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U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said the firm
WilmerHale did not have a conflict of interest because it once
represented an anti-sex trafficking group that supported
Courtney Wild, one of Epstein's accusers.
Rakoff also found no proof Wild gave WilmerHale confidential
information that was material to the JPMorgan case, and said the
bank would suffer "great prejudice" from being disqualified "so
late in this litigation," five months before the Oct. 23 trial.
The disqualification request had been made by Brad Edwards, who
represents Epstein accusers in the proposed class action against
JPMorgan. His request was joined by the named plaintiff, Jane
Doe 1.
Edwards and other lawyers representing the accusers did not
immediately respond to requests for comment. JPMorgan and
WilmerHale did not immediately respond to similar requests.
WilmerHale's other client, the anti-sex trafficking group ECPAT-USA,
had in a 2021 legal brief to the U.S. Supreme Court supported
Wild's ultimately unsuccessful bid to void a 2007 agreement that
immunized Epstein from federal prosecution.
The Washington, D.C.-based law firm is also defending JPMorgan
against a lawsuit by the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein
allegedly abused women on a private island he owned.
Epstein was a JPMorgan client from 1998 to 2013. The New
York-based bank has denied aiding in his sexual abuses.
In August 2019, Epstein killed himself at age 66 in a Manhattan
jail cell, where he was awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
The case is Jane Doe 1 v JPMorgan Chase & Co, U.S. District
Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-10019.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Sonali
Paul)
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