The most powerful advocates are often born from the most painful experiences. Sarah Klein knows this better than most.
A survivor of Larry Nassar’s abuse and a trial lawyer who has dedicated her career exclusively to child sexual abuse civil cases, Sarah brings a perspective to her work that is unlike almost anyone else in the legal profession.
Sarah grew up in Lansing, Michigan, in the late 70s and early 80s — a world of unlocked doors and kids playing outside until dark. What started as an invitation to a gymnastics open house became a decade-long ordeal. By age eight, she was competing on a full team, training 40 to 45 hours a week. It was around 1988 that a young volunteer athletic trainer named Larry Nassar entered the gym — and Sarah’s life was never the same.
The environment Nassar exploited was, as Sarah describes it, perfect for the scene of a crime. The head coach — who would later lead the gold-medal-winning “Fierce Five” at the 2012 Olympics — ran a culture of fear, aggression, and control. Nassar offered the opposite: warmth, snacks, kindness, and what felt at the time like real care. He was a constant presence for years, attending events and becoming what felt like family. Decades would pass before he was charged, pleaded guilty, and sentenced. The head coach, too, finally faced 24 counts of child abuse — before dying by suicide the day those charges were filed in 2021.
Sarah attended Columbia University, spent time living and working in New York City, and ultimately pursued law — shaped in part by her stepfather, a Detroit judge who served on the bench for nearly 30 years. When she stood in court as Victim 125 in the Nassar case, she was already a practicing attorney. Though she couldn’t officially represent survivors in that litigation, she served as a vital intermediary — helping families and young survivors navigate an extraordinarily complex legal process in plain, human language.
Today, Sarah is a trial lawyer at Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, a firm that handles nothing but child sexual abuse civil cases. Her experience as a survivor, she says, gives her skills that simply cannot be taught: “Being a survivor, having gone through a civil lawsuit myself brings a very unique set of skills.” She knows what it means to be entrusted with walking a client through arguably the worst thing that’s ever happened to them — and to leave them stronger for it.
In this episode, Sarah shares a case that has stayed with her: a pediatrician who abused children under the guise of medical treatment for over 40 years, with parents present in the room, and institutions consistently failing to act. Her point is clear and sobering: “It doesn’t look the way you think it’s going to look.” Abuse isn’t in a dark alley. It’s dressed in a white coat, wrapped in trusted language, and sustained by institutional silence.
She draws a striking parallel to other high-profile failures — Nassar, Epstein, Diddy — and makes the case that pedophiles do not operate in a vacuum. Governing bodies, the FBI, medical boards — all failed. Civil lawsuits, she argues, are one of the most powerful tools available to shine a light on those systemic fractures, hold institutions accountable, and return power to survivors who were silenced for years.
In her “Closing Argument,” Sarah issues a direct challenge to every adult listening: identify the red flags, understand the recurring themes, and take responsibility. As she says, “It is not the child’s job to protect themselves. Children are not tiny adults. They are children and it is our job to keep them safe.”
Key Takeaways
- Child sexual abuse rarely looks the way people expect — perpetrators rely on grooming, trust-building, and institutional cover to operate in plain sight, sometimes with parents in the room.
- Civil lawsuits accomplish what criminal trials cannot: they expose the layers of institutional failure that allowed abuse
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