Biglaw Staff Attorney Pleads Guilty To Child Pornography Charges

'I'm so f**king hard thinking about that right now,' he wrote from his Biglaw office.

It’s not often that we write about Biglaw attorneys who have been charged with sex crimes involving child pornography, but when we do, it’s simply revolting. Today, we have news about a Paul Weiss staff attorney who recently pleaded guilty to kiddie porn charges, specifically, distributing videos of child sex abuse.

Jason Mark Sims, who received his law degree in 2009 from the University of the District of Columbia School of Law and his Tax LL.M. in 2010 from Boston University School of Law, was caught after he traded emails with an undercover FBI agent in response to an ad the agent placed on Craigslist. Sims had arranged to meet the undercover agent in the hope of sexually abusing the agent’s purported 10-year-old daughter. They never wound up meeting, but Sims instead sent the agent links to videos of girls as young as 4 years old being sexually abused, which are described in disturbing detail in the agent’s affidavit.

Sims also exchanged messages and videos with the undercover agent on the Kik messaging service, under the username “Bartleby.” — and he even had the gall to have some of these discussions from the Paul Weiss office in D.C. From the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint against Sims:

31. A search of Jason Sims’ LinkedIn Profile (a social media employment site) indicates Jason Sims is currently employed as a staff attorney at the law offices of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. A further review ofuser logs obtained from Kik show that the “Bartleby.” account cormected to the IP address 208.185.180.147 both in August 2016 and May 2017.

32. It was determined IP address 208.185.180,147 is serviced by Zayo Broadwidth. Zayo Broadwidthprovided records indicatingthat IP address 208.185.180,147 is registered to the law offices of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, 1205 Avenue of Americas, New York, New York.

This is an excerpt from a conversation Sims had with the undercover agent on August 26, 2016, after viewing a photo of the agent’s purported 10-year-old daughter, while he was working at Paul Weiss:

Sims: Wow dude. Awesome. I’m terrified though.

Affiant: She has a real hot bod, 4’10” about 701bs. Good little slut. Lol

Sims: Jesus. Have you done this kind ofthing before? Is she really game?

Affiant: We have talked about bringing in another guy for a while. She loves it.

Sims: Nice. I’m so fucking hard thinking about that right now.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Sims has worked for Paul Weiss since November 2011. How does the firm feel about its employee’s indiscretions? The Am Law Daily has some additional details:

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A Paul Weiss spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment as to Sims’ status at the firm. Paul Weiss’ website notes that staff attorneys are hired on an as-needed basis to three-month contracts that are “renewable depending on their performance and the needs of the assignment.” Emails sent to Sims’ personal and work accounts went unreturned by the time of this story.

Sims faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and up to a maximum of 20 years in prison. He’s set to be sentenced on December 1, 2017.

(Flip to the next page to see the affidavit in support of a criminal complaint and an arrest warrant against Jason Mark Sims.)

Washington, DC Lawyer Pleads Guilty To Distributing Videos Of Child Sexual Abuse [AlexandriaNews.org]
Big Law Staff Attorney Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charges [Am Law Daily]


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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.