Lawyerly Lairs: A Disgraced Dean's Abandoned Abode

This mansion has lots of charm. Just be sure its former occupant doesn't feng your shui.

Since he stepped down from the deanship of Case Western Reserve Law in March 2014, in the wake of a lawsuit making salacious allegations of sexual harassment, what has Lawrence E. Mitchell been up to?

The lusty legal academic has been keeping himself quite busy. We’ve previously mentioned his creepy (but skillfully recited) poetry. That’s not his only literary effort; see also his blog. When he changed the domain name for it, Mitchell issued a press release. That was perhaps self-important and ridiculous of him, but also understandable. It seems the ex-dean is trying to create a new digital footprint for himself, one that has no traces of his tainted tenure at Case Western. Note how the press release, “Lawrence Mitchell Announces His Popular Blog Hum(e)an Moments Has Moved to a New Web Address,” breathes not a word about his leadership of a major law school, or even his continued membership on its faculty.

And that’s not all. Lawrence Mitchell moved to New York — or, as he put it on his blog, escaped from Egypt (ouch, Cleveland’s not that bad) — and started working as a “consultant,” the last refuge of scoundrels. (I’m not talking about McKinsey or Bain or real consultancies; I’m talking about folks who leave jobs in scandal and then hang shingles as self-employed “consultants.”) Readers alerted us to a YouTube video, since removed, in which he touted his ability to help clients with their “BUSSINESS” and “FIANANCIAL” problems (but presumably not their spelling). There’s a new version of the video here, but it’s still full of typos; I didn’t know you could misspell “Mitchell” in so many different and creative ways.

We were content to let the disgraced dean live out his remaining days quietly. But now we have occasion to cover him, since Larry Mitchell is back in the news. Here’s a report from the Case Western Observer:

One of Case Western Reserve University’s newest buildings isn’t on campus. There are no classrooms, lab space or conference rooms, but it is equipped with the following: granite counter tops, a landscaped stone patio, two wood burning fireplaces, a detached 3 car garage and a “glamour bath.”

Nobody’s name graces the outside of this building; university officials would prefer to keep the previous owner out of the spotlight.

Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer records indicate that on July 1, CWRU purchased former law school Dean Lawrence Mitchell’s five-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath home for $575,000.

My colleague Joe Patrice wondered: does it come with the Chinese silk sheets?

Apparently not. The most recent listing photos for the house show lots of empty rooms. Let’s have a look, shall we?

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