Former Berkeley Law Dean Drops Discrimination Lawsuit

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Summary: The former dean of UC Berkeley has dropped his discrimination lawsuit against the school. 

The former dean of UC-Berkeley Law has dropped his discrimination lawsuit against the California school system. Former dean, Sujit Choudhry, had sued the school for discriminatory retaliation after a former assistant accused him of sexual harassment, but he dropped that lawsuit on Tuesday when a judge refused to allow it to interfere with the current sexual harassment case against him.

  

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• Related: Berkeley Law Dean Resigns 

Choudhry is currently battling a civil lawsuit from the assistant as well as a second investigation into the matter from UC-Berkeley.

In Choudry’s discrimination lawsuit, he claimed that he as an Indian-American was treated more harshly than white colleagues who had been accused of similar misconduct. He said that it was unfair that he was battling harassment litigation and a second investigation because he had already faced professional consequences from his former assistant’s complaint. After the school conducted its first investigation, he was found to have violated the school policy and was forced to undergo counseling and his pay was cut by 10%.

Choudry’s legal team had previously acknowledged that Choudry had in fact hugged and kissed his assistant, but they claimed that the affection was no different than a man would coddle his child. He was represented by law firm, Zuckerman Spaeder.

• Related: Berkeley Law Dean Accused of Sexual Harassment

 

Choudry’s ex-assistant, Tyann Sourrell, followed up her school complaint with a civil lawsuit against the school and Choudry. This resulted in him resigning from his role as dean, but he stayed on as a faculty member. The school responded to the civil lawsuit with a second investigation, which Choudry called “duplicative.” That investigation is still ongoing.

According to The Recorder, UC Berkeley’s legal team at Munger, Tolles & Olson released a statement through the official university spokesperson Ricardo Vazquez.

“Professor Choudhry’s voluntary dismissal of his federal lawsuit comes less than a week after the court’s decision recognizing that it would be improper for a federal court to interfere in the university’s pending proceeding, in which Professor Choudhry will have a full opportunity to address the charges against him,” said Vazquez.

UC-Berkeley also referred to as Boalt is consistently ranked in the top 10 best law schools by U.S. News and World Report.

Source: The Recorder

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