Brittany Henderson

The Case That Set the Course

Henderson joined Bradley Edwards's Fort Lauderdale practice in 2014, while the Crime Victims' Rights Act litigation on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein's victims was already years underway. The case — Doe v. United States — asked whether federal prosecutors had violated victims' statutory rights by negotiating and concealing the non-prosecution agreement that ended the first federal investigation of Epstein. Henderson worked on the summary-judgment briefing in that fight, and in 2019 the Southern District of Florida ruled that the government had indeed violated the victims' rights under the Act.

She and Edwards later told the full story of that litigation in Relentless Pursuit: My Fight for the Victims of Jeffrey Epstein, published by Simon & Schuster in March 2020. By then, the case that shaped her first years of practice had also defined its direction: she would spend her career representing survivors of sexual abuse and violent crime, in courtrooms and in the confidential structures built alongside them.

Baca v. Island Girl Ltd.

A Florida jury considered the claim of a yacht crew member who was sexually assaulted by a coworker aboard the vessel where she lived and worked. The jury found that the plaintiff was a crew member working on a vessel in navigation, that the vessel owner was negligent, and that the negligence legally caused her damages.

It awarded $70,560,050, itemized among lost wages, future earning capacity, medical expenses, and noneconomic harm. Henderson helped develop and present the evidence on every element: the plaintiff's crew duties, her seaman status, the yacht's legal status as a vessel, the security conditions aboard, her employment losses, her treatment, and her continuing injuries.

The maritime claims required the plaintiff's team to connect the facts of the crew member's employment and the yacht's status to the Jones Act and unseaworthiness rules submitted to the jury — doctrine written for commercial shipping, applied here to protect a young woman working aboard a private yacht. The verdict form separately addressed liability, maritime status, causation, and damages, so that each finding stood on its own footing.

The coworker pleaded guilty to sexual battery and received a prison sentence. The civil trial answered the question the criminal case did not reach: the vessel owner's own negligence, and its responsibility for the survivor's economic, medical, and personal losses.

Admiralty Enforcement

Henderson carried the judgment into federal admiralty court for enforcement. Her client sought execution; the court directed the arrest of the yacht Endless Summer; and the vessel owner filed a federal petition seeking to limit its liability under the ancient maritime rule capping an owner's exposure at the value of the vessel.

The court dismissed the limitation petition as untimely. It held that the survivor's earlier amended complaint had given written notice of a reasonable possibility that the claim would exceed the yacht's value — notice that triggered the six-month statutory filing period long before the owner acted.

The owner argued that the clock should not have run while it disputed whether the yacht was legally a vessel at all. The court rejected that position: the owner could have filed a protective limitation petition while preserving its alternative argument, and its choice not to do so carried consequences.

The ruling allowed Henderson's client to continue enforcing the judgment free of the restrictions the limitation proceeding would have imposed. The prior pleading, the statutory deadline, the vessel arrest, and the machinery of federal enforcement all became instruments for a single purpose — making the jury's award collectible rather than symbolic.

Epstein Victims' Compensation Program

Henderson helped create and open the independently administered Epstein Victims' Compensation Program in 2020. Its premise was that a survivor should not have to choose between compensation and privacy: the program allowed survivors to submit confidential claims against Jeffrey Epstein's estate without filing individual public lawsuits.

The program received approximately 225 claims — more than twice the number initially anticipated. Roughly 150 people were found eligible, 92 percent of those receiving offers accepted them, and the program ultimately paid more than $121 million.

A claimant could present her account and supporting materials privately. The administrator determined eligibility and an individualized award, communicated the offer without publicly identifying the claimant, and applied consistent procedures across every file. Participation was voluntary, and acceptance required a release — a structure that preserved each survivor's choice at every step, including the choice to walk away.

JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank

In 2023, Henderson helped secure final approval of separate survivor-class settlements with JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank — cases that, for the first time, held major banks financially accountable for the role their services played in facilitating Epstein's trafficking.

The JPMorgan agreement provided $290 million and the Deutsche Bank agreement provided $75 million, a combined $365 million. Each case carried its own class definition, fund, release, final-approval order, confidential claim submissions, eligibility decisions, allocation rules, privacy safeguards, and court-supervised administration.

The approved funds then moved from evidence and negotiation into notice, survivor claims review, allocation, and distribution — all without publicly exposing individual accounts of abuse. The banks' liability was litigated in the open; the survivors' experiences never had to be.

Bank of America

The banking litigation continued with a separate $72.5 million settlement with Bank of America. Judge Jed Rakoff granted preliminary approval on April 2, 2026; at that stage, counsel estimated that approximately sixty to seventy-five survivors could submit claims. The settlement received final approval in August 2026. The fund uses confidential questionnaires, releases, and individualized eligibility and allocation decisions to compensate survivors while protecting their privacy.

Current Practice

Henderson is a named partner of Edwards Henderson in Fort Lauderdale, where her practice is devoted to complex civil litigation for survivors of sexual abuse and violent crime. Her verdicts and settlements have helped secure well over half a billion dollars for survivors. She has also co-founded two nonprofit organizations serving survivors of sexual abuse.

She has been admitted to the Florida Bar since 2015 and is also admitted in New York and the District of Columbia. Henderson earned her undergraduate degree from Auburn University and graduated magna cum laude from Nova Southeastern University's Shepard Broad College of Law.