A UCLA lecturer suing UC administrators for over $22 million will see his case go to trial Tuesday.
Gordon Klein, a continuing lecturer in accounting, filed a lawsuit against Antonio Bernardo, the dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and the UC Board of Regents in September 2021. Klein was suspended in June 2020 for his response to a student’s request for grading accommodations for Black students, and was reinstated in September 2020.
The trial date has been pushed back several times. The trial will be a bench trial – meaning that a judge, rather than a jury, decides the outcome – at the Santa Monica Courthouse.
The student’s request came in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed by a police officer who kneeled on his neck for over nine minutes. The murder sparked protests across the country against police brutality and racial injustice.
Klein did not respond to a request for comment on the trial.
In the emailed response to the student who requested the accommodation, Klein said that these accommodations would mean giving Black students “special treatment.” He added that students from Minneapolis – where George Floyd was killed in police custody – may also be affected by the protests and that white students “might possibly be even more devastated” by the protests while denying the student’s proposal.
“One last thing strikes me: Remember that MLK famously said that people should not be evaluated based on the ‘color of their skin,’” he said in the email. “Do you think that your request would run afoul of MLK’s admonition?”
A June 2020 petition advocating for Klein’s removal – which said that his response to the student’s request was “insensitive, dismissive, and woefully racist” – amassed over 21,000 signatures.
[Related: Students sign petition to fire UCLA lecturer after many find his email insensitive]
However, a counterpetition released in June 2020 arguing that Klein should be reinstated received over 75,000 signatures. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression – a nonpartisan group that seeks to defend free speech on college campuses – also called on UCLA to reinstate Klein in a June 2020 letter.
Bernardo said in a June 2020 email to students who complained about Klein’s email that the lecturer’s statements were “outrageous and simply inexcusable,” adding that an investigation had been launched against Klein.
Bernardo later sent out an email to the Anderson School of Management that Klein would be placed on administrative leave.
“Bernardo knew or should have known that widespread public disclosure of his decision to place Plaintiff on administrative leave and relieve Plaintiff of his teaching duties (the “Confidential Personnel Action”) would have devastating consequences for Plaintiff,” the lawsuit said.
The suit alleged that the university violated his right to privacy, breached his employment contract and amounted to retaliatory discrimination. It also alleged that the university published misleading or incorrect private information about him.
[Related: UCLA accounting lecturer files lawsuit against dean and UC Board of Regents]
Klein is requesting more than $22 million in damages in the case, alleging that UCLA’s suspension destroyed his reputation and caused him emotional distress. Klein also said in a 2021 op-ed published in The Free Press – an independent online media company – that many private consulting firms dropped him following his suspension, which he said cost him a significant share of his annual income.
“By this moment, as a direct and immediate result of Dean Bernardo’s public suspension and excoriation, Professor Klein’s expert witness practice had been permanently destroyed,” Klein said in a written statement submitted in lieu of an opening argument in trial.
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