Law Schools

Elite Law School Faces Gender Pay Gap Lawsuit

These aren't the first unequal pay claims made at the school.

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Imagine, if you will, a law professor with less teaching experience, fewer publications, fewer professional honors but somehow making…. more money? If that set-up left you scratching your head, what if you learned the person making more money was a man, and the one with more CV notches was a woman. Does that help the picture come into focus?

That’s the crux of a shocking new lawsuit filed by Linda Mullenix, who has taught law at the University of Texas School of Law since 1991. Her lawsuit, filed in federal court yesterday, uses a specific comparison to the compensation of another law prof, Robert Bone to illustrate her point about pay equality:

Over the past three years, Professor Linda Mullenix, one of UT Law’s most distinguished professors, has been paid $134,449 less than male professor Robert Bone. Professor Bone has the same above-average teacher evaluation rating as Professor Mullenix, but almost a decade less overall teaching experience, fewer than a third of Professor Mullenix’s overall publications, and fewer professional honors. This pay gap is sex discrimination.

As reported by the Austin Statesman, the lawsuit alleges that by the University’s own standards the two professors should have pay equity:

“Under UT Law’s own stated standards, Professor Mullenix and Professor Bone are equal form 2017 until 2019” the lawsuit says. “Yet Professor Bone received $134,449 more than Professor Mullenix. The reason Professor Mullenix is paid less for equal work is because of her sex and prior reports of equal pay violations.”

The lawsuit alleges that there was more than just garden variety pay inequality at work here. Mullenix says the administration retaliated against her after first complaining about the pay gap in 2010:

Mullenix first became aware of the pay gap in 2010, the lawsuit says. At the time, she brought her concerns before then-Dean Lawrence Sager who refused to negotiate any adjustments to her salary, the suit alleges.

“On at least one occasion, Dean Sager threatened her, stating that if she brought a lawsuit, ‘you will never be able to work anywhere again,’ and ‘nobody will like you,’” the lawsuit says.

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Those claims were settled in 2011, though she also claims the settlement was structured to artificially inflate her salary. But according to the complaint the practice of unequal pay has continued.

The lawsuit also alleges her stance on equal pay has ostracized her from colleagues, “Most disturbingly, because of Professor Mullenix’s opposition to UT Law’s unequal pay practices, she has been made a pariah by the administration. New professors are told to stay away from her and that she is ‘poison.’”

The University has not commented on the instant litigation, but did point to the University’s faculty and gender equity council’s finding that, between 2008 and 2018, female faculty at the school made slightly more on average than male faculty.

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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