Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein seemed to think he was the smartest man in the room and repeatedly corrected his own lawyers as he faced the early rounds of civil lawsuits by women accusing him of sexual abuse, according to a Florida lawyer involved in that litigation.

West Palm Beach attorney Spencer T. Kuvin sat across the room from Epstein’s counsel more than a decade ago, representing three of the more than two dozen women who brought civil complaints against Epstein between 2008 and 2009.