BigLaw lawyer who fell to his death is remembered for his kindness and humor
A former Justice Department lawyer who fell to his death on Tuesday is being remembered for his kindness to others, sense of humor, and commitment to public service.
Timothy Coleman, a 51-year-old partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, died after falling from the top of the law firm’s building in Washington, D.C., the National Law Journal (sub. req.) reports. He is survived by his wife of 23 years, Maureen, and two children.
Freshfields announced Coleman’s death in a statement. “Tim’s enthusiasm for his family and friends touched everyone around him. His death is a profound loss to all of us personally and to Freshfields,” the law firm said.
Coleman’s family was open at his funeral about his treatment for major depression and his “heroic, heart-breaking battle to live,” according to a longtime friend, Judge Delissa Ridgway of the U.S. Court of International Trade. Hundreds of lawyers attended the funeral, and the family “may have saved some lives” by encouraging people to recognize that seeking treatment is “a mark of strength and it’s not something to be ashamed of,” Ridgway told the ABA Journal.
Coleman began his career as an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore after attending Georgetown University Law Center. He left to become a federal prosecutor in Manhattan where he focused on white-collar crime, and then went to the U.S. Justice Department as a policy adviser. He was promoted to senior counsel to Deputy Attorney General James Comey (now the FBI director) in 2004. Coleman left the Justice Department to join Dewey Ballantine, then left for Freshfields in 2011.
In an interview with the National Law Journal, Latham & Watkins partner Christopher Clark recalled the time Coleman drafted a prank press release at the U.S. Attorney’s office, which was forwarded outside the office by a colleague. The New York Post had a story on the incident.
Ridgway recalls another prank by Coleman while in law school. After noticing a proliferation of law student associations with similar sounding names, Coleman and his friend created a spoof organization called The Law and Dentistry Society. The students passed out a flier promoting an upcoming presentation by the new society called “Temporo-Mandibular Joint Distress Syndrome—The Teeth-Gnashing Defense”—and attracted more than 25 students to the fake event. Ever the good sport, Coleman and his friend picked up the tab for drinks, Ridgway tells the ABA Journal.
Ridgway got to know Coleman when she was a lawyer at Shaw Pittman and he was her law clerk. Ridgway came from a small town in the Missouri Ozarks and Coleman grew up in a small Kentucky town of about 2,500 people. Ridgway says Coleman was proud of his Kentucky background but he also saw himself as a “citizen of the world.” Coleman helped Ridgway see that she could build her own international practice, despite a small-town background. In reality, Ridgway says, Coleman was mentoring her more than she mentored him.
Coleman was working on several federal cases at the time of his death, including one case described as “contentious” by the National Law Journal. Coleman was a receiver for WexTrust Capital, an investment firm accused of operating a Ponzi scheme. Some investors indicated they were planning to sue Coleman for alleged excessive fees; the Securities and Exchange Commission had opposed the suit.
In an email to Coleman’s widow, Ridgway said she realizes the pressures and demands of the WexTrust case had taken a toll on Coleman, who had to give up more lucrative work because of that commitment.
“I know that the case has been source of tremendous, near-constant, sometimes even nightmarish frustration,” Ridgway wrote. “I know that any receivership is a thankless job; and, given the nature of that case in particular, and its high profile, the WexTrust case is the consummate epitome of all receiverships. But, in all of that, it must not be lost that the WexTrust receivership is one of the most important, most prestigious, most sought-after, and most coveted receiverships ever in the history of the nation.”
Ridgway says Coleman was hand-picked for the position. “And it was Tim who answered the call of public service (yet again) by accepting the position. All those who know Tim know that he is constitutionally incapable of doing anything other than his very, very best, and what he knows to be the right thing to do, no matter what the setting. The justice system, and, more generally, the nation, owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude for his devoted, and wholly selfless, service.”
See also:
ABA Journal: “A Death in the Office: Mark Levy’s Talent, Resumé & Friends Weren’t Enough”
