What Am I, the Morality Police?

In an Esquire magazine profile, Benjamin Brafman is described as one of New York City’s best trial attorneys, a natural courtroom performer, “always in motion, often pacing, slicing his hand through the air as needed to emphasize his outrage at the injustice heaped upon his clients.” He’s a sharp dresser who owns more than 100 ties and  once modeled for a Paul Stuart ad. He has a ready cache of quips for juries (“The prosecution wants you to believe their side of the story. I wish I were taller, but we can’t always get what we want.”) and he refuses to discuss his rates, but public filings in a 2009 lawsuit by an unhappy client shows that Brafman & Associates charged fees totaling $1,027,058.75, not including the trial. Clients he’s dealing with now include a real estate developer who allegedly ran a Ponzi scheme, a landlord who is accused of harassing poor tenants until they moved out and a man accused of running a sex cult. He recently left Harvey Weinstein’s legal team. When the profile’s author asked him if he’s a bad man because he helps bad people, he replied, “I’m not the morality police, I’m a criminal defense lawyer.”