Sexual Harassment Allegations Mount Against Former FTC Commissioner & Law Professor

// Of the public allegation that now-former FTC Commissioner and ASS Law professor Joshua Wright leveraged his role as the law school’s hiring chair to dangle a job prospect as a means of meeting potential dates, we wrote that “in the annals of inappropriate behavior this is not the worst. And maybe this guy was just clueless about the ramifications of what he was doing.”

Like Schrödinger’s Cat in prose, those sentences existed in a simultaneous duality. It could describe the “benefit of the doubt” or foreshadow that this specific allegation, while serious in its own right, could prove the tip of an iceberg and that maybe this guy was not just clueless.

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The probability wave might’ve just collapsed.

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Law360 spoke with two senior Biglaw attorneys, Kirkland & Ellis partner Elyse Dorsey and Freshfields counsel Angela Landry who detailed sexual harassment from Wright dating back to their 1L years and carrying into their professional lives:

The women said those early advances led to years of misconduct, during which Dorsey and Landry felt they had no option but to continue engaging sexually with Wright or else risk serious damage to their careers. Both said they believe there are “many” more women who have been similarly approached by Wright, based on conversations with former schoolmates and colleagues, as well as a conversation between Landry and Wright himself.

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Dorsey and Landry were in the same 1L class, but neither knew about the other’s story until recently when a mutual friend recommended that they reconnect based on their similar accounts.

Despite a string of flirtatious comments, Dorsey said, she generally thought Wright was “harmless” at the time and felt reassured by the fact that he was married and had small children. When he asked her to join him on a trip to meet clients in California, she said, she agreed to attend.

They stayed at a nice hotel, and when they arrived she discovered there was only one room with one bed, Dorsey said. There weren’t any client meetings during the trip, she said, and instead they went wine tasting.

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When I said that in the annals of inappropriate behavior, using a job interview to set up for asking someone out is not the worst, that’s because “booking a single bed for you and your student for meetings with non-existent clients” would be the definition of “worse.” As would “pressuring your research assistant to have sex with you in your office,” which Dorsey also alleges. For what it’s worth, Landry also describes sex in the office while she was a student.

According to Landry, she confronted Wright in 2020 about his alleged sexual misconduct after he sent her an email apologizing for his behavior. They met in person and he told her he’d sought sexual relationships with countless women in professional settings, she said.

“He told me he couldn’t even count the number of people he sent inappropriate messages to,” she said.

If true, then so much for being clueless.

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Wright’s attorney, Lindsay R. McKasson of Binnall Law Group — yes, that’s MAGA doofus Jesse Binnall’s firm — provided Law360 with a statement, stating, “These false allegations are being made public after unsuccessfully demanding millions of dollars behind closed doors. We look forward to total vindication in court.”

“Total vindication in court” sounds like a defamation suit in the offing. If Wright goes that route, he’d better hope there really aren’t an incalculable “number of people he sent inappropriate messages to.”

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Because those are the kind of receipts that could be real trouble for that strategy.

‘I Suffered Silently’: Ex-Law Prof Allegedly Preyed On Students [Law360]

Earlier: We Shouldn’t Have To Say This, But Job Interviews Are Not Your Personal Dating App

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.

Topics

ASS Law, Law Schools, Sexual Harassment