UC Berkeley official opens up about sexual harassment scandal

SAN DIEGO — Melissa Murray remembers well the night she learned UC Berkeley School of Law’s then-dean Sujit Choudhry had been sued for sexual harassment. The Berkeley law professor said she was watching the 11 p.m. news and spilled her Diet Coke while exclaiming, “Oh my God!”

Murray, who would take over as interim dean later in March 2016, said she and others worked in the immediate aftermath to assure prospective students and faculty members that the school was still a great place to study or teach.

She acknowledged last week that in the early days of the scandal, which led to Choudhry’s resignation as dean, there was a vacuum at the top.

“We were really rudderless,” Murray said during an Association of American Law Schools’ panel discussion in San Diego. “There was a period of time where we were sort of operating by cabal.”

Murray, who had been on the faculty for a decade, was named interim dean two weeks after the lawsuit was filed against Choudhry by his former executive assistant, Tyann Sorrell.

Murray talked about her experience in the elevated post during a discussion on best practices for communicating during law school crises. The challenges she confronted went beyond external communications, and Murray said she would not have taken the post if she had known what it would entail.

Staff were initially in a state of shock, Murray said, because while the university had previously investigated Sorrell’s allegations against Choudhry, they were not known to the broader faculty until the lawsuit was filed. Sorrell v. Regents of the University of California et al., RG16806802 (Alameda Super. Ct., filed March 8, 2016).

Sorrell alleged that Choudhry had kissed, hugged and touched her in unwanted ways, and that the university failed to halt it. Choudhry had written Sorrell an apology and took a 10 percent pay cut in the aftermath of a prior internal investigation.

“The staff really took the whole crisis in a way that was very personal, because for them it was,” Murray said.

A communications plan was developed in consultation with officials from the law school, UC Berkeley and the UC system. However, by that point, Murray said the school was playing “catch-up.”

“If your crisis is your leadership model, you are going to have a really hard time responding, and you are going to be a little flat-footed about it,” she said.

The school decided to keep interested parties abreast of the status of the litigation, and the separate campus disciplinary proceeding involving Choudhry. They also were up front about areas where there was uncertainty.

Murray said the philosophy was: “This is what we know. This is where we don’t have closure, and we are not going to have closure for some time. This is what’s subject to litigation and will either be part of the litigation process or part of a settlement.”

In the summer of 2016, Murray and a member of the law school’s alumni engagement team visited former students as part of what she termed an “apology tour.”

She said it was particularly important to be up front with unhappy alumni about the sexual harassment scandal because 12 years prior another dean at the law school had resigned because of allegations of sexual impropriety with a student.

“For our alumni base, 12 years seems like nothing,” Murray said. “For them, it’s like, ‘Again we are dealing with this?’”

At the end of that summer, Choudhry returned to his campus office, though not as dean.

The move sparked protests among students, and Murray scheduled a town hall with student groups.

“You really haven’t been a dean at Berkeley until you have been protested, and that was mine,” she said.

Soon after Choudhry’s return, he filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the UC system alleging his rights were violated by the reopened disciplinary proceedings. Choudhry v. Regents of the University of California, 16-CV05281 (N.D. Cal., filed Sept. 15, 2016). He voluntarily dismissed the suit that fall.

In April 2017, Sorrell’s suit was resolved. The university system agreed to pay $1.7 million over 10 years to settle her suit, while Choudhry agreed to pay $50,000 to Sorrell’s attorneys and $50,000 to charities that fight sexual harassment.

The reopened disciplinary investigation involving Choudhry was also terminated, and Choudhry was allowed to remain as a tenured faculty member. He is on sabbatical through May 31 of this year, which is when he will resign.

Murray concluded her service as interim dean last June, and constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky took over the permanent post July 1.

“If I had known how much time I would be spending dealing with the settlement discussions, and dealing with how to message it, dealing with the former dean saying things to the campus paper, saying things to the San Francisco Chronicle, I would not have done this at all,” Murray said.

Jack M. Berkman, a San Diego public relations professional who appeared on the panel with Murray, said the professor was placed in a very difficult position.

“My perception would be that you were held to a much higher standard because of who you are, not you personally, but UC Berkeley, especially the law school,” said Berkman, president and CEO of Berkman Strategic Communications. He said the apology tour was a great idea and applauded Murray for her “thorough” approach to handling the scandal.

The communications panel was moderated by Brian Costello, associate director for marketing and communications at Loyola Law School.

Panelist Alex Shapiro, director of external relations at UC Hastings College of the Law, said sexual harassment and other crises are an important time for schools to reflect on “who you are to begin with and who you want to be when it’s over.”

“That is what is going to get you through the rough seas,” Shapiro said.

Murray agreed. “I thought it was most productive to regard the crisis as a kind of opportunity, a ‘crisitunity,’ to kind of focus the mission of your institution, to think really clearly about what that was,” she said.

Meanwhile, Chemerinsky said the school has taken steps to try to prevent a recurrence of the scandal.

“Berkeley Law has a zero tolerance policy with regard to sexual harassment,” he wrote in an email Tuesday. “We have created — and are continuing to create — mechanisms for reporting.”