Posted on 02/06/2008 11:14:50 AM PST by Ken H
DURHAM -- Duke University has added a former deputy attorney general of the United States to the legal team that will defend it against a federal civil-rights lawsuit filed by three members of the 2005-06 men's lacrosse team.
Court papers filed this week indicate that Washington, D.C., attorney Jamie Gorelick will assist two Greensboro litigators in representing the school.
They're also the attorneys of record for the Duke University Police Department, Board of Trustees Chairman Robert Steel, school President Richard Brodhead and numerous other university officials.
Gorelick was deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration, and in that capacity was responsible for supervising the country's appointed federal prosecutors.
More recently, she served on the 9/11 Commission. She was a controversial choice for that panel because of allegations she'd helped set rules limiting the ability of federal agencies to exchange intelligence information before the attacks on New York and Washington.
She and the Greensboro lawyers, Donald Cowan Jr. and Dixie Wells, will help Duke try to fend off allegations made by current or former lacrosse players Breck Archer, Ryan McFadyen and Matt Wilson.
The players and their lawyer, Durham attorney Bob Ekstrand, essentially contend that the Duke administration conspired with city officials and former District Attorney Mike Nifong to frame members of the 2005-06 lacrosse team on false charges of rape. Archer, McFadyen and Wilson avoided indictment, but teammates David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann did not. They reached an out-of-court settlement with Duke but have filed a lawsuit of their own targeting Nifong and the city.
The two lawsuits have attracted some of the country's best-known litigators. Gorelick is the biggest name involved in the Archer/McFadyen/Wilson case.
But the legal team for Evans, Finnerty and Seligmann includes Barry Scheck, founder of the Innocence Project, and Brendan Sullivan, the one-time lawyer for former Marine Corps Lt. Col. Oliver North.
Lawyers representing the city and Durham Police Department officers in the Evans/Finnerty/Seligmann case have asked a judge to dismiss the players' claims against those defendants. Among other things, they say the city and police weren't responsible for Nifong's misconduct. The players' legal team has until mid-April to respond.
The various lawyers involved in the Archer/McFadyen/Wilson case are still weeks away from trading motions. Ekstrand filed the lawsuit on Dec. 18.
The news of Gorelick's addition to Duke's legal team came this week as the school's dean of undergraduate education, Steve Nowicki, was passing the word that he'd suspended a review of the practices and policies that govern the discipline of Duke students.
Nowicki on Tuesday said he made the decision after Duke's senior in-house counsel, Pamela Bernard, advised him that if the review goes forward now, the 15 students, faculty members and administrators conducting it could wind up having to give depositions in the Archer/McFadyen/Wilson case.
Ekstrand's 404-page filing on the players' behalf alleges that Duke worked with the city to implement a "zero-tolerance" policy against students accused of off-campus misbehavior. He also contends that Duke officials subjected Wilson and Archer to unfair disciplinary action both before and after spring 2006 team party that produced a stripper's false rape allegation.
Nowicki said he hadn't given the people involved in the policy review any warning that "they could be entangled in" the lacrosse case, and so didn't think it was fair to them to let that happen.
He added that he intends to continue the review somehow and is now trying to assemble a strategy for doing so. Nowicki also denied that Bernard ordered the suspension or that the move was meant to help Duke's defense.
I respect your process in eliminating Duke and W & M. You are thinking the right thoughts.
I have a child at W & M and the fight is actually going pretty well there. The students have so far successfully fought off the NCAA initiative to force them to drop their team name, fought off a move to closet a historically significant cross that was being displayed in a building and generally been alert to PC totalitarianism on the part of the faculty and administration.
Make sure you actually familiarize yourself with the politics and moral atmosphere of the campus you choose, because W & M was about the best that we could do.
Maybe I’m wrong, but successful trial lawyers don’t usually end up working as bureaucratic hacks at the Justice Dept (ala Gorelick). If that is correct, just what does she bring to the table in this case?
I am an alumnus of the College of William and Mary (’77).
I have written to the College and the Alumni Assoc. expressing my disgust and dismay with the “leadership” of the prior president Sullivan and now Nichol.
I applaud the actions of the student body, however small or large in number, to override the PC-Nation that W&M administration has become.
BTW, I have told them the reason I no longer donate to the College at all is the ridiculous words, deeds, and policies of Sullivan and now Nichol.
harrumph!
abb speculates (and I think it makes sense) that this signals a strategy on the part of Duke to fight this case as a PR war. Expect a PR blitz!
If that is correct, just what does she bring to the table in this case?.....
She brings Wilmer, Hale, and Doer - one of the top 10 US law firms.
It is my sincerest hope that the slime running Duke U. get a strong taste of their own litigious medicine.
The cost of having Nichols for president will cause in the long run serious damage to William and Mary. A shame.
She builds a wall and stands on the wrong side every time.
ping
Thank you very much for your candid response. We are waiting for their response April 1st.
Maybe Gorelick will do a pole dance at their next sex worker seminar.
Yep, that is all I could think of too. Those PC idiots in administration think hiring a Clinton croney will help their defense. Fools.
she must have been brought aboard as a who she knows not what she knows.
Look for Jamie Gorelick to be the AG or some other influential appointee in the next Rat administration.
Barry Scheck against Gore-lick?
Sheck will outclass Gorlick, and Sullivan is much better than Scheck.
I didn’t add, but you might want to know: W&M has single-sex bathrooms in the dorms (mostly!). That is rarer than you might think in academically strong institutions.
Thanks for the heads up.
That is some team of lawyers. I imagine the trial - if it goes that far - will be something to see.
Thanks for the heads up.
Those are some teams of lawyers. I imagine the trial - if it goes that far - will be something to see.
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