Biography
Born in Philadelphia (USA) on 16 February 1942, James M. Crowley is an international lawyer admitted to the New York Bar (1973), to the Southern District of New York, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and to the Supreme Court of the United States (1976). He has been active in the international legal profession since 1972.
He was formed at Saint Charles Seminary in Philadelphia and, chosen by his Archdiocese, at the Pontifical Roman Major Seminary. He earned degrees in Philosophy (Ph.B., 1965) and Theology (S.T.B. 1967, S.T.L. 1969) as well as in Canon Law (J.C.B. 1970, J.C.L. 1973, magna cum laude) at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome; a Certificate in English and American Laws at University College, University of London (1971); and a Juris Doctor at the University of Notre Dame (1972).
From 1972 to 1978 he practised at Shearman & Sterling in New York City. From 1980 to 1997 he served CIGNA Corporation — one of the world's leading insurance groups — as Senior Counsel, then Senior Vice President and Chief Counsel, and finally Senior Vice President for Government and Industry Affairs.
Since 1990 he is Attorney and Counsellor to the Pontifical North American College in Rome. From October 2014 to January 2017 he served as Counsellor to the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, and since January 2017 as Counsellor to the President of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
He was lead counsel in In re Karen Ann Quinlan — a landmark decision in American law on the refusal of extraordinary means to prolong life and on the primacy of the family in decisions concerning persons unable to express their own will. It was the first time a U.S. civil court articulated its reasoning in dialogue with Catholic moral theology, and it remains a cornerstone reference in the ethics of end-of-life care.
From 1993 to 1996 he was official industry advisor to the U.S. Delegation at the Insurance Committee of the OECD in Paris, contributing to the liberalisation of the insurance systems of Japan and Korea, and he addressed the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council on a framework for insurance protection of integral human development inspired by Centesimus Annus.
A Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and Knight Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, he has served as Director of the National Catholic Community Foundation (2014–2024) and of the National Catholic Bioethics Center (2006–2019), and as President of the Saint Thomas More Society of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He is listed in Who's Who in American Law and Who's Who in the World, and profiled in Lions of the Eighties (Doubleday, 1982).
Within AEGIS he brings to the Steering Committee over five decades of experience at the intersection of law, bioethics and international institutions — a decisive contribution to the Foundation's mission of shaping an ethical governance of artificial intelligence rooted in the dignity of the human person.