An Update on the Charlotte Law School Faculty Firings

In my last post, I incorrectly reported that up to two-thirds of Charlotte Law Faculty had been terminated, based on early reports from other media sources.  I have now had the opportunity to gather more reliable information, and can report that just under half of the instructional faculty were terminated, in what the school has described as a “reduction in force.”

In all, it appears that 18 of 39 teaching faculty members were terminated.  In addition, the Associate Dean of Library & Information Services and the Director of Academic Success were axed. Disturbingly, for a school comprised almost entirely of high risk students and with an extremely poor and declining bar passage rate, two of four academic success lecturers were terminated, and two of three bar passage lecturers were also fired.   The firings were across all ranks, including two of four full professors, four of ten associate professors, and seven of sixteen assistant professors.  The school also fired three full-time clinical faculty members, denying their requests for a reasonable opportunity to wind down their many active cases, placing them in a difficult ethical position.

The faculty is not only much smaller now, but is substantially less diverse, as the firings fell disproportionately on women and minority members of the faculty.  Of the 18 members of the faculty fired, fully half were minorities and 11 were women. Overall 9 of the 18 faculty members of color were fired (50%) and 11 of the 18 women faculty members were fired (61%), while just 3 of 14 white men were fired (21%).  Dean Jay Conison, another white male, did not fire himself, either.

As disturbing as these numbers are, the way in which the firings was carried out is perhaps even more disturbing.  The fired faculty members, including some with up to four and half years remaining on their employment contracts, were given less than two weeks notice until the termination of their pay and benefits, and were reportedly offered only one month’s pay, with no benefits, in severance, even for professors with many years of service to the school. The receipt of this severance was conditioned on the signing of a general release of all claims against the school and agreeing to a non-disparagement clause and other terms designed to prevent the faculty members from airing the school’s dirty laundry (and there is plenty of it, trust me).

Charlotte School of Law has characterized the firings as a reduction in force, but multiple faculty members have reported to me that the administration did not comply with the contractual requirements for declaring a reduction in force, making the legality of the terminations questionable, to say the least.

Many of the faculty members are consulting with counsel and weighing their legal options.  Expect multiple lawsuits by the faculty in addition to the multiple lawsuits already filed by students.

Comments

[Derek Tokaz]

Fortunately, the recession produced lots of guidance on alternative careers one can pursue with a law degree, everything from computer consultant to screenwriter, from lobbyist to Major League Baseball general manager.

All the hard work law schools put in to help their grads recover from the Lathaming will surely pay dividends for these professors now.

[Leo]

Facultybare better off turning down the small severance and suing.

I would think faculty at the other Infilaw schools are sweating bullets. This is your future.

[terry malloy]

If you sleep with dogs, you get fleas.

[JA]

This is a no brainer. Turn it down and sue. Worked out pretty well at Charleston Law School and at a few other schools.

Also, the faculty had to see this coming. The school is owned by a private equity firm and showed no ethical backbone in recruiting students; why would they be ethical in the firings?

[Anon]

Where's UNE, to dance on others' misery? Oh, I forgot. Every single person here was irredeemably evil. It must be such a benefit to see everything in only black and white terms....

[anon]

Is it true that an earlier wave of faculty was given buyouts a few years ago, including the original associate dean and one or more of the original faculty?

[AnonProf]

Dear affected faculty who might be reading this, I encourage you to not accept the severance and sue them.

[AnonFormerProf]

anon @ 11:51, YES, that is true. I can't remember the exact number, but 20+ faculty took buy outs in early 2015, then about 5 more in late July 2015, and then a couple more in early 2016. Included in those groups were 2-3 founding professors/deans; two former interim deans; at least one assoc or assistant dean; and the directors of several programs/departments.

The "severance" offered the recently fired professors is actually LESS than the wages CSL owes them for work already performed (because they are paid over 12 months for 10 months of work). A straight-up violation of North Carolina wage payment law.

[Leo]

So if these profs are getting paid less than they are contractually due, does that mean the school is broke?

[Leo]

What will Conison's severance be? His career is over after this, for sure.

[anon]

"The faculty is not only much smaller now, but is substantially less diverse, as the firings fell disproportionately on women and minority members of the faculty. Of the 18 members of the faculty fired, fully half were minorities and 11 were women. Overall 9 of the 18 faculty members of color were fired (50%) and 11 of the 18 women faculty members were fired (61%), while just 3 of 14 white men were fired (21%). Dean Jay Conison, another white male, did not fire himself, either."

Wow!

[Leo]

Pretty sure there are ABA Standards on diversity of faculty, so by firing mostly minorities and women, the school may have dung its grave a little deeper.

[Captain Hruska Carswell, Continuance King]

What's the problem here? Those Prawfs and Deans can become solo practitioners and compete with those Chicagoland billboard Ticket Clinic traffic defense lawyers for $49.00. "Don't Pay That Ticket!" Hustle you up some clients for $19.99******, *****DUI's slightly more.

[Lois Turner]

Solo practitioners? Ticket Clinic?? These people are Law Professors. Cravath et al. are doubtless offering them equity partnerships already.

[ML]

My impression is that Infilaw was much more generous a few years ago when they laid off people at Florida Coastal. What changed?

[Anon Prof]

The professor who has started a Gofundme page for the students at Charlotte School of Law is pimping that all over Facebook (using a picture of himself) and it is so ridiculous.