Man: Miami, Florida attorney Jeff Herman has a reputation of being a tireless worker, a tenacious lawyer and, when it comes to representing victims of sexual abuse all around the country, a man on a mission.
Jeff: Our practice is all about helping victims. I represent adult survivors who were sexually abused as children. I represent kids, whose families come to me, that were recently abused. But in every case, I’m representing somebody who was sexually abused.
Man: He has handled high profile sexual abuse civil cases on a contingency-fee basis from Miami to New York and Colorado, and many states in between since the late ’90’s.
Jeff: Sexual abuse happens everywhere, and our focus is just representing victims of sexual abuse, and we do that wherever we need to. In one of my cases, the predator had actually fled the United States. I tracked him down and found him in Asia, and ultimately he was brought back to this country and now sits in jail.
Man: Whether it’s cases involving clergy abuse, schools, daycare centers, residential facilities, or the Boy Scouts, Jeff has just about seen it all.
Jeff: Pedophiles are going to go to places where kids congregate. So when you find kids, you have to look out for the predators, and that’s where we see our cases.
Man: Prior to the devoting 100% of his practice to sex abuse cases, Jeff was a commercial litigator, but he says something was missing. That’s not the case now.
Jeff: When I first got involved in these cases, it was so important to the families and to the victims. And as I work with these families, it really hit home for me. And I realized that it was making a difference and that in so many cases, it changed lives. So it was very rewarding on many levels. It really became a passion for me. It became, really, a calling for me and I devoted my career to this now because it’s important.
Man: It’s also important for Jeff and the other attorneys at his firm to not only seek justice for their clients but to help the victims heal.
Jeff: What happens for that victim, it’s like there is this power or a control that’s taken from them. What I can do is help them to become empowered, to take back that control in their life, and through that they begin to heal.
Man: As a father of four, Jeff understands how precious children are, and how it’s every parent’s worst nightmare to have something of this magnitude happen to any innocent child. That’s why he has started his own labor of love, the SAVER Foundation, and has become a child advocate in his community.
Jeff: I speak to parent groups and try to talk them about how to protect their children.
Man: It is clear in his voice, in his eyes, and in his life at work and here at his South Florida home, that Jeff is passionate about what he does for a living. It’s a job where the payoff is about much more than just the financial return of winning in the courtroom.
Jeff: I get emails and phone calls and letters from old clients all the time just to touch base, to say thank you, and to talk to me about how well they are doing, and to hear from them years later. And it’s a success story, and they are telling me about how great everything is going and to thank me for being a small part of that. That’s it. That is everything.