Soon after former FTC Commissioner Joshua Wright left his post teaching at George Mason University’s ASS Law, allegations of long-standing creepiness with students came to light. The women, senior Biglaw attorneys today, say Wright initiated sexual relationships with them while they were first-year law students, employing the promise of his influence in the antitrust space — and by extension the threat of his withdrawn clout — to keep the affairs going for years. Wright is suing the women, claiming that their stories cost him business opportunities and he wants over $100 million for it.
But, importantly, his lawsuit doesn’t deny that he started sleeping with these women as 1Ls. He seems to believe that he can successfully argue that all $100-some-odd million of his lost potential business stems from the claim that he used his professional reputation to manipulate women and not, say, that professors sleeping with students is a just toxic albatross for a high-profile corporation no matter how it happens.
Which is all relevant at this point because Representative Virginia Foxx, chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, wrote administrators at George Mason seeking information from the school about its investigation into the allegations, copies of its Title IX policies and procedures, and an explanation of what the school plans to do to prevent something like this in the future.
Responding to the Congresswoman, Wright’s lawyer Jesse Binnall wrote:
There is a long history of false accusations destroying the lives of innocent people, like Joshua Wright, including those recognized by important court rulings.
OK, but… Wright admitted he slept with them.
His defamation claim isn’t denying that he has sex with 1Ls, he’s arguing that it was all cool because it was — superficially at least — consensual and that George Mason had no rules against it when he converted his sections into a dating pool. Whether or not Wright prevails on those arguments central to his legal battles has nothing to do with the issue Congress is investigating. The Committee is digging into “what do schools do to keep professors from sleeping with students?” and that specific issue rests on the only accusation that no one is really disputing.
Binnall, who has a cottage practice of defending men accused of sexual misconduct on campuses, seems to be conflating Wright with the rest of his clients actually trying to claim they’re victims of false accusations. Using Foxx’s inquiry into GMU’s policies as a hook to grandstand on Title IX generally.
And it’s just a weird angle to take when Wright’s primary defense is “there weren’t any rules against this at the time.” That’s an argument that could probably benefit from a congressional investigation that blames GMU for running an out-of-control frat house.
Instead of writing, as Binnall does, “I am deeply troubled by the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce buying into the narrative of the progressive, left-wing supposed reporting” — of the WALL STREET JOURNAL, mind you — he could’ve written about his hope that the Committee will “conclusively establish that Wright never violated any university rules” or something.
Instead of focusing on the progressive agenda, your Committee should be focusing on the Biden Administration’s disastrous Title IX Final Rule, which (in addition to radically redefining Title IX’s protection of “sex” to include “gender identity”) will undoubtedly ruin many students’ and school faculty and administrators’ lives by redefining Title IX and depriving them of bedrock due process principles, which are especially important when false allegations are made.
Yeah… this seems pretty useful to Binnall’s other clients. Not so much helpful for the client he’s purportedly writing for here.
Joshua Wright’s Counsel Criticizes Congresswoman’s Requests for GMU’s Title IX Investigation [Law.com]
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
