Prominent San Francisco attorney Grant Colman accepted a position at the Lowell law firm in Oakdale on the condition that he became a full partner. When he was told that not even Chris Hughes, who'd been with the firm for over twenty years, was a full partner, a nonplussed Grant simply suggested that the firm be renamed Lowell, Hughes, & Colman. A good man with a brusque manner, Grant immediately became attracted to the beautiful widow Lisa Shea and the two began dating. To Grant's annoyance, Lisa was enchanted with the younger Jay Stallings, whom Grant didn't trust. Grant's fears seemed to be realized when Lisa was almost killed in a series of accidents when Jay was around. Although Grant suspected that Jay was trying to murder Lisa, in reality, Jay was the target. The culprit was Jay's stepfather, Gil Stallings, who wanted to collect Jay's hefty inheritance. Finally, Gil held Lisa hostage and set fire to the bookstore that Lisa had taken over from Bob Hughes's sister, Penny. Luckily, she was rescued by Grant and the two became engaged. Unfortunately, their relationship came under strain due to the interference of his ex-wife, Joyce. A deeply neurotic woman, Joyce schemed to get Grant back into her life. Though he saw through her schemes, he offered to help her when she was accused of murdering a man with her car. Thankfully for Joyce, the death was ruled accidental and Grant was free to marry Lisa. It was then that Joyce dropped a major bombshell--after their divorce, she'd given birth to Grant's son and put him up for adoption! After an investigation, the boy, Teddy, was found living in another town with his adoptive parents the Ellisons. Although Joyce initiated a custody battle for the boy, in the hopes that Grant would marry her, Grant decided that Teddy belonged with the Ellisons and helped them retain custody. After losing the case, a devastated Joyce attempted suicide and was sent to Memorial.

Unfortunately, the Colman marriage would deteriorate due to Lisa's jealousy of other women and her disenchantment over Grant's long working hours. Soon, Lisa started flirting with her first husband, Bob and she asked Grant for a separation because she believed she was still in love with Bob. However, Bob was drawn to the enticing Valerie Conway. During his separation from Lisa, Grant had also become interested in Valerie, and Valerie didn't hesitate to drop hints to the unsuspecting Lisa that if she weren't careful, someone just might steal Grant away, and that someone might be Valerie. Lisa found this very amusing, but when Bob rejected her, she realized she had to work fast to win Grant back or she'd lose them both. Unfortunately for Lisa, Grant had decided he wanted a divorce. Lisa was crushed! She had to find a way to win him back! She begged for a second chance and got it, at which point she decided to make friends with Valerie and play matchmaker with her and Bob. Lisa confided in her mother, Alma, that Grant seemed distracted and Lisa was determined to find out why. It didn't take Lisa long to figure out the distraction was Valerie. Grant was too moral to leave Lisa, and Valerie didn't want to cause him any more pain, so she turned to the intense, volatile Dr. Alex Keith for comfort.. Around this time, Valerie's sleazy ex-husband, Nick Conway, arrived in town low on funds and looking for a piece of Valerie's farm. Valerie refused and told him he'd have to talk to her lawyer, Grant. Nick promptly filed a lawsuit against her. Lisa plotted to get Nick back into Valerie's life and succeeded in getting him to drop the lawsuit, which led Valerie to wonder what her ex-husband was up to. Valerie devised a plan to make Grant want her.

It worked, and Grant asked Lisa for a divorce, but Lisa was not on to be outsmarted. She feigned illness and told Grant she'd deal with the divorce when she was better. Later, she told Valerie she knew Grant was seeing another woman and she couldn't take it anymore -- she was going to kill herself! If Valerie didn't believe her, Lisa said, she could come to the apartment tomorrow at a specified time. When Valerie arrived, no one was there. At the same time, Lisa miraculously appeared at Valerie's farm! To Valerie's dismay, Grant refused to see this staged suicide as one of Lisa's ploys, and Val turned to Nick for comfort, unaware that all he wanted was her money. Believing that Nick had changed, Valerie agreed to remarry him. Tired of waiting for her lover, Nick Conway, in New York, gum-chewing lowlife Tina Cornell arrived in Oakdale. Unaware that Lisa was on to them, Nick told Tina to sit tight; Valerie had signed over half the farm to him, and soon he and Tina would have enough money to get married. However, Nick wanted to go further -- he wanted kill his ex-wife. That was too much for Tina. She confided in Lisa, and despite the fact that they were rivals, Lisa decided to warn Valerie. Valerie, however, thought it was another of Lisa's tricks. When Tina arrived at the farm, she spotted Nick about to drop a bale of hay on the unsuspecting Valerie. Shouting a warning, Tina pushed Val out of the way just as the hay fell, and a stunned Nick fell to the ground and was instantly killed. Valerie was in shock while Tina lay injured under the bale of hay.

