Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015

MacLeish tells Robby and Sacha that Garabedian's claims against Cardinal Law are likely bluster to leverage a settlement, since victims rarely want to go public.

Scene 22 of 143 · ≈ 2 min on screen · Act two

Eric Macleish
Robby
Sacha

Act two

Begins 20 min into a 2:19 film

The story so farBefore scene 22

The Boston Globe's Spotlight team pries open the Catholic Church's decades-long cover-up of child abuse — one sealed record, one silenced victim at a time.

Scenes 4–10
Robby's Spotlight team operates comfortably inside its own routine, prospecting a modest police-corruption story under a departing editor's cover.
Scenes 11–14
Baron's outsider question exposes what the paper has never done: investigate whether Cardinal Law knowingly protected an abusive priest.
Scene 15
Sacha's grandmother and her weekly Mass become the story's throughline for what belief costs the people closest to the reporters.
Just before
Scene 19
Marty tells Publisher Richard Gilman he intends to sue the Church to unseal the Geoghan documents, over Gilman's warning about the paper's Catholic subscriber base.
Scene 20
Mike arrives at Mitchell Garabedian's cluttered office and waits while the lawyer yells behind a closed door.
Scene 21
Robby and Sacha cross the marble lobby of One International Place to meet attorney Eric MacLeish, a contrast to Garabedian's shabby office.
Scene 22
This scene

22INT. GREENBERG TRAURIG, CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY

ERIC MACLEISH, 40s, good looks, quick with a story and a smile, walks into the posh room, finds Sacha and Robby.

ERIC MACLEISH

The famous Walter Robinson in my

conference room.

MacLeish and Robby shake hands.

ROBBY

Good to see you again, Eric. Sacha

Pfeiffer, Eric MacLeish.

ERIC MACLEISH

Nice to meet you. Do you play golf?

SACHA

(caught off guard)

Uh, no.

ERIC MACLEISH

Good. Your colleague took some money

off me at a charity event last year.

ROBBY

Lucky putt. I actually had my eyes

closed.

MacLeish smiles. Chummy.

ERIC MACLEISH

So, how can I help you?

ROBBY

You’re familiar with the Geoghan

case?

ERIC MACLEISH

Sure. Eighty plaintiffs. All

individual cases, Garabedian must be

swimming.

ROBBY

And the allegations against Cardinal

Law?

MacLeish considers the question.

ERIC MACLEISH

Look, it’s tricky. You need to

understand these are shitty cases.

The statute of limitations is only 3

years and most of these victims

don’t come forward until long after

that.

SACHA

Why is that?

ERIC MACLEISH

They’re kids. Shame. Guilt. And

they come from tough neighborhoods,

nobody wants to admit this kind of

thing. So you’re screwed on the

time limit and even if you argue

your way around that, the charitable