Law Schools

Law School Settles With Female Law Professors For $2.6 Million

Dismissing claims of gender discrimination has cost this school big time.

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Way back in 2013, Lucy Marsh, a law professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law discovered that she was the lowest paid full-time faculty member at the school, earning $40K less than the median salary for a full-time professor. Faced with such a stunning disparity, and one that raised the specter of gender discrimination, the school’s dean responded with… nothing.

That’s not an exaggeration, he said that he would do “nothing.”

That answer didn’t sit well with the EEOC, whose investigation identified a pattern of gender discrimination at the school dating back decades. The school, confronted by these findings, decided to double down. With mediation derailed, the school bought itself the expense of a full-scale lawsuit from the EEOC ultimately joined by two more professors.

The eventual lawsuit noted that the mean salary of female professors at the law school was nearly $20,000 lower than male professors at the time. As Elie Mystal pointed out in 2013, even if one were to accept every ill-considered, sexist argument for inequity in pay, they just don’t cut it when talking about academia:

I’d like to think the usual sexist arguments made against women receiving equal pay won’t really apply in the law school context. The “but they have babies!” crap isn’t a real impediment in a world where people regularly take sabbaticals for all sorts of reasons. It should go without saying that having a penis doesn’t make you a better lecturer or teacher or academic. And even if we assume a disproportionate share of domestic activity is shouldered by female professors over their male counterparts, I don’t think anybody can make a credible argument that this alone justifies such a large pay discrepancy when the professional performance we’re talking about is teaching a few credit hours, a few months a year, and writing.

And now, Denver Law has reached a settlement to the tune of $2.6 million as well as some forward-looking remedial steps:

The agreement requires the school to create a password-protected site listing faculty salaries, position, date of hire and demographics. Names will not be included.

The school also must require employee training on discrimination and hire an economist to study faculty pay each year.

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That’s a hefty chunk of change. Perhaps, as we pointed out in 2015, the school’s former dean, Martin Katz — a labor and employment expert no less — should have taken his own advice:

The idea behind unconscious bias is that well-meaning employers and supervisors, who would likely consider themselves supporters or even champions of equality, might subconsciously harbor attitudes that result in negative employment decisions for women and minorities.

It would have been a lot cheaper for the school than offering to do nothing.

Law school reaches $2.6 million settlement in equal pay suit [ABC News]

Earlier: Law School’s Unequal Pay Lawsuit Gets Bigger
Law School Hit By The EEOC With Gender Discrimination Case
Law School Slammed By EEOC For Discriminating Against Female Professors — Potential $1.2 Million In DamagesProfessor Sues Law School Over Pay Inequality, But In Fairness Her Dean Is Notoriously Bad At Math

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HeadshotJoe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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