After the accident, in December 1978, Tina developed a severe case of agoraphobia and Lisa asked her to move in with her and Grant to recuperate. While Tina was convalescing at Lisa and Grant's home, she claimed that her agoraphobia was getting worse. It wasn't her illness that was keeping Tina at the Colman's home, however; it was her infatuation with Grant! When Lisa came home early one day and discovered Tina had been out, she realized she was faking her agoraphobia. Lisa ordered her to leave. Grant was appalled by Lisa's cruelty. Tina retaliated by telling Grant about Lisa's fake suicide an angry Grant moved back into the Lawyers Club. Tina then landed a secretarial job at Lowell, Hughes & Colman, and one night while working late, she offered to massage Grant's tired neck. The massage led to a kiss, and Grant suddenly realized Lisa had been right about Tina. He'd had it with scheming woman, and fired Tina (who left town in disgrace) and also told Lisa it was over for them as well and sought a divorce from her.

Having felt as if she lost Grant forever, Lisa rode out of Oakdale and found herself at a country estate called The Willows. There, she became very close to the proprietor, Hadley Bennet. Unbeknownst to Lisa, the Willows had a deep dark secret involving Bennet, his housekeeper Hester, and Bennet's late wife, who was the spitting image of Lisa! Meanwhile, back in Oakdale, Grant was getting more and more worried about Lisa who was isolating herself at the Willows. Though it was suspected that Bennet killed his late wife, in the end it was learned that Hester was the one who did it. When the mystery of the Willows was over, Lisa and Grant decided to give their marriage another chance. However, at this point, a remorseful Joyce (who had been presumed dead) came back to town to atone for her crimes. When Joyce claimed to be deathly ill, Grant took pity on her and let her back into his life. However, Lisa suspected that Joyce was lying about her illness and investigated, which made Grant furious. Angry with Lisa over her meddling, he was shocked when he learned she was right--Joyce was lying all along! Angry, Grant wrote Joyce out of his life and attempted to go back to Lisa. Unfortunately, Lisa had already been hurt by his unwillingness to trust her and refused. Understanding that they just couldn't make it work, Grant left Oakdale to practice law in Laramie, Wyoming.

Seven years later, Grant returned to Oakdale, serving as Lisa's attorney. At this time, Lisa was having misgivings about her sixth husband, Earl Mitchell, who had a tendency to disappear for weeks on end.. Not long after Earl's final disappearance, Lisa received two surprises: a surprise visit from Grant and a message from Earl saying that James found him. Suddenly, Lisa found herself in the middle of a mystery when a reporter named Glenn Harrington arrived stating that he'd met Earl in South Africa and believed he'd been kidnapped! He stated that Earl's trench coat was found drenched in blood, but it wasn't human blood. Someone was making it look as if Earl was dead. Suspicion fell on Grant since, as Lisa's lawyer, he persuaded Lisa to cut Earl out of her will (at the time she thought he was having an affair) and she ended up leaving a large chunk of her estate to Grant. Meanwhile, Lisa received a call from someone who claimed to have info on Earl's whereabouts. When Lisa drove to the rendezvous, her brakes failed! Fortunately, she survived, but then she started seeing visions of Earl and hearing voices. Seeing that Lisa was stressed, Grant persuaded her to sign over her power of attorney to him and go away for a while. Later, Tom and Margo discovered that Glenn wasn't a reporter; he was an undercover agent. Finally, Glenn was revealed as the man going after Lisa. His plan was to kill Lisa, then marry Earl's niece, Shannon O'Hara, and kill her. Luckily, Glenn was stopped and the truth about Earl was finally revealed--he was an Interpol agent investigating James Stenbeck. The ordeal over, Grant and Lisa parted ways again.

Years later, in 1993, Grant returned to Oakdale to attend Lisa's wedding to her seventh husband, Eduardo Grimaldi. Unfortunately, Eduardo was shot on their honeymoon and died. Lisa was distraught and Tom and Bob urged Grant to return to Oakdale to help calm her. At this time, Lisa was convinced that John Dixon's negligence had caused Eduardo to die, a claim that Grant doubted. However, he downplayed those doubts to Lisa. Later, after Lisa told him to leave, Grant unsuccessfully tried to advise her against suing John for malpractice.