A professor who sued UCLA after he was suspended in the wake of the George Floyd-Black Lives Matter riots after refusing a request to grade black students leniently will soon get his day in court.
UCLA accounting lecturer Gordon Klein is demanding well over $19 million in damages in a lawsuit scheduled to go to trial March 4 in a Santa Monica courthouse.
The two sides have engaged in legal wrangling since September 2021, when Klein first filed suit — including a failed attempt by UCLA’s lawyers to get the case tossed by summary judgment.
The causes of action to be hashed out next month are breach of contract, retaliation, false light, and negligent interference with prospective earnings.
Klein’s attorney, Steve Goldberg, told The College Fix in a telephone interview this week the lion’s share of damages are based on the estimated loss of Klein’s expert witness practice income.
“That practice went to ashes right after he was suspended,” said Goldberg with the law firm
Markun, Zusman & Compton.
UCLA’s media relations division did not provide a comment on the lawsuit despite repeated requests this week.
Klein, who joined the UCLA Anderson School of Management in 1981, continues to teach as a full-time lecturer there. But his lawsuit alleges he made most of his money as a litigation expert.
He has testified, for example, in several high-profile court cases, including Michael Jackson’s wrongful death, Apple’s acquisition of Dr. Dre’s Beats headphones, and the valuation of General Motors’ assets in bankruptcy.
“He was one of the top damages experts in the country who was historically bringing in well over $1 million dollars a year and trending upwards when it happened,” Goldberg said.
Klein’s lawsuit alleges the controversy and bad press that surrounded him in June 2020 made him untouchable as a litigation expert.
The crux of the controversy took place following Floyd’s death, when Klein received a request asking that he provide academic leniency for his black students enduring emotional duress.
It was a relatively common request at the time among college students at several universities as the nation was gripped with racial tension and rioting.
Klein responded June 2, 2020, by asking how he was supposed to identify black students in the online class; whether he should also go easy on white students from Minneapolis; how much leeway to show half-black students; and how the student feels about Martin Luther King Jr.’s admonition to not evaluate people based on “the color of their skin.”
A screenshot of Klein’s response was distributed widely and decried by students in messages and on social media.
In response, Anderson School Dean Antonio Bernardo wrote in a June 4, 2020, memo to the campus community that Klein was suspended and an investigation was underway.
While not naming Klein specifically, Bernardo’s memo referred to the high-profile incident as “troubling conduct by one of our lecturers.”
“Conduct that demonstrates a disregard for our core principles, including an abuse of
power, is not acceptable,” he added. “…I deeply regret the increased pain and anger that our community has experienced at this very difficult time. We must and will hold each other to higher standards….”
From The College Fix
“I deeply regret the increased pain and anger that our community has experienced at this very difficult time. We must and will hold each other to higher standards….”
Is truth a function of who experiences the most pain? If so the higher standards of Dean Antonio Bernardo are not academic but sociological/psychological. Gordon Klein’s questions carry some sarcasm (half-black students…), some common sense (racial configuration of an online class) and some deeper probing (reference to MLK). Absent the sarcasm, I think the other questions are legitimate. The school should have backed the principle of academic freedom, especially from leftist indoctrination. The right to express unpopular ideas in an academic setting is at the heart of any search for truth.
It is an interesting case.
Can an employer who suspends or otherwise disciplines an employee (but does not fire them) be held responsible if another employer hears about it and lets them go or in this case, stops using their services?
“A screenshot of Klein’s response was distributed widely and decried by students in messages and on social media.”
So that is where the problem came in.
I had to google “false light.”
Professors should be hired only on their excellence in teaching in their field. Their ideas and opinions should be respected. The students should not be running the school. They are there to learn. They should not be put in charge of making decisions on how professors should grade any fellow students, such as Black students– or any other groups of students. If the kids think they know everything, then they do not need to go to school, and should disenroll. Dean Antonio Bernardo, is a fool– unworthy of his position in academia, like many other liberal fools in the political indoctrination camps, today, that pretend to be schools and universities.
The White, Asian, Indian, Hispanic, and all other races of students, should sue the school, for not giving them the same privileges and favors that the school is giving to the Black students. They all paid the same fees to the university. They are being bullied, traumatized and defrauded, with discrimination.
Black reparations and anti-racism are gigantic cons.