Dean Lawrence E. Mitchell of Case Western Reserve University School of Law is taking a leave of absence. Lawrence was accused in a lawsuit of retaliating against the whistleblower that exposed him. A faculty member accused the Dean of sexual harassment, and at this point Lawrence is taking a temporary leave of absence.
The university and Dean Mitchell haven’t commented on the allegations of Professor Raymond Ku. Ku’s complaint was also, according to Above the Law, amended recently to add more details into the allegations. So far, “the university issued a statement denying that retaliation occurred, and the dean told the Case community to keep calm and carry on.”
At 7 am this morning an email was sent out to the Case Western Reserve University School of Law community. A few lines from that message were, “the past two and a half years have been a time of great progress and achievement for our law school. The recent initiation of litigation against the university and me, however, has proven to be a distraction to all of us. In order to allow us to continue the work we have begun without further disruption, I have asked the university to permit me to take a temporary leave of absence.” Dean Mitchell goes on to say that during this time of his absence, the university will look into the allegations and that he is confident that it will be found that neither he nor the university has done anything improper or wrong. He adds that afterwards he is ready to put everything in the past and that he intends to engage the legal process to “seek justice.”
Subodh Chandra, counsel to Plaintiff Professor Raymond Ku, commented, “We are cautiously optimistic from Dean Mitchell’s leave announcement that the University has finally accepted that it needs to put some daylight between it and this dean.”
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