Harvard dean’s legal defense of Harvey Weinstein sparks controversy on campus

Harvard law professor Ronald Sullivan Jr. has built a sparkling resume of high-profile cases with clients like Michael Brown and Aaron Hernandez that’s earned him the reputation as a top mind in criminal law nationally.

But his move in January to join the legal defense team of Hollywood media mogul Harvey Weinstein, whose alleged sexual misconduct ignited the #MeToo movement, has caused a stir on the Ivy League campus.

Sullivan also serves as faculty dean of the college’s Winthrop House, a prestigious title that makes him a resident and leader of one of 12 buildings that house undergraduate students.

Since Sullivan emerged as one of the attorneys representing Weinstein in the movie producer’s highly publicized sexual assault case in New York, Sullivan has faced a backlash among some students.

Weinstein's upcoming trial, where he faces multiple sex-crime charges, is tentatively set to begin in June.

Around 50 students demanded that Sullivan be removed as Winthrop House faculty dean at a demonstration last week outside the president’s office on Harvard Yard. Some wore tape covering their mouths. They held signs that read, “Down with the Dean,” “Remove Sullivan” and “Harvard’s Legacy Ignoring Survivors.”

Fueling the controversy further: recent comments Sullivan reportedly made in defense of Harvard economics professors Roland Fryer Jr., who has been accused of sexual harassment and is the subject of Title IX investigations. Sullivan was quoted last month calling the investigation process “deeply flawed and deeply unfair.”

“Right now there’s a lot of unease around the campus because survivors of sexual assault, rape and sexual harassment are the least likely to speak up anyway,” said Danu Mudannayake, 21, a junior majoring in visual and environmental studies, who is leading the effort to remove Sullivan from the dean position. “I personally just felt an obligation to give those people a voice.”

Sullivan, the first African-American in Harvard’s history to be named dean of a house, also serves as director of the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute.

He represented the family of Brown in reaching a $1.5 million settlement with the city of Ferguson, Missouri, in 2017; helped Hernandez, the now-deceased former New England Patriots player, defeat a double-murder charge; and represented a Harvard student last year following an arrest that raised concerns about excessive police force.

A decade ago, Sullivan worked to release wrongfully incarcerated inmates in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Huffington Post dubbed him “The Man Who Dealt the Biggest Blow to Mass Incarceration” in 2017.

Sullivan did not respond to a message from USA TODAY seeking comment.

But in an email to Winthrop housemates last month, Sullivan responded to criticism by inviting students to stop by his office to chat. He also gave a lengthy defense of due process, decrying the country’s “long history of mob justice” and arguing that it’s even more important that “unpopular, vile, or undesirable” defendants have their rights.

“To the degree we deny unpopular defendants basic due process rights we cease to be the country we imagine ourselves to be,” he wrote.

But Mudannayake said she and other demonstrators have never challenged Sullivan’s right to defend who he chooses or the right of anyone to have a defense — a point that she said has been misconstrued.

She instead questioned Sullivan’s ability to simultaneously carry out a dean position — one whose duties she said include being a protector of students and ensuring they feel comfortable sharing concerns, including about sexual assault. She called his comments in defense of Fryer an even greater "breach of trust" because it involves allegations made on campus.

Mudannayake said it is the professor's choice to serve as a faculty dean.

“He doesn’t have to be a faculty dean. He can still be a great professor of the law school and represent whoever he wants," she said. “He’s effectively wearing two hats here, but in our opinion, as students, his hat as a faculty dean means a lot more and should have been more important.”

Harvard has had faculty lawyers represent notorious defendants before — perhaps most notably, attorney Alan Dershowitz worked for O.J. Simpson’s legal defense in 1995 . Dershowitz this week joined Weinstein's defense as well.

The student-run Harvard Crimson published a recent op-ed co-written by Mudannayake and sophomore Remedy Ryan calling for Sullivan’s removal as faculty dean. “We believe Harvard should do what is right for survivors,” the opinion piece reads.

There’s also an online petition, led by Mudannayake as well, that has garnered more than 250 signatures.

“For those of you who are members of Winthrop House,” the petition reads, “do you really want to one day accept your diploma from someone who for whatever reason, professional or personal, believes it is okay to defend such a prominent figure at the center of the #MeToo movement?"

If Sullivan “does not wish to put student needs ahead of professional projects,” the petition says, then he should step down.

The Association of Black Harvard Women entered the debate Thursday with a letter to Sullivan that says he's "failed us" as one of Harvard's few black deans, calling for him to leave the role.

"In taking this case, you have compromised the trust placed in you to serve and listen to survivors needing your sympathy and support as they deal with their trauma," the letter reads, calling him "apathetic" to students' concerns. "You have underestimated, and continue to underestimate the effect of your actions on the student body that you are meant to serve."

In a statement, Rekesh Khurana, dean of Harvard, said he takes the concerns of the students "seriously" and has worked this past week to ensure that the residential staff at the Winthrop House feel supported. He said he also met with Sullivan to discuss his responsibilities at the Winthrop House and "communicated that the college believes that more work must be done to uphold our commitment to the well-being of our students."

He also seemed to offer support for Sullivan in comments made separately to the Crimson.

“I think a faculty member is given academic freedom to make decisions that are right for them,” Khurana told the publication. “I also think that every individual is entitled to a vigorous defense. It's a cornerstone of our justice system.”

Bruce Green, who directs the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics at Fordham Law School in New York, said Sullivan's involvement in the Weinstein case is "an opportunity for the Harvard students to learn a little bit more about the role of lawyers in a democratic society.

"Representing a client in a criminal case doesn't mean that you endorse their activities — criminal activities, moral activities or other activities," he said, adding that he doesn't see why having a particular client would prevent Sullivan from providing guidance to students. "Understanding his role as a lawyer, students shouldn't think that has any significance for his role as a faculty advisor."

But Ryan, 20, a Harvard student majoring in social studies and studies of women, gender and sexuality, said this is not a situation where he can perform both jobs.

"I think that for survivors, it's not so easily separated," Ryan said of Sullivan's job as a lawyer versus a dean. "In some ways, Sullivan is just going to be associated with Weinstein now and with everything that case represents for survivors. I think it already is a situation where survivors feel uncomfortable. And so it's not really a situation in which he can do both jobs."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harvard dean’s legal defense of Harvey Weinstein sparks controversy on campus