Joseph Scott (attorney)

Joseph Scott (July 16, 1867 - March 24, 1958) was a prominent British-born attorney and community leader in Los Angeles, California.

He worked in a paper mill in Massachusetts before being appointed a professor of rhetoric and English literature at St. Bonaventure College in Olean, New York.

[2] In 1902, he was named a member of the Charter Revision Committee which conducted the first significant reform of Los Angeles city government.

[2] In 1911, he helped defend union members John J. and James B. McNamara after they were charged with bombing the Los Angeles Times building and causing the deaths of 21 people.

[6] For daring to defend the brothers, Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis (a virulent opponent of labor unions) attacked Scott in the paper's pages for the next several years.

After his resignation, he was elected president of the California Conference of Social Work and served one two-year term.

[2][3][8] Scott momentarily rose to national prominence in 1945 in the Charlie Chaplin-Joan Barry paternity suit.

At trial, Scott railed against the actor—who had a lengthy and public history of adulterous relationships and affairs with very young women.

Among other things, Scott called Chaplin a "pestiferous, lecherous hound", "a little runt of a Svengali", a "cheap Cockney cad", "a hoary headed old buzzard" and "a master mechanic in the art of seduction".

After World War II, Scott became a charter member of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

[13] A requiem Mass was celebrated by his son, George, at the Cathedral of Saint Vibiana, which was attended by 1,250 people.

Cardinal McIntyre presided at the funeral, and Bishop Joseph Thomas McGucken gave the eulogy.

Among the political leaders in attendance were Governor Goodwin Knight, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California Marshall F. McComb, and Irish Ambassador to the United States John Joseph Hearne.

He was an international commissioner for overseas work for the Knights of Columbus in 1918, and made nationwide speaking tours on behalf of the organization from the 1920s to the 1950s.

A bronze statue of Scott faces Grand Avenue in the front of the Stanley Mosk Courthouse building of the Los Angeles Superior Court.

In 1962, noted Los Angeles sculptor Carl Romanelli was commissioned to design a statue of Scott.

El Monte sculptor Cataldo Papaleo stepped in, made some changes to Romanelli's design, and cast the piece.