Legal News

From the Ivory Tower: Duquesne Dean Out; Princeton to Settle Donor Spat

By Dan Slater

UPDATE: We’ve received a letter sent by recently-resigned Duquesne law school dean, Don Guter, to Duquesne University President Charles Dougherty. The letter, which appears to also have been disbursed to Guter’s “friends and colleagues,” chronicles his achievements as Dean and then concludes with the following:

I need not go on because you know all of these things and many more. I chronicle them only to make the point that under these circumstances it would be dishonest, disingenuous, unbelievable to the public, and most importantly unethical for me to abruptly resign in the middle of the school year and in the middle of exams no less, by accepting your invitation to manufacture an excuse to cover-up what is obviously and unprofessionally your personal animus toward me despite my attempt this last Easter season to seek reconciliation with you through Fr. Fogarty. You rebuffed my attempts in a most un-Catholic manner which I am told by a Spiritan is “the one unforgivable sin.”

______________________________

With final exams upon us, let’s take a peek inside the the ivory tower:

Dissension at Duquesne: A Loyal Reader has alerted us to the following news: Without explanation, Duquesne University has announced that it’s law school dean since since 2005, Don Guter, is out. The university’s statement said only that Guter, a former Navy judge advocate general, would remain on the faculty. Guter told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he was given the option to resign in 24 hours or be removed. (Here are more reports from the ABA Journal and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.)

“My reaction to this is shock. The school — really by a lot of people’s accounts, not just mine — has never been in better shape,” he said. During Guter’s tenure, the school’s bar passage rate reportedly jumped to 97 percent from 68 percent. But there have also been tensions between the law school and university President Charles Dougherty.

“This is an appalling decision,” said Bruce Ledewitz, a law school faculty member. “It shows that performance means nothing at Duquesne. All that matters is if President Dougherty personally likes you.”

The Law Blog placed calls to President Dougherty’s office and to a Duquesne spokeswoman. We’ll let you know if we hear back.

Legal Fees Nearly Match Settlement in Princeton Donor Spat: A long-running fight between Princeton University and one of its largest donors looks close to resolution. The school has agreed to pay about $100 million to settle a suit brought by the Robertson family, heirs to the A&P supermarket fortune.

Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman with alumni during P-rade, May 31, 2008. (AP/Mel Evans)

The Robertsons complained that Princeton failed to use the 1961 $35 million gift — which is now worth between $700 million and $900 million — for its intended purpose: training graduate students at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs to serve in the federal government. Princeton has insisted it has always been faithful to the spirit of the gift. Here’s the WSJ story on the settlement, and here’s another from the New Jersey Law Journal.

Princeton said that, as part of the settlement, which still requires court approval, it would reimburse, over three years, the $40 million in legal fees the Robertsons spent on the suit. Both sides said they settled in large part to avoid legal fees that already totaled roughly $40 million apiece, an amount that Princeton President Shirley Tilghman called “a tragedy,” because it could have been used for education.

Blank Rome’s Seth Lapidow repped the Robertsons, while Princeton turned to Lowenstein Sandler’s Douglas Eakeley and lawyers from Simpson Thacher in New York.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 11, 2008 (boomark / email).