Former BigLaw partner is disbarred for child porn conviction
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A former partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has been disbarred as a result of his guilty plea to possession of child pornography.
Edmund C. Duffy was disbarred last Thursday, according to Law.com and the Legal Profession Blog. He had once led the China practice at Skadden.
The opinion disbarring Duffy said his federal plea admissions corresponded to a felony under New York law, which qualifies for automatic disbarment.
Duffy’s conviction was based on his use of a file sharing program to download images of child pornography over a period of about five years. He was 75 years old when he pleaded guilty in January 2017.
Duffy was sentenced last June to five years’ of probation. He was also ordered to pay $9,000 in restitution, to forfeit $256,000 and to perform 1,800 hours of community service. He will have to register as a sex offender and to participate in an internet monitoring program.
Duffy’s lawyers had argued that many of the images downloaded by Duffy weren’t as extreme as some child pornography, and the nude children could be considered art, according to the Law.com account.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest of Manhattan had responded that “these are not just pictures of children naked floating in a pool like the Nirvana album cover.”
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