Sarah Klein: Nassar Case, Legal Career, and ESPY Advocacy

Sarah Klein is a Michigan-born plaintiffs’ attorney and sexual abuse survivor best known as the first identified victim of Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics team doctor. She practices at Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, a firm that handles only child sexual abuse civil cases, and has helped survivors of institutional abuse recover more than a billion dollars in settlements against universities, sports bodies, and the federal government.¹²

How She Became Nassar’s First Known Victim

Klein grew up in Lansing, Michigan, and started gymnastics as a child at a local club. By age eight she was training 40 to 45 hours a week under head coach John Geddert, who would later coach the 2012 Olympic “Fierce Five.”³

Around 1988, before he had entered medical school or joined USA Gymnastics, Larry Nassar began volunteering at the club as an athletic trainer. Geddert gave Nassar a back room in an abandoned high school building, away from the main gym and out of sight of parents, where Nassar performed what he described as medical treatments on Klein and other young gymnasts.⁴ Klein has said Nassar groomed his victims with warmth, kindness, and snacks, using that contrast with the harsh coaching environment to build trust.

Role in the Nassar Sentencing and Settlements

Nassar pleaded guilty in 2017 and 2018 to multiple counts of sexual assault and to federal child pornography charges. He is serving up to 175 years in state prison plus 60 years on the federal charges.⁵ During the Ingham County, Michigan, sentencing proceedings, 156 people delivered victim impact statements. Klein was one of them, officially designated Victim 125.³

She was already a practicing lawyer by then. As a plaintiff, she could not formally represent other survivors in the case, but she acted as an intermediary, using her legal training to translate the proceedings for younger survivors and their families who were navigating the system for the first time.³

The civil litigation produced some of the largest institutional abuse settlements in U.S. history. Klein was part of the effort that secured:

A $500 million settlement with Michigan State University for survivors who alleged the university ignored complaints about Nassar for years.¹
A $380 million settlement with USA Gymnastics, funded in part after the Seventh Circuit required Liberty Insurance Underwriters to pay into the settlement trust established during the organization’s bankruptcy.¹⁶
A $138.7 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in April 2024, resolving claims by more than 100 survivors that the FBI mishandled abuse allegations reported by USA Gymnastics in July 2015. A 2021 Inspector General report had found that senior FBI officials in the Indianapolis field office committed “numerous and fundamental errors” and violated multiple FBI policies.⁵

Other Institutional Abuse Cases

Klein’s practice extends well beyond the Nassar litigation. She was part of the legal team representing more than 1,000 survivors of Dr. Robert Anderson, a former University of Michigan sports team doctor. That case produced a $490 million settlement. Speaking publicly about the litigation, Klein told Michigan Public, “The answer is never ‘he did it in a vacuum and nobody ever knew about it.'”⁷¹

She has also represented nearly 40 former patients of Dr. Johnnie Barto, a pediatrician in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing dozens of children and was sentenced to up to 158 years in prison. The civil suit alleged that Laurel Pediatric Associates and Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center knew for at least two decades that Barto posed a threat and failed to act.⁸ She has represented clients in the case against Jerry Harris, the former star of Netflix’s Cheer.¹

Her firm has served as lead counsel in cases against USC involving former gynecologist George Tyndall, which settled for $852 million, and against UCLA involving former gynecologist James Heaps, which settled for $243.6 million.⁹ A 2026 conference biography states that Klein has helped recover nearly two billion dollars in settlements and verdicts for sexual abuse victims across cases involving medicine, schools, churches, camps, and athletics.¹⁰

Klein views civil litigation as one of the strongest tools available to survivors because it forces institutions to answer for systemic failures in ways criminal prosecutions often cannot. Pedophiles, she has said, do not operate in a vacuum, and lawsuits can expose the governing bodies, medical boards, and oversight agencies that let abuse continue.³

Legislative Advocacy on Statutes of Limitations

Klein regularly testifies before state legislatures in support of eliminating or extending statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse. She was an invited guest at the February 2019 signing of New York’s Child Victims Act, which opened a temporary window for older claims to be filed.¹ She has pushed for similar reform in Pennsylvania, including an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer criticizing state lawmakers for stalling on legislation to protect abuse survivors.¹¹ In Maryland, she has spoken publicly about the Child Victims Act of 2023.¹²

She has written opinion pieces for the Guardian, the Baltimore Sun, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, including a 2022 Guardian column criticizing the International Olympic Committee’s handling of the teenage figure skater Kamila Valieva’s doping case.¹³

The ESPY Award and Public Platform

On July 18, 2018, Klein and more than 140 fellow Nassar survivors received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs in Los Angeles. Klein, Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman, and survivor Tiffany Thomas Lopez delivered remarks on behalf of the group. Klein told the audience that for 30 years, institutions had placed “money and medals above the safety of child athletes,” and urged, “We must start caring about children’s safety more than we care about adults’ reputations.”¹⁴ She has said the ESPYs were the catalyst for coming forward publicly by name.

Since 2021, she has hosted the podcast Bar Fights: Taking on Issues that Matter, focused on sexual abuse, institutional accountability, and trauma recovery. The show passed 100 episodes in March 2025 and has drawn more than half a million listens.¹⁵ She has also appeared in Season 2 of the Netflix docuseries Cheer, delivered a TED Talk titled “Being Victim 125,” and was featured in Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt’s New York Times bestseller The Gift of Forgiveness and in the Emmy-nominated CBS Note to Self series.¹

Credentials, Firm, and Recognition

Klein earned her undergraduate degree from Columbia University in 2002 and completed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Global Entrepreneurship program in 2014.¹ Her stepfather served as a judge in Detroit for nearly 30 years, and she has cited his influence on her decision to pursue law.³

She is a trial lawyer at Manly, Stewart & Finaldi and is also listed as Of Counsel at Dalton & Associates in Wilmington, Delaware.¹¹¹

Her honors include the 2018 Child Protector Award from Child USA, the 2021 Resilience and Advocacy Award from the Jordan Center for Children of Trauma and Domestic Violence Education, the 2022 inaugural Woman of Influence recognition from SUCCESS Magazine, and the 2023 Voice of Courage Award from Day One.¹

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Manly, Stewart & Finaldi. Sarah Klein
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WDBJ7. Money Doesnt Heal — Larry Nassars Survivors Speak Out After Legal Settlements
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Trial Lawyers Journal. Sarah Klein — Celebrating Justice
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CBS News. Larry Nassar Abuse Survivor Sarah Klein Note to Self
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Michigan Advance. Justice Department Settles With Survivors of Larry Nassars Sexual Abuse
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Anderson Kill. Seventh Circuit Requires Insurance to Fund Settlement With Victims of Larry Nassars Sexual Abuse
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Michigan Public. Robert Andersons Survivors Are Seeking Justice From the University That Ignored Them for Decades
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Bay News 9 / AP. Suit: Practice, Hospital Covered for Pedophile Pediatrician
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PR Newswire. Statement by Attorney and Survivor Sarah Klein Regarding Settlement on Behalf of Larry Nassar Survivors
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CAMFT. Sarah Klein — CAMFT 2026 Annual Conference
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Dalton & Associates. Sarah G. Klein
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WEAA. Sarah Klein Talks Statute of Limitations Reform
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The Guardian. Sarah Klein — Profile
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VOA News. Sex Abuse Victims Join Hands, Accept Courage Award at ESPYs
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PR Newswire. Sarah Klein Celebrates the 3 Year Anniversary of Her Podcast Bar Fights