Gordon Caplan, who had been co-chairman of the firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, was charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud after he allegedly paid $75,000 to make sure his daughter got a good score on a college-admissions exam.
“I take full and sole responsibility for my conduct, and I am deeply ashamed of my behavior and my actions,” said Caplan in a statement. “I apologize not only to my family, friends, colleagues and the legal bar, but also to students everywhere who have been accepted to college through their own hard work.”
Caplan was suspended last month as co-chairman of Willkie Farr.
The law firm on Friday said that Caplan was no a longer a partner there in light of his decision to plead guilty.
The criminal complaint against Caplan included recorded conversations in which he discussed plans to have a professional take the exam for his daughter, who he thought would not get a score high enough to gain admission to an elite school.
In the conversations, with William Rick Singer, the California college admissions consultant who was the mastermind of the college admissions cheating scheme, Caplan repeatedly asked a number of times about the possibility of getting caught. He apparently did not realize that his conversations were being recorded by Singer, who was cooperating with federal authorities.
Caplan said his daughter knew nothing about his plans. He said that she has yet to apply to college and “has been devastated to learn what I did and has been hurt the most by it.”
It wasn’t clear from Friday’s statement what charges Caplan plans to plead guilty to. His lawyers declined to comment beyond the statement. If he pleads guilty to a felony, he will face automatic disbarment in New York.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.