Jeffrey Herman’s office has deleted all reference to high-profile embarrassing cases
The attorney who represents two of the actresses accusing Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, Jeffrey Herman, has deleted references to the case from his Wikipedia page, an investigation has found.
The open-source encyclopedia forbids individuals and companies to edit the pages about them. Moreover, Herman has positioned himself as a leading defender of sexual abuse victims in the US and has appeared on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor,CNN as well as in Forbes,The New York Times and People to talk about the issues surrounding in particular child victims.
An analysis of the editing history of his Wikipedia page shows at least two edits made from IP address 12.25.222.106, the address used by the email server of hermanlaw.com, Herman’s law firm in Boca Raton, Florida.
On 22 February 2017, a user from Herman’s office deleted the entire reference to Herman’s unsuccessful lawsuit against TV executives Garth Ancier and David Neuman.
The57-year-old attorney represented one-time aspiring actor and child model Michael Egan in suits against against TV executives Garth Ancier and David Neuman and X-Men director Bryan Singer, accusing all three men of having harassed Egan when he was 17 and starting his career. Not only did Herman and Egan lose all cases, Ancier and Neuman counter-sued, accusing the attorney to run public campaign to troll for new clients in the entertainment industry.
Herman’s office edited the Wikipedia page again on 15 December 2017, deleting the “Important Cases” reference to his action against Weinstein,in which he represents actress Dominique Huett who accuses the producer of sexual assault in 2003, when she was 24 years old. Herman is also representing aspiring actress Kadian Noble, although the31-year-old was not mentioned on the Wikipedia entry.
A complicating factor for Herman, as he prepares to step into the spotlight in the Hollywood story of the year, is his own alleged sexual misconduct: The Hollywood Reporter published a police report filed in 1998 in Plantation, Florida, by thee x-boyfriend of Herman’s then-assistant, accusing the attorney of having lured the young woman into his home before violently raping her.
The report, containing graphic detail of Herman’s brutal conduct, has been made publicly available by THR.
Before specializing on sexual harassment law Herman worked in business law with limited success. In 1998, when practicing law at firm Herman and Mermelstein, he was barred for life from the courtroom of a District Court judge in Oregon for alleged misrepresentations and bad faith conduct.
In 2009, Herman’s license to practice was suspended for 18 months in Florida after he was found to have breached his fiduciary duty towards his client by hiring one of its employees to set up a rival business.
Herman also has a string of civil cases to his name, where he had to defend himself in matters of debt and defamation. The IRS has also filed four liens against Herman for outstanding tax debt of nearly $2m in the past four years.