CUNY Hires Law Firm For $1.5M Sexual Misconduct Investigation

NEW YORK, NY — The City University of New York's board of directors hired a law firm to conduct an investigation of a "complex series of alleged violations" of the school's sexual misconduct policies, according to records from a June board meeting.

CUNY will pay the firm Covington & Burling for "pre-litigation" services including work related to the investigation and mediation phases of sexual misconduct claims, according to university records. CUNY spokesman Frank Sobrino told Patch that the school cannot comment on the investigation.

The university is paying the taxpayer's top-dollar for Covington & Burling due to the firm's reputation as "one of the nation’s preeminent law firms" and previous experience in conducting investigations of sexual misconduct at educational institutions, university records show. The school's agreement with the law firm is for two years with "an option for additional phases of work."

The New York Post first reported on the school's decision to hire the firm.

Two graduates of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice — which is part of the CUNY system — sued the school in June for dragging out an investigation of sexual misconduct complaints about four of the college's professors.

The teachers — Ric Curtis, Anthony Marcus, Barry Spunt and Leonardo Dominguez — were part of a debauched group of faculty based in a suite of offices they called "The Swamp" who harassed and assaulted students, says the complaint brought by the graduates, Claudia Cojocaru and Naomi Haber. A law firm representing the women, Wigdor LLP, identified them in a press release.

John Jay hired an outside law firm to investigate the allegations after the women reported them in May 2018. That firm went around the women's attorneys to talk with them personally despite communicating with the professors' lawyers, the graduates' lawsuit says. The firm also did not provide evidence and other materials related to the probe even though the women had a right to review them under CUNY policy, according to the lawsuit.

A CUNY spokesman could not say whether the decision to hire Covington & Burling is related to the John Jay scandal.

Read more about the John Jay College scandal in Patch's previous coverage.