Brown University to pay over $1M in legal fees to female student athletes in Title IX case

PROVIDENCE – A federal judge on Tuesday approved an agreement awarding more than $1 million in legal fees to the women who brought a landmark gender equality case against Brown University.

The case dates back to the 1990s, when female athletes originally sued the Ivy League school after it cut several sports teams, including women’s gymnastics and volleyball.

The parties reached a consent agreement to settle the class-action lawsuit in a case that is credited with helping to even the playing field for men’s and women’s college sports nationwide. That deal required Brown to comply with Title IX by ensuring that the share of varsity sports opportunities for women remain within a fixed percentage of the women’s undergraduate presence on campus.

In 2020, the women returned to court, charging that Brown had violated the agreement by eliminating four women’s teams. The ACLU and the legal advocacy group Public Justice asked the federal court on the former athletes’ behalf to enforce the 1998 settlement agreement by reinstating the women’s sports and to find the university in contempt.

The parties arrived at a negotiated settlement after engaging in mediation with U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Patricia A. Sullivan.

The agreement called for the reinstatement of varsity women’s fencing and equestrian teams and established August 2024 as the end date to a 1998 joint settlement. It also barred Brown from eliminating or reducing the status of any women’s varsity team for at least the following four years.

It specifies that if Brown upgrades any men's team to varsity status, it must restore an equal number of women's teams, plus two, to varsity status.

As part of the settlement of the 2020 dispute, Brown also agreed to pay the reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs for the attorneys representing the women athletes.

“This order should send a message to schools nationwide,” Arthur Bryant, of Bailey Glasser LLP, a lawyer representing the women, said in a statement Tuesday. “Title IX is the law. It prohibits sex discrimination. If schools violate Title IX, they will pay. If schools violate Title IX, refuse to admit it, and fight in the courts, they will pay more. And they’ll still have to comply with law.”

Lynette Labinger, cooperating attorney for the ACLU of Rhode Island, has been involved in the case from the start.

“Countless women locally and nationally have benefitted from the efforts of the women at Brown who have championed this case over three decades through to its current conclusion,” Labinger said in a statement. “We hope that this substantial award, coming after the restoration of two of the women’s teams and the obligation to cut no more, will send a message to all colleges and universities in Rhode Island and elsewhere to carefully examine their athletic programs, renew their commitment to ensure that their women athletes are being treated fairly and equitably and to recognize that decisions to cut programs to save money may prove more costly than the projected savings themselves.”

The lawyers representing Brown dismissed comments by the women’s attorneys as “misleading” and a misrepresentation of the recent travel in the case.

“Brown disagreed with all claims and settled the matter with no finding of liability, agreeing to cover attorneys’ fees to avoid the time and expense of further litigation. The settlement set a 2024 end date to the … joint agreement, enabled Brown to move forward with key provisions of a plan to strengthen athletics and returned two teams to varsity status,” they said in an email.

They insisted that Brown has at no time since the original decision in 1998, more than 25 years ago, been found in violation of Title IX.

“Instead, Brown has remained steadfastly committed to providing equal athletic opportunities for women and men. We continue now to build on Brown’s track record of leadership in upholding Title IX, ensuring excellent athletics opportunities for women and men, and fielding a roster of Brown Athletics varsity teams that are among the most competitive among our peers,” the lawyers said.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Title IX suit against Brown University: School must pay female athletes' legal fees