Law Schools

Prominent Law School Professor Resigns After Title IX Misconduct Investigation

He expresses gratitude for those who brought the allegations against him.

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Ian Samuel (Photo by IU Comm via Twitter)

In December, shockwaves went through legal academia circles when it was revealed that Indiana University Maurer School of Law professor Ian Samuel was on leave from the school pending a Title IX investigation. The investigation has ended, and on Friday, Samuel announced on Twitter that he was resigning from his position at Indiana, saying he is “choosing to forgo procedural rights that might (though I doubt it) preserve my job if I fought to the Pyrrhic end, because the academic year is over and it’s time for this process to be over, too.”

Samuel’s full statement provides some context for the allegations against him:

Well, I don’t think I’m breaching any confidences by saying that the allegations in this case describe me drinking to excess in a public place I shouldn’t have been, in company I shouldn’t have kept, and treating the people present in ways they didn’t deserve.

He goes on to say that the allegations, and the investigation it spurred, were a wake up call for him that caused him to take a hard look at his life and the decisions he was making:

When the investigation began, a few people I trust suggested that maybe it was time to take a hard look at my life. They were right. Once I was ready to be honest with myself, I had to admit that the night in question was the clearest sign yet of a problem that had been growing for some time, and which was going to keep growing as long as I kept ignoring it. Although that admission didn’t solve anything by itself, it did beat denial.

Samuel even expresses gratitude for those who brought the allegations against him:

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The truth is that the university’s investigation, in addition to doing justice, probably had the side effect of saving my life. More importantly, it’s given me a chance to live the life I’ve got differently. I was becoming an ugly man, and I needed nothing so much as a clean mirror and someone brave enough to make me look at it. Well, someone did, and they did it before my son got old enough to start feeling ashamed of his father. Not everyone is so lucky. So I’d be a real ingrate if I felt anything other than admiration and gratitude for the complainants’ integrity in this case.

He says that leaving his job is an appropriate punishment for his wrongdoings, and though he doesn’t have a clear path ahead, he will be taking “another road”:

What I do know is that halfway through the journey of my life, I lost—through my own grievous fault—the straightforward path, my sense of right and wrong. It behooves me now to take another road.

Samuel made headlines last year for publicly disclosing the mandatory arbitration agreement Biglaw firm Munger Tolles required all employees to sign. After the backlash, the firm reversed their policy, and set off an industry-wide look at how forced arbitration is used at law firms that is still ongoing.

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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).

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