St. Thomas College of Law and fired professor reach settlement
The St. Thomas University Benjamin L. Crump College of Law and a professor at the school have "agreed to amicably part ways." (Photo courtesy of St. Thomas University)
The St. Thomas University Benjamin L. Crump College of Law and a professor at the school have “agreed to amicably part ways,” according to a statement from the Florida-based law school to the ABA Journal.
The settlement agreement comes after an Aug. 27 termination letter signed by David A. Armstrong, the university’s president, sent to Lauren Gilbert, a tenured professor, that outlined grounds for her dismissal. The university then sent that letter to the Journal.
“We deeply regret any confusion or incorrect impression and any harm to professor Gilbert’s reputation that the release of the letter may have caused,” according to the statement emailed to the Journal by Mark St. Louis, the school’s associate vice president of compliance.
At issue was language in the August letter to Gilbert, who taught contracts, constitutional law and family law, alleging that she had an “inappropriate relationship” with a student.
“The university does not have any evidence that professor Gilbert engaged in any dating, intimate relationship or sexual conduct with a student in any form,” according to the letter. “We regret any confusion or false impression caused by the use of this phrase.”
Additionally, the statement discussed a comment from a university spokesperson who told the Journal that “tenure is not a shield for inappropriate conduct that endangers the community and/or our students.”
“The university wishes to clarify that professor Gilbert herself was not considered to be a physical danger to anyone,” according to the statement.
The August letter came about two weeks after Gilbert filed a lawsuit in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County, Florida, against the law school, claiming that she had been treated as an at-will employee and not a tenured full professor.
“I am pleased that I was able to help clear Lauren Gilbert’s good name from the scurrilous allegations made by St. Thomas University,” wrote David Frakt, Gilbert’s attorney who specializes in academic cases, in an email to the Journal. “She has much to be proud of in her more than two decades of service to STU and is leaving with her head held high.”
