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Lawyer of the Day: A Prostitute-Loving Cravath Partner?

Friday, February 6, 2009 11:52 AM - By David Lat

Cravath Swaine Moore LLP Above the Law blog.JPG[Ed. note: We mentioned this briefly in Morning Docket. But any story involving the words “Cravath partner” and “hookers” deserves its own post.]

The late Deborah Jeane Palfrey, aka the “D.C. Madam,” has a New York counterpart. From ABC News (via our sibling site, DealBreaker):

Wall street lawyers, investment bankers, CEOs and media executives often used corporate credit cards to pay for $2,000 an hour prostitutes, according to the madam who ran one of New York’s biggest and most expensive escort services until it was busted last year.

But prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office chose not to pursue any of the corporate titans, says Kristin Davis, who pleaded guilty last year to charges of running a prostitution business that used more than a hundred women.

Presumably no relation to actress Kristin Davis, who played squeaky-clean Charlotte York on Sex and the City. The actress is a brunette; the madam is a blonde (of course).

Among the names ABC News was able to confirm on [Davis’s client] list:

* a partner at the Wall Street law firm of Cravath Swaine Moore, “looking for a party girl to come fully equipped,” [who] spent a total of $20,000.

Finally — a plausible explanation for those disappointing Cravath bonuses. The money went to a different set of hourly billers.

We appreciate the CSM partner’s demand that his high-class escort arrive “fully equipped.” Cravath lawyers believe in the importance of preparation. Whether dealing with depositions or dealmaking, their motto is: “Be prepared.”

Just like the Boy Scouts. If Boy Scouts blew twenty grand on whores.

Given the prestige (and profitability) of Cravath, some might find this news shocking. But those in the know realize that the white-shoe law firm has a long and august history…. of sexual deviance and prostitute patronizing.

Some historical context, after the jump.

A blast from the past, from a piece by James Stewart in the New Yorker (via the WSJ Law Blog):

“For the unspeakable facts were these: [Cravath partner] David Schwartz was murdered. He was killed in a sleazy Bronx motel. He was stabbed by a black eighteen-year-old male. He appears to have been leading a secret double life of clandestine and often dangerous sexual encounters. So far as can be determined, no one at Cravath and no one in his family had known”.

At the time of his death, Schwartz was married with three children, all in their twenties. He owned a Park Avenue duplex, a home in Westport, Conn., and earned $2.5 million per year. “Still,” Stewart wrote, “wealth and status couldn’t disguise Schwartz’s personal problems, which were mounting.”

That was from 1992. For a more recent example of a Cravath lawyer with issues, look to James Colliton. He’s the former Cravath tax attorney who “paid a woman so he could have sex with her two underage daughters,” according to the AP.

Compared to Jim Colliton, the Cravath partner who was a Kristin Davis customer was a saint. He sought sex from women, not girls. And, assuming the $20,000 wasn’t spread over a huge number of encounters, he didn’t pay a half-Skadden rate.

Eliot Spitzer In Good Company [DealBreaker]
CEOs, Bankers Used Corporate Credit Cards for Sex, Says New York Madam [ABC News]
Law Blog Flashback: The 1992 Death of Cravath Partner David Schwartz [WSJ Law Blog]

Earlier: An Update on Everyone’s Favorite Cravath Alum

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Posted in: Cravath, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, James Colliton, Lawsuit of the Day, Prostitution, Sex Scandals

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