Background and career
Lisa Read Bloom (née Bray; born September 20, 1961) is an American civil rights attorney known for representing high-profile clients in cases involving sexual harassment, discrimination, and abuse. Bloom has represented clients like Janice Dickinson against Bill Cosby, Mischa Barton in a revenge porn case, multiple women whose sexual harassment claims resulted in the firing of Bill O'Reilly from Fox News, and Blac Chyna against Rob Kardashian. She gained attention for briefly advising Harvey Weinstein in 2017, a decision she later apologized for, citing it as a mistake. Bloom also represented women accusing Donald Trump of sexual misconduct during the 2016 election. Bloom founded and owns the Bloom Firm, a general-practice law firm handling family, civil, and criminal matters in California and New York firm that has represented clients including Kathy Griffin and Mischa Barton. Bloom was also the anchor of Lisa Bloom: Open Court (formerly Bloom and Politan: Open Court), a two-hour live legal news program on truTV's In Session, from 2006 to 2009. Bloom is the only child of civil rights attorney Gloria Allred and Peyton Huddleston Bray Jr.
Bloom was born Lisa Read Bray, the daughter of Gloria Bloom (later Allred) and father Peyton Huddleston Bray Jr. Her mother is Jewish. Her parents' marriage was short-lived—they had married and divorced while in college. Peyton Bray, who suffered from bipolar disorder, later killed himself, and Bloom subsequently took her mother's maiden name. When Bloom was seven, her mother married William C. Allred. Bloom received a bachelor's degree from UCLA, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was National College Debate Champion. She received her J.D. degree from Yale Law School in 1986.
After graduating from law school, Bloom began her career in New York and by 1991 worked at her mother's law firm, Allred, Maroko & Goldberg, assisting in unsuccessfully suing the Boy Scouts of America for sex discrimination on behalf of Katrina Yeaw, a girl who wanted to join the organization. While at her mother’s firm, Bloom also filed a child sexual abuse suit against the Roman Catholic Church and sued the LAPD.
In 2001, Bloom left her mother's firm, having developed a career in cable news punditry, eventually serving as a legal analyst on CBS News, CNN, HLN, and MSNBC, and appearing on The Early Show, The Insider, Dr. Phil, Dr. Drew, The Situation Room, Reliable Sources, The Joy Behar Show, Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell, and The Stephanie Miller Show. Bloom returned to practicing law in 2010 when she founded the Bloom Firm, a small, general-practice law firm that handles family, civil and criminal matters. She is licensed to practice law in both New York and California. At the Bloom Firm, Bloom has represented several notable clients, including model and actress Janice Dickinson in her defamation case against comedian Bill Cosby, as well as model and actress Mischa Barton in her revenge porn case. Model Blac Chyna later hired Bloom to obtain a temporary restraining order against socialite Rob Kardashian, with whom Chyna shares a daughter, Dream. Amid a series of sexual abuse allegations against powerful men in entertainment and media, and following a BuzzFeed report detailing a sexual harassment settlement paid out of Representative John Conyers’ office budget, Bloom represented Marion Brown, who spoke to BuzzFeed off the record and later came forward publicly to allege harassment by Conyers.
In 2017 Bloom represented three women accusing then-Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly of sexual harassment. Jehmu Greene, a television commentator who had appeared on Fox News, also approached Bloom with sexual harassment allegations against O'Reilly, although she ultimately declined Bloom's services. One of Bloom's clients, Wendy Walsh, filed the complaint that led Fox News' parent company, 21st Century Fox, to initiate an investigation that resulted in O'Reilly's dismissal and the end of his eponymous program.
During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Bloom offered to represent four women who alleged sexual misconduct by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. Two of these women came forward publicly with their allegations, including Jill Harth and Lisa Boyne. On November 2, 2016, Bloom canceled a press conference with the unnamed client, saying the client was scared because of death threats. According to Bloom, after this press conference, multiple donors contacted her with offers to cover accusers' relocation and security. Bloom felt an obligation to relay the offers to her clients. The Virginia woman said that donors had offered her as much as $750,000, but that she declined the offer. In a 2017 report, The New York Times identified the donors who contacted Bloom as David Brock's American Bridge 21st Century, which offered $200,000, and Susie Tompkins Buell, who offered $500,000.
