Harvard Law Professor Ousted From Deanship, Leaves Weinstein Defense Team

Timothy A. Clary, AFP, Getty Images

Following protests by students, Harvard University announced on Saturday that it would not renew the appointments of Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., a defense lawyer who had joined Harvey Weinstein’s legal team, and of Sullivan’s wife, Stephanie R. Robinson, as faculty deans of an undergraduate residential college.

Rakesh Khurana, dean of Harvard College, announced the decision in an email to the college, Winthrop House.

“Over the last few weeks, students and staff have continued to communicate concerns about the climate in Winthrop House to the college,” Khurana wrote. “The concerns expressed have been serious and numerous. The actions that have been taken to improve the climate have been ineffective, and the noticeable lack of faculty-dean presence during critical moments has further deteriorated the climate in the house. I have concluded that the situation in the house is untenable.”

“This is a regrettable situation and a very hard decision to make,” he wrote. “This decision in no way lessens my gratitude to them for their contributions to the college.”

Sullivan and Robinson, both of whom are faculty members at the law school, were the first African-American faculty deans in Harvard’s history. They will retain their faculty posts.

Sullivan’s decision in January to help represent Harvey Weinstein divided the campus. Weinstein, a movie producer, is scheduled to go to trial in September on criminal charges that include rape.

Just before Harvard’s announcement, Sullivan told the judge overseeing the case that he would withdraw from Weinstein’s team, ABC News reported on Sunday.

“He will be off the team,” Juda S. Engelmayer, a spokesman for Weinstein, confirmed in an email to The Chronicle. Engelmayer added a statement that read in part, “Mr. Weinstein is extremely grateful to Ronald Sullivan for his work with him until now, and for Ron’s offer to advise where he can going forward.”

After a student petition called for his removal as faculty dean, Sullivan, a prominent lawyer known for his work overturning wrongful convictions, wrote an email to students defending the need to represent “unpopular defendants.”

In an interview with The New Yorker, he said he took students’ concerns “very seriously.” Harvard Law faculty members wrote a counterpetition in The Boston Globe, and the college’s Black Law Students Association said the university’s response had “racist undertones.”

Sullivan’s ouster also followed a Harvard Crimson report on Friday about accusations that Sullivan and Robinson had created a “culture of fear” in Winthrop House and a “toxic environment stretching back years.” Sullivan denied those accusations.

Sullivan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sullivan and Robinson told The New York Times that they were “surprised and dismayed” by the decision. “We believed the discussions we were having with high-level university representatives were progressing in a positive manner, but Harvard unilaterally ended those talks,” they wrote in a statement. “We will now take some time to process Harvard’s actions and consider our options.”

They added that they were “sorry that Harvard’s actions and the controversy surrounding us has contributed to the stress on Winthrop students at this already stressful time.”

Correction (5/13/2019, 11:55 a.m.): Harvey Weinstein’s trial is scheduled for September, not June, as this article originally said. The text has been corrected accordingly.

Follow Steven Johnson on Twitter at @stetyjohn, or email him at steve.johnson@chronicle.com.