Lawyer on the Lam

Holy white shoe: A tax attorney at Cravath, Swain and Moore is on the run from police who want him in New York to face various charges of paying a mother to have sex with her young teen daughters. James Colliton was caught at Niagara Falls, and the Ontario police were holding him - but somehow, he was released, much to the DA's office's dismay. The girls' mother is being held on $100,000 for promoting prostitution, and it's just heartbreaking to hear that she would make her daughters return to Colliton for sex. One daughter was 15 when her Colliton paid for her, and her sister was 13 when Colliton set his eyes on her last year.

Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau sad, "We've had a lot of wild cases, but this is one of the wildest," and reading the DA's press release, it's upsetting. And apparently Colliton had a "harem" of underage girls who would spend time at his studio apartment at 133 East 56th Street (his wife and kids lived in Poughkeepsie). Cravath says that Colliton no longer works there, but no matter, the Daily News looks at the firm's storied history.

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By Jen Chung in News on March 3, 2006 11:40 AM

Comments [rss]

ny.anon

To anon.lawyer, congratulations on your new job!

All the best for a great future in the wonderful field of law, to say nothing of *interesting* fellow workers.

Samantha T

Anon. lawyer - so true. All I can think about is all of the underlings this dude probably bitched out for not indenting a paragraph or something. All the while, boyfriend had a "harem" upstate. Ass. The people at Cravath think they're so goddamn perfect - please allow those of us they wouldn't deign to hire a moment to bask in the sweet, sweet schadenfreude of their disgrace.

Chris

Um, sorry to be a grammar bitch, but "paying a mother to have sex with her young teen daughters" makes it sound like he was paying the mother to have sex with her daughters HERSELF. I'm not sure which option is ickier.

anon. lawyer

Anon. 2:12, I disagree that there is a "very intensive screening process" - all that firms like Cravath care about is whether you are in the top 10-15% of your law school class. I recently accepted a job at a large multinational NY-based firm (not as fancy-pants as Cravath, but what firm is?) and they didn't even call my references until after I had accepted the job. I'm not saying that Cravath should - or will - bear any responsibility for this, but let's not pretend that there is an "intensive screening process." Also I don't think these firms are "extremely image-conscious" - I can't count the # of lawyers I have met and/or went to law school with who are completely socially inept and possibly mentally ill who have jobs with firms like Cravath, etc., simply because they happen to be good at taking exams.

Larry

He was fired from Cravath a few days ago. So technically, he doesn't work for them.

Amol

Sounds like he rented the girls fair and square from their mom. What's the issue?

MissPinkKate

Yea, but ny.anon, if the man has a clean criminal record, how else could the firm have discovered this?

wha wha what?

They were apparently introduced by the girl's 17-year-old cousin, a stripper, Alban said.

Since when can strippers be 17? What a family.

upstategal

looks like he doesn't work at the firm.

more from the Poughkeepsie Journal:

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060303/NEWS05/603030339

ny.anon

Hmmm. These lawyers go through a very intensive screening process before they're hired. For all the scrutiny, it makes you wonder how Colliton slipped through under the wire. I suppose you could also say that this whole thing doesn't reflect favorably on the judgment of the group of lawyers who interviewed him and ultimately ok'd his hiring. This guy is such a slimeball that it's really hard to believe that he didn't have a prior history of questionnable behavior.

These white shoe law firms are extremely image conscious so I can just imagine the conniptions that Cravath is having right now.

upstategal

they nabbed the guy. check it out:

www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/ap...

me

Speaking of creeps... let us not forget the late David Schwartz, a Cravath partner that was murdered by a male hustler (w/ S&M gear) and found in the Whitestone Bridge hotel in 1992. Schwartz had a wife and kids in Connecticut.

mickster

I once worked at Cravath as a summer temp. legal assistant in the late 1980's, and like any company/organization, they are bound to have their share of creeps. They even had one of their lawyers murdered in Madison Square Park a number of years back.

When you have high-powered lawyers making insane amounts of money, you're going to get creeps like this. It's not fair to indict the firm for something they could not have had knowledge about. Should it come to light otherwise, then it's a different story and justice should be meted out accordingly.

On the flip side, Cravath also employs Frederick A.O. Schwartz as a partner who is one of the most philanthropic people in NYC and is of the famed toy store family fame.

I hope that James Colliton is caught or found dead by his own cowardly, dastardly hand.