MSU Board Hire Its Own Legal Representation
MSU board hires its own law firm to represent it in investigations. Board had been feeling it was being scapegoated, not represented by other firms hired to help MSU. https://t.co/ZgemLyCJeg via @freep
— David Jesse (@reporterdavidj) March 7, 2018
MSU board hires its own law firm to represent it in investigations. Board had been feeling it was being scapegoated, not represented by other firms hired to help MSU. https://t.co/ZgemLyCJeg via @freep
— David Jesse (@reporterdavidj) March 7, 2018
Is there precedent for this? Seems crazy.
Relax, it is just a law firm thing!!!
It would be nice if Peter Secchia would cough up some money to cover this, so MI taxpayers won't be on the hook. So, of course he won't.
greasing the palms of NCAA admin to keep from vacating their wins against Michigan
The law firm is being paid with pizzas.
I don't know anything about law, but this seems like it will make it a more drawn out process, Perhaps some people would benefit from that
The lawyers the point fingers at the Board will have a law firm fight back. Things will get messy early if they start airing dirty laundry.
More drawn out? Come on.....when have you EVER known having more lawyers involved to cause things to take more time and cost more money?
So did you hear the one about a Lawyer, Plaintiff, and Judge were at a bar....
The buck stops here over uhhh there ... somewhere.
they ain't leaders and they ain't the best
Just goes to show that their fucked up culture starts from the top.
As evidenced by the douchiiest fanboy, Mitch Lyons. Total a-hole.
Bizarre, and yet somehow makes perfect sense for this gang of out-of-touch fan boys.
Bravo that description is spot on
Only 50% of their Board are former MSU athletes or coaches. I'm sure the other 50% can remain impartial on any investigation into wrongdoings in the athletic department.
I’m shocked they didn’t have separate counsel already. Most boards in such a complex situation with huge exposure would be separately advised. Especially with allegations of insufficient oversight...
Akin is a weird choice, though I’m sure they’ll do a fine job. Who knew that Akin has connections in MI?
This could be about conflicts rather than connections
I'll show myself out .
1-888-CALL-SAM - I hope they called Michigan's first family of law???
that's why if Michigan football ever stretched a little too much and our board was taking a blind eye to it we could have the Bernstein discount. ( plus son #2 is on the MI supreme court).
LOL - Yes I do know that, as that was part of the reason for the joke/post as Mark seems to have some experience with Regental matters.
I see what you did there with the blind eye comment.
any of Sam's sons and a blind eye imo.
No way that all the big NY and DC firms in this space are conflicted out of this. My guess is that this is not a traditional board-advisory assignment but they must be expecting having to do some heavy duty lobbying in DC on behalf of the board, and then Akin would make sense.
I’d love to see a story by MLive about the total number of lawyers and the legal costs to taxpayers so far. Plus it would be great to have real time updated cumulative costs posted prominently on their website.
maybe we can have a running MSU legal fees ticker prominently placed near their first round tournament venue.
I hope they were smart enough to hire graduates of the University of Michigan Law School.
The first question probably asked by the MSU BoT was, "Have you or any of your other attorneys had any relationship of any kind with the University of Michigan?"
to spend someone else's money. it's only from taxpayers after all.
They are responsible for electing the trustees in the first place.
Are taxpayers paying this or does it come out of their endowment?
I'm more inclined to think students and future students will pay for this.
I understand there's no retainer, but nearly $1000/hr is a lot. This also isn't anti-trust. It's Title IX compliance etc... Not sure what the fuck MSU is doing.
Nearly $1000 is not even top rate for lawyers who do this sort of thing. And if you limit your trustees’ ability to hire the counsel of their choice, you won’t get the best trustees. It makes much more sense for the university to underwrite this risk which is why, I promise, UM has the exact same terms in its governance docs.
I agree with you that it's not the top rate for this, but it is still fairly steep, all things considered, for work on behalf of a public entity in the midwest. That said, given the gravity of the situation, I can understand the need to pay this type of rate. And the commenter above who said the Board should have its own counsel is 100% correct. I don't see this as unnecessary; quite the opposite. The Board, like all people and entities in the Unites States, should have its legal interests protected. And since the Board's interests do not necessarily align 100% with those of, oh, say, the Athletic Department's or the (former) University President's, I can absolutely see why it's not only prudent but necessary for the Board to have its own counsel.
Get ready for a lot of finger pointing at MSU, among MSU people (and former MSU people), about who knew what and when, and about who did what and when. I only hope that this leads to more facts coming out, since it's less likely all stakeholders will "circle the wagons" if everyone's got counsel who represent their own interests and advise them to act that way (rather than clam up for the good of the school-- screw that. The truth needs to be uncovered and made public, all of it).
We’re in total agreement. I’m also the commentator above who was surprised they hadn’t already retained counsel.
I’m not necessarily surprised people don’t understand why this is a good thing, but I’d kinda hope a Michigan board would look at the situation more critically and not fall back on the knee-jerk “der, lawyers, der, Sparty, der, um, bad, nyuk nyuk!”
A trustee of a university is exposed to material risk given how fucking crazy college-aged kids are and how giantic university systems have become. Just in the B1G I can now think of 3 situations in the last decade that’s potentially exposed trustees to liability (Sandusky, PSU frat killing a student, Nasser). If someone came to you for advice and said “should I join this board, it’s primarily a prestige position and I have no real oversight other than what the school admin tells me” I’d be like “well, if you’re not indemnified and released as much as possible, you should assume a 1-5% risk of massive liability during your tenure.” And then anyone with a brain would be like “screw this, not worth it.” And instead of getting A+ trustees or being able to use trustee positions as carrots to encourage giving, you’d be stuck picking through candidates without enough wealth to be a deep pocket for litigation. That’s not who you want overseeing the school admin / picking the President.
So in terms of what’s best for Michigan (or any other top school), you don’t want the bad facts and politics of the Nasser situation to lead to an undermining of the protections for trustees. Rather, you want the system to work so that in the future Michigan (and other schools) can attract the best trustees and have the best oversight. The lawyer rent-seeking that enables that is annoying, but it’s cheap compared to the long term value of good non-profit governance.
$ ... seems logical for MSU ...
duck & cover and avoid culpability every chance they get.
Tastes like ass
costly thing.
Will there be any money left to pay the players?
About $40
logged in just to upvote
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They thought they were hiring Todd Akin of the "legitimate rape" fame.
be enriching attorneys for some time.
what a joke that these clowns are in charge of stuff in the world. The older you get, the more you realize the world is just a bunch of fools in charge.
Truth