporting – the Public Service award in 2014 for stories on government surveillance of Americans; and the National Reporting award in 2016 for articles on police shootings. In 2020, he was part of a group of Post staffers whose coverage of mass shootings was a finalist for the Pulitzer in breaking news.
His return to reporting followed several years as The Post’s Enterprise Editor, a role in which he led reporters working on long-term stories. For 10 years before that, he was The Post’s local columnist, writing a thrice-weekly column as well as a blog, “Raw Fisher;” a weekly online chat, “Potomac Confidential;” and a podcast, “Raw Fisher Live.”
His story on the sexual abuse scandal at New York’s Horace Mann School, “The Master,” published in The New Yorker, is in development as a feature film. Fisher is also regular guest host of The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU in Washington.
He is also editor of “Donald Trump and the Assault on Truth,” a book based on The Washington Post’s Fact Checker reporting (Scribner, 2020.)
His history of radio since the advent of television, “Something in the Air: Radio, Rock and the Revolution that Shaped a Generation” (Random House, 2007), traces radio’s role from 1950 to the present, focusing on how old media adapt when new technologies burst onto the marketplace. While writing that book, he was a Visiting Scholar at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs. He has also served as Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University and taught creative non-fiction in the MFA program at American University.
Fisher also wrote “After the Wall: Germany, the Germans and the Burdens of History” (Simon and Schuster, 1995), which grew out of his four years as The Post’s Bonn and Berlin bureau chief, beginning with the dramatic events of 1989.
Prior to launching his column, Fisher was responsible for The Post’s long-form Page One stories and wrote a column in The Post’s Sunday Magazine. Fisher has worked at The Post since November 1986. He covered the D.C. schools and city news, was on the Sunday magazine staff, and was Assistant City Editor before joining the Foreign Desk in early 1989. While on leave from The Post in 1993-4, Fisher was Journalist in Residence at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Upon returning to The Post, Fisher joined the Style section, covering politics and culture.
Fisher was a staff writer at The Miami Herald from 1981 to 1986. He won an Associated Press award for best column writing, an Overseas Press Club award for best interpretation of foreign news, a Society of Professional Journalists award for best magazine writing (on injustice in Miami’s juvenile courts), and several awards for a series on discrimination in South Florida social clubs.
A 1980 graduate of Princeton University with an honors degree in history, Fisher lives in Washington with his wife; they have a daughter and a son.