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Law Professors

Penn Law prof gets half-pay suspension for ‘discriminatory and disparaging statements’

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 25, 2024, 8:51 am CDT

A professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School will be suspended with half pay and full benefits for the 2025-2026 academic year because of her “discriminatory and disparaging statements.”

Along with the suspension, professor Amy Wax received a public reprimand, loss of her named chair position and loss of summer pay “in perpetuity.” She will also be required to note in public appearances that she speaks for herself and not the university or its law school.

The New York Times described the sanction as “significant” but said it “falls short of the firing that some students wanted.”

Other publications with coverage include the Philadelphia Inquirer, Law.com, Law360 and Inside Higher Ed.

Wax was accused of publicly warning against dominance by the “Asian elite,” immigrants from third-world countries and the loss of “bourgeois” habits. She was also accused of remarking that same-sex couples aren’t fit to raise children, that people of color have to stop acting entitled to remedies, and that Mexican men were more likely to assault women. And she was also accused of saying Black law students rarely graduated in the top half of their class.

Provost John L. Jackson Jr. published the public reprimand issued to Wax in the University of Pennsylvania’s Almanac on Tuesday. She was previously barred from teaching mandatory classes to first-year law students in 2018.

A faculty hearing board determined after a May 2023 hearing that Wax engaged in “flagrant unprofessional conduct,” Jackson wrote in the reprimand.

Jackson said the conduct “included a history of making sweeping and derogatory generalizations about groups by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and immigration status.” Wax also made “discriminatory and disparaging statements targeting specific racial, ethnic and other groups with which many students identify” inside and outside the classroom, Jackson said.

As a result of Wax’s conduct, many students were “understandably concerned” that Wax “cannot and would not be an impartial judge of their academic performance,” Jackson wrote.

M. Elizabeth Magill, then the president of the University of Pennsylvania, accepted the hearing board recommendations in August 2023. The school faculty’s Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility found no defect in procedures in Wax’s case, making the hearing board findings final.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Times, Wax has denied making some comments and has contended that other remarks were taken out of context. She did not comment when contacted by both newspapers. Nor did she immediately respond to an ABA Journal email seeking comment.

Wax has previously said she will challenge any discipline in court, according to the New York Times.

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Ethics

Lawyer is accused of giving himself positive online reviews while disparaging another lawyer

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 18, 2024, 10:38 am CDT

Updated: “Aaron Korson is the best attorney I have ever met.” That sentence was in a review posted to Korson’s profile page on Avvo, an online marketplace for legal services. The author was Aaron Korson, according to an Aug. 29 ethics complaint filed by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.

It was one of at least 28 five-star Avvo reviews that Korson gave himself over a period of nearly five years, the complaint alleges.

Korson also wrote at least 16 five-star reviews of himself or his law firm, Chicago Family Attorneys, on FindLaw, a business of Thomson Reuters that provides online legal information, the complaint alleges.

The Legal Profession Blog noted the complaint, which also alleges that Korson gave negative reviews to an attorney he thought was rude and that Korson neglected two cases.

Five stars are the top review on Avvo and FindLaw. The ethics complaint lists a sampling of the reviews, as well as the reviewer IP addresses, which sometimes repeated despite differing email addresses.

Korson told the ABA Journal in three emails that there are inaccuracies in the ethics complaint, and review email addresses attributed to Korson actually belong to his wife, mother and friends. He did not have access to those email addresses, he says. Also, the IP addresses in the complaint don’t match locations where he has been, he says.

The alleged fake reviews praised Korson as a “phenomenal attorney,” an “amazing attorney,” a “good hearted person,” a “great guy,” a “hard and aggressive litigator” who “knows how to stick it to the other person,” and “a strong attorney who will fight for your case tooth and nail.”

The complaint alleges that the fake reviews violated ethical rules barring conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.

But not all of Korson’s alleged reviews were glowing. He posted several negative reviews for a lawyer who took over a pro bono divorce case handled by Korson’s associate and then by Korson, the complaint alleges. Korson thought that the new lawyer, Mark Almanza, was rude in an email that sought the case file.

In a one-star review of Almanza, Korson allegedly wrote: “This attorney has a short fuse and he doesn’t earn the money he is paid. If I could leave him a zero star review. I would. He is a bad attorney.”

In another review, Korson allegedly wrote that Almanza was “an extremely rude practitioner. Steer clear.”

The ethics complaint alleges that the negative reviews served no purpose other than to embarrass, delay or burden Almanza, who had criticized Korson’s work in an Oct. 18, 2023, email seeking the case documents.

Almanza’s email asked why Korson had not entered an appearance in the case and claimed that he had to relitigate an issue because of a filing failure by Korson.

“I really hope that you are able to address these matters as they reflect rather poorly on the handling of this matter up to this point,” Almanza had written.

Korson responded that Almanza was rude and said his law clerk would send the documents within two days. Korson added that his mother had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, and he would be out of the office.

In later emails, Korson allegedly said Almanza “might be a complete idiot” and was “an absolutely terrible human being.”

Korson did not provide the client file until Nov. 4, 2023, three days after a court ordered production of the documents, the ethics complaint says.

Korson was also accused of failing to use reasonable diligence in representing two clients whose cases were dismissed. In one of the cases, he at first refused to refund the unearned portion of a $3,500 flat fee, the ethics complaint says.

In an email, Korson allegedly told the client who demanded a refund: “Read your contract as you actually owe us money.”

Korson told the Journal that the disciplinary attorney prosecuting the case is aware that some email addresses belong to family members.

“I am very disappointed that my family, friends and others whom I am a trusted attorney with and have worked on their behalf are being pulled into this,” Korson says. “Confusion and unnecessary accusations could have been avoided if the evidence was looked at thoroughly.”

Korson says he thought that the disciplinary process has been “highly irregular” and claimed that one attorney with the disciplinary commission yelled at him when he was sick and giving a sworn statement.

“Overall, this has been a very aggressive process, which has been surprising to say the least,” he says.

Updated Sept. 18 at 1:35 p.m. and at 2 p.m. to include lawyer Aaron Korson’s comments Updated Sept. 19 at 3:30 p.m. to clarify that Korson was accused of neglecting two cases.