“Being a woman [defense attorney] I get a lot of those phone calls,' Donna Rotunno says. 'I think men realize that could be an asset to them.'
in 2017 led to an onslaught of accusers, authorities in several jurisdictions opened investigations into Weinstein. Eventually, authorities in New York charged him with five counts of felony sex-crimes following his arrest in May 2018. On Monday, eight months after that call to Rotunno—and 20 months after his arrest—Weinstein’s trial is scheduled to begin.
News reports had described Weinstein’s treatment of his lawyers as controlling, obsessive, and demanding. He emailed nonstop and required around-the-clock attention. While out of jail at the time on $1 million bail, he would “lurk around” all night at the office of his first lawyer, Without his movie empire, Weinstein seemed to redirect his infamously demanding personality onto some of the last people left on his payroll: his lawyers. But they were leaving too.
“The pendulum is swinging so far in the overly sensitive direction that men can’t really be men, and women can’t really be women,” she told me. “I feel that women may rue the day that all of this started when no one asks them out on a date, and no one holds the door open for them, and no one tells them that they look nice.”Rotunno sees herself as a caretaker.
But even Aidala thought they weren’t enough, advising Weinstein to hire a female trial lawyer. Aidala’s legal partnerbriefly filled this role, but the logistics were unsustainable. Bertuna, who has worked with Aidala for 20 years, is also his wife and the mother of one of his children. For the sake of their family and their non-Weinstein clients, Aidala said, “we both can’t be all-in on one case.”Eventually, Rotunno asked Aidala and three lawyers from his firm to stay on the trial.
They came closest to pulling out during financial negotiations—an issue Baez also cited in his request to quit. At one point during our conversation, Aidala imagined how the same trial would play out for a hypothetical “Harvey Jones.““If Harvey Jones can afford it,” Rotunno replied quickly.
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