- A new Netflix documentary Seeing Allred chronicles women's rights attorney Gloria Allred's recent fights against Bill Cosby and Donald Trump.
- These cases are only the most recent chapter of Allred's decades-long career of advocating for women; the film highlights that history as well.
Gloria Allred doesn't care what you think about her. The 76-year-old attorney says so straight to camera in a new Netflix documentary chronicling her decades-long law career defending victims and advocating for women's rights.
The film, which was directed by Sophie Sartain and Roberta Grossman and premiered at Sundance in January, drops on Netflix on February 9, and highlights Allred's work taking powerful men to task for their wrongdoing. The filmmakers' access to Allred begins just as criminal allegations against Bill Cosby are snowballing.
Watch the trailer below, then read on for more information about Allred, her family, and her most notable cases.
Watch Now Seeing Allred
Allred's legal career has spanned over 40 years.
She started the law firm Allred, Maroko & Goldberg in 1976 with a few of her classmates from Loyola University School of Law in L.A. According to Allred's website, "Allred, Maroko & Goldberg represents victims who have been discriminated against on account of their sex, race, age, physical handicap or sexual orientation." The firm is also known for its work with victims of AIDS discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape.
Allred in particular is known for bringing cases against high-profile men and celebrities, and managing the media narrative that surrounds them for her clients. For example, in the 1994 O.J. Simpson trial, Allred represented the late-Nicole Simpson's family. She has also represented Sharon Bialek, who accused businessman and former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain of sexual harassment; porn star Ginger Lee, who exchanged explicit emails with Anthony Weiner; Brittany Ashland, who sued her ex-boyfriend Charlie Sheen for assault; and Charlotte Lewis in her case against Roman Polanski, among many, many others.
Additionally, Allred was the first lawyer to challenge same-sex marriage laws in California in 2004.
Her campaign to help victims comes from a very personal place.
In the documentary, Allred addresses her own experience with sexual assault. She shares the story of her rape in the film, revealing that it not only left her pregnant, but an illegal abortion almost killed her. "That was the worst," Allred says in the film. "That, and a nurse saying, 'This will teach you a lesson.'"
"It's always personal to me if a woman has been a victim of injustice and has been hurt," says Allred. "My commitment to women comes from my own life experience."
Donald Trump, Roy Moore, and Bill Cosby have kept Allred in the news recently.
While Allred has been fighting for victims of sexual assault and harassment long before the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, a series of recent cases have kept her in the media spotlight. She currently represents 33 of the women accusing Bill Cosby of sexual assault, something she was initially hesitant to do because the statue of limitations had passed for many of their charges. "There was no legal option for many of these women," she says. "But then I realized that they really do need a voice, (and) they deserve a voice."
In late 2017, Allred represented Beverly Young Nelson, who accused then-Alabama senate candidate Roy Moore, of sexual assault. In her testimony, Nelson alleged that Moore groped her when she was 16 years old.
Allred is also currently representing Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos in a defamation suit against the president, but this isn't the first time she and Trump have gone toe-to-toe. In 2012 Allred represented transgender beauty pageant contestant Jenna Talackova who was disqualified from Trump's Miss Universe pageant because of her birth gender. Eventually, after a series of press conferences, Talackova was reinstated in the event.
Allred's only daughter Lisa Bloom initially served as Harvey Weinstein's lawyer as sexual assault allegations piled up against the producer in late 2017.
Bloom, who previously represented women such as Janice Dickinson as she accused Cosby of rape and Blac Chyna, who sought a restraining order against ex-boyfriend Rob Kardashian after he posted revenge porn, now says that working with Weinstein was a "colossal mistake." At the time, Bloom had a business relationship with the Weinstein Company to adapt her book about the Trayvon Martin Case into a television show, a deal which some speculate explains her decision to take Weinstein on as a client.
“I can see that my just being associated with this was a mistake,” Bloom said in an interview with Buzzfeed in October 2017. She left his legal team shortly after Weinstein was accused of rape. “All I can say is, from my perspective, I thought, ‘Here is my chance to get to the root of the problem from the inside. I am usually on the outside throwing stones. Here is my chance to be in the inside and to get a guy to handle this thing in a different way.’ I thought that would be a positive thing, but clearly it did not go over at all.”
Even her mother criticized Bloom's decision to represent Weinstein saying she would represent Weinstein's victims "even if it meant that my daughter was the opposing counsel."
Bloom acknowledged that her involvement with Weinstein created a "rift" with her mother.
"That was the most painful part," Bloom told the Los Angeles Times. "I've stood by all of her choices for 40 years. You will research in vain to find something negative I've said about my mother. She's made many controversial choices and done many provocative things. I've always believed in family first, and I feel that has now been breached."
Though perhaps their relationship is on the mend.
“I would like to say that my daughter Lisa Bloom is and always has been a champion for women's rights,” Allred posted on Facebook. “Nothing that has happened in the recent past has altered my views of Lisa's commitment to protecting and advancing women's rights.”
As the digital director for Town & Country, Caroline Hallemann covers culture, entertainment, and a range of other subjects
