How did Scalia Law respond to seduction complaints against law prof? Lawmaker wants answers
Law Schools
How did Scalia Law respond to seduction complaints against law prof? Lawmaker wants answers
June 27, 2024, 9:25 am CDT
A lawmaker who chairs the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce wants George Mason University to disclose steps that it took to investigate allegations that one of its law professors used his influence “to seduce young female law students.” (Photo from Shutterstock)
A lawmaker who chairs the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce wants George Mason University to disclose steps that it took to investigate allegations that one of its law professors used his influence “to seduce young female law students.”
U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina, told George Mason University officials in a letter that she is “deeply disturbed” about allegations against former law professor Joshua D. Wright in an investigative report for the Wall Street Journal. She wants to know the outcomes of investigations into Wright’s conduct and actions that the school has taken to prevent such incidents in the future, Law.com reports.
Wright was a faculty member at the school now known as the Antonin Scalia Law School from 2004 to 2023, Foxx said. George Mason University told Law.com in a statement that it plans to comply with Foxx’s request by her July 9 deadline.
The Wall Street Journal reported June 8 that for years, Wright had “conducted affairs with students, often more than one at a time.” Some of the women alleged that the university did nothing because it found him too valuable to lose.
The Wall Street Journal described Wright as “one of Big Tech’s greatest allies” who made millions of dollars working on their behalf. He is also a former commissioner with the Federal Trade Commission.
Wright “used research papers, blogs and his legal expertise to defend U.S. tech corporations from federal antitrust regulators,” the Wall Street Journal had reported. In 2015, he became the executive director of George Mason University’s Global Antitrust Institute, which received millions of dollars in donations from technology companies.
Wright has said his affairs were consensual. He told the Wall Street Journal that there were inaccuracies in its report, but he did not specify what they were. A spokesperson for the Binnall Law Group, which is representing Wright, told the Wall Street Journal that it is “confident that the truth will prevail,” and Wright will be completely vindicated.
Wright filed a $108 million defamation lawsuit against two accusers who spoke with Law360 in August 2023. He claimed that the women were “scorned former lovers” on “a vendetta to destroy his reputation.”
