[UPI]
James Colliton, 43, was a tax attorney employed by prestigious Manhattan law firm Cravath Swaine & Moore.
But all of that changed when Colliton was arrested in Canada in 2006 on child molestation charges, following an international manhunt.
On October 2, 2007, Colliton plead guilty to second- and third-degree statutory rape and patronizing a prostitute. The married former tax lawyer, who also had five children of his own, was charged in connection with his payment to a woman so he could have sex with her two underage daughters.
Colliton, it was alleged, repeatedly had sex with two children, ages 13 and 15, after paying their mother for permission.
Colliton, arrested and fired by his law firm in 2006, was sentenced in October, 2007 to the 19 months he had already served in jail awaiting trial and declared a sex offender. (See our prior post here .)
Now, in a move that gives new meaning to the words “chutzpa” and "frivolous litigation", Colliton is suing Cravath, Swaine & Moore for salary, vacation pay and even annual bonus payments to which he was allegedly entitled, the New York Daily News said today.
During his time with the 188-year-old law firm Colliton earned $500,000 a year until his 2006 arrest.
The media dubbed him the "Lolita Lawyer", and his arrest and subsequent guilty plea were matters of some mention in the legal blogs, including this post and also here in Above the Law. (Also see the several WSJ Law Blog posts here.)
In his lawsuit for $1.45 million, Colliton alleges the venerable NYC law firm did not pay him his required salary and bonuses, along with causing him "emotional distress" by monitoring his communications.
"My trial with Cravath will, for the first time ever, expose to the public how the most prestigious law firms in the world really operate," Colliton told the NY Post. "People will be really surprised."
"The (firm) has breached its promise to pay (Colliton) a ‘bonus,'" the lawsuit suit also alleges.
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3 comments:
Sing, Jim, sing.
Well, regardless what one believes about him as a person. If the money is due him than it's due him. If not then he will loose. Simple as that.
Except the money that he claims due is salary accruing (apparently) while he was either a fugitive from justice, or in jail awaiting trial.
The claimed salary is dependant to some degree on the validity of his 2006 termination by Cravath. Since the guy plead guilty to criminal charges that are grounds for termination by Cravath, the back pay issue is a nonstarter.
The same story with the bonus. I find it hard to believe that he qualified for a year-end bonus after he was fired and while he was in jail and not billing hours for the firm, even if the bonus was not discretionary.
But what will really turn a jury against him, if the case is not dismissed way before trial, (other than the fundamental fact that he is the scum of the earth, what he did to the kiddies is relevant to his claims and is admissible, and he looks creepy) is his emotional distress claim against Cravath, which is absurd. If he suffered fear, upset and other “highly unpleasant emotions” it was no doubt due to his public disgrace, arrest, incarceration, and conviction and not Cravath peaking at his e-mail communications on the company network and computer.
Nor does the fact that he filed a pro se “prisoner’s rights case” in the federal district court in NY seeking “$9,990,000.00” in “damages” in September, 2006, while he was still in jail likely to bolster his credibility in this case.
Finally, the fact that a former associate for Cravath has now sued the firm not only pro se but in a handwritten pleading is kind of a red flag—speaking volumes about both his state of mind (whacked) as well as the quality of his case.
I give the suit 90 day tops before it is dismissed.
In any event, no jury will ever award this guy 10 cents. Period. End of story.
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