[OUTLINE] Harvard University has launched an investigation into law professor Ronald Sullivan after he agreed to represent Harvey Weinstein in court.Mr Sullivan, the university’s first African American faculty dean, joined Mr Weinstein’s legal team in January, ahead of the June trial for rape.
Mr Weinstein himself was spotted on Wednesday meeting a private investigator, Herman Weisberg, who he has hired to assist in his case. The two men met at a Cipriani Dolci restaurant in Grand Central station, with Mr Weinstein attempting to disguise his appearance with a black baseball cap and dark glasses.
Mr Sullivan, on joining Mr Weinstein’s team, felt the backlash almost immediately, as his students began complaining that his decision to represent the disgraced film producer traumatised them, and put them at risk.
A student, studying visual and environmental studies, started an online petition to remove Mr Sullivan from his position as faculty dean of Winthrop House, one of Harvard’s 12 undergraduate residential houses. The petition said his choice of client was "deeply trauma-inducing," and showed that Mr Sullivan doesn’t "value the safety of students". No students have signed so far.
The house was covered in #MeToo graffiti slogans, such as "your silence is violence", and the Association of Black Harvard Women complained that Mr Sullivan had "failed" female African-Americans at Harvard and had compromised his ability to support "survivors . . . as they deal with their trauma."
On January 25 Mr Sullivan wrote to the students at Winthrop House, where he is dean, explaining his decision to defend the reviled 67-year-old.