The Truth Behind How Law Schools Get Their #MeToo Intel

It may not be the best system, but we're willing to help.

It’s no surprise that #MeToo discussions feature prominently in most professional conferences these days. Scandals surrounding sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior by law professors and other law school faculty have been swirling around for years, and with the new national zeitgeist sparked by the #MeToo movement of increased transparency complaints about those taking advantage of their position feel like they’re on the rise.

That was true during the recent Association of American Law Schools conference that just concluded in New Orleans. During a panel discussion, Dean Gillian Lester of Columbia Law School discussed the difficulty of hiring lateral professors who may have a history of sexual harassment complaints against them. During the panel she pointed to the resources provided by yours truly, Above the Law.

As tweeted by Karen Sloan (who has also done a great job of keeping the legal profession apprised of these developments reporting for Law.com):

Now this may not seem like the most foolproof method, but with investigations frequently surrounded by confidentiality, it seems this is the best that law schools have. And it is certainly true that here at Above the Law we’ve covered as many of these scandals as we’ve come across — in a recent article, we even dubbed the spate of law profs under investigation a trend. Towards that end, we want to provide an easy resource of all the legal academics who’ve been accused of misconduct. If you have a tip about others, please, let us know. You can reach Above the Law by email, by text message (646-820-8477), or by tweet (@ATLblog).

Sujit Choudhry, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law:

Eric Dannenmaier, formerly at Northern Illinois University’s College of Law:

Jay Kesan, University of Illinois College of Law:

Jed Rubenfeld, Yale Law School:

Ian Samuel, Indiana University Maurer School of Law:

Paul Secunda, Marquette University Law School:

Jeffrey Standen, Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law:


headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).