First there was famed civil rights attorney Gloria Allred, and then there was Lisa Bloom.
Bloom, who is representing both Mischa Barton and Blac Chyna in their revenge porn cases against ex-boyfriends, is quickly becoming the new face of the fight against the phenomenon — and it all started with her famous mother, Allred.
“My mom has always been an inspiration to me since I was a teenager and she started becoming an advocate not only for women, but for people of color, for union members — she used to be the head of our local teachers union before she was a lawyer and I would be on picket lines with her when I was a little kid,” Bloom, who received her law degree from Yale Law School, told Page Six on Saturday. “We would march for the Equal Rights Amendment … It was just second nature to me that, of course, you have to fight for the underdog.”
Bloom, whose father is Allred’s first husband, Peyton Huddleston Bray Jr., said she never had an interest in corporate law and instead wanted to represent women, people of color and LGBTQ people who were “fighting for their rights.”
While the majority of Bloom’s clients are not famous, she has become a household name for her work with Chyna and Barton, as well as Kathy Griffin after she posted controversial artwork featuring a beheaded President Trump.
Both Chyna and Barton were “very scared” when they hired the 55-year-old attorney, Bloom said. “Everybody saw Rob Kardashian’s vicious attacks on her on social media. It was just so vicious,” said Bloom, adding that his choice to post on Twitter after Instagram removed his account showed “how determined he was to attack her.”
Chyna, who said she and Kardashian broke up in December, has decided not to pursue criminal charges “for now,” because Kardashian is “the father of her baby, and she’s hopeful that he’s going to abide by the restraining orders and then we won’t have a problem. If he violates the restraining orders, then we are going to have a problem, and then all of those options are still open.”
“[His actions] really showed me that he had the mind of an abuser — that you get to control a woman even well after you’ve been broken up. That you can slut-shame her. That you can make comments about her body,” Bloom said. “The comments about money that he bought her expensive gifts, and therefore he had some kind of right to control her. I mean, this is a very sick way of thinking.”
Chyna’s options, Bloom informed us, include suing for defamation.
With each victory, however, Bloom said she and her clients find their strength to stand up and defend themselves.
“I’ve had clients who’ve had tiny little girl voices and then by the end of their case, they’re speaking like an adult woman and they stand taller, and it’s a great feeling to go through an experience of standing up for yourself and prevailing and I think you really grow from that experience,” Bloom said.
Bloom works with a team of 12 lawyers — both male and female — who band together to “raise a client up, respect her and empower her to make decisions and stand by her.”
After Bloom and Chyna secured a restraining order against Kardashian in court last Monday, Bloom told us the Lashed Bar owner’s demeanor completely changed. The 29-year-old business owner “was transformed,” Bloom revealed, adding that most of her clients feel that way after scoring a major victory.
With every victory, Bloom also finds a stronger voice, though she joked that her father used to tell her she needed “consciousness lowering.”
“I don’t know if I could be any more empowered,” Bloom quipped. “That would be scary.”
The main message Bloom wants everyone — not just her clients — to take away is that shaming in any capacity is never OK. According to DoSomething.org, 70 percent of texters send explicit photos when requested to do so while in a relationship, so Chyna, Bloom said, shouldn’t be judged for it.
“It’s her body, her choice and how dare anybody shame her for that. We are adults. We have sexuality and there’s such a double standard,” Bloom said. “Men can go to strip clubs, nobody shames them for it. Men can look at pornography, no one shames them for it, but the women who are in the pornography, the women who are stripping … they get this shame heaped upon them and it’s just a further reminder to me of how far we have to go for women’s rights and what double standards we still live with.”
She continued, “It’s always our bodies that are the battlefields. It’s always our bodies that our culture wants to take autonomy over. Once we reclaim them … it’s very empowering.”
As for what’s next for both Chyna and Barton, Bloom revealed that they’re both trying to move forward — legally and emotionally. Bloom and Kardashian’s attorneys, including Robert Shapiro, are working behind the scenes to come up with a formal custody agreement for Kardashian and Chyna’s daughter, Dream. There will be a “full-blown” hearing on Aug. 8, Bloom said, if lawyers can’t resolve the situation by then. In that case, Bloom would request a permanent restraining order that could last three to five years.
“We agreed to stipulate to the temporary restraining order and all conditions attached thereto,” Shapiro said in a press conference after the hearing. “Our primary interest going forward for Mr. Kardashian is the health and welfare of the baby [Dream Kardashian], and both parents are going to work towards that goal. I personally on Robert Kardashian’s behalf apologized and offered our regrets for what has taken place in the past couple of days, and now we move forward to do one thing and one thing only: whatever’s in the best interest of this child.”
Barton’s legal victory prevented explicit photos and videos of her ever being published, but both she and Bloom waited to officially declare it a win until they could make sure everything remained private. Three months later, Barton and Bloom have won.
“I think she’s doing very well now. She’s got projects she’s involved with. She has a new boyfriend. I think she’s very happy. I think she feels [safer],” Bloom said. “When she first came to me, she was very distraught … she has not done nudity [in her career]. She chose not to do nudity and the idea that somebody would have surreptitiously recorded her when they were being intimate and then trying to sell those images. I mean, that’s just a nightmare. That’s horrific.”
With the explicit images nowhere to be found in the public space, Bloom said Barton has a “huge weight off her shoulders.”
“Winning always feels good,” Bloom said.