Kerry Garvis Wright

Garvis Wright’s representation of embattled film producer Harvey Weinstein has come up at more than a few cocktail parties and dinner receptions she’s attended over the last few months, and the responses have been pretty mixed.

“Some people say, ‘Oh my god, you represent Harvey Weinstein,’ and walk away,” Garvis Wright said.

To those that stick around, Garvis Wright explains that Weinstein, who is suing his former studio The Weinstein Company in a case that’s been stayed since the company’s bankruptcy in March, wouldn’t have gone unchallenged for so long if he didn’t have the backing of a powerful corporation willing to look the other way.

“These things don’t happen in a vacuum. These executives are ultimately employed by a company, and there’s got to be accountability,” Garvis Wright said. “There are executives who are either condoning this behavior or not doing enough to prevent it.”

Weinstein had a unique agreement with the company containing provisions that allowed for or even promoted inappropriate behavior. Claims for harassment were not a basis for termination of cause, so long as Weinstein footed the bill on any settlements or verdicts that came about as a result.

The contract required Weinstein to pay the company for any claims against him related to his misconduct. Weinstein was required to pay $250,000 for the first instance and $250,000 more for any additional instance, capping at $1 million.

“What the employer was doing was to limit its own culpability — even condoning or endorsing it or just looking the other way — so they didn’t have any financial responsibility,” Garvis Wright. “It really is a remarkable contract.”

Earlier this year, Garvis Wright and her firm were recruited by a special committee formed by the board of directors at Guess? Inc. to investigate allegations of improper conduct by company founder and CEO Paul Marciano. Since then, Garvis Wright said she’s been interviewing witnesses and poring over documents, and the results of the investigation will service as the basis of the committee’s recommendations for the full Guess board.

Phrases like “sexual misconduct” and “sexual harassment” are so common in discussions at home between Garvis Wright and her husband, William A. Wright of Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae LLP, that their 9-year-old son’s been inquiring about what the terms mean.

“I told him, ‘Just treat people with respect. Don’t let anyone do anything to you that you don’t want them to do, and don’t make anyone do anything they don’t want to do,” Garvis Wright said.

— Steven Crighton