EAST LANSING — The investigation into whether University of Michigan administrators bullied each other and violated codes of ethics and conduct has surpassed the $2 million mark.
That’s on top of the roughly $325,000 the university has paid so far to cover administrators’ legal fees during and after the investigation.
That investigation by the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Miller & Chevalier ultimately revealed that former board chair Rema Vassar, D-Detroit, and trustee Dennis Denno, D- East Lansing, had violated the board’s code of ethics and conduct.
The attorneys’ report recommended that they be removed from the board and referred to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for possible removal from their elected positions. Miller & Chevalier also recommended that both trustees, as well as Trustee Brianna Scott, D-Muskegon, be censured.
At a special board meeting held late at night on March 3, trustees voted in favor of the report’s recommendations.
Scott’s public assertions that Vassar was guilty of misconduct and had acted outside the bounds of its authority triggered the investigation, but because she violated attorney-client privilege, the firm recommended that she was censored but praised her for speaking out.
The university is paying three law firms for the investigation, with Miller & Chevalier representing the university and two other firms providing legal advice to Vassar and Denno.
The latest invoices obtained by the State Journal through a public records request are stamped as received by the MSU General Counsel’s office on May 9. Miller & Chevalier billed the university $572,611 for the work done in February.
In addition to the approximately $1.4 million billed for work from Oct. 30 to Jan. 31, the investigation now totals $2,033,837.
So far, MSU has paid about $340,000 of its $2 million bill.
Vassar has retained an outside attorney, paid for by the university, since December. For its work through Feb. 29, the Rochester, Michigan-based Miller Law Firm billed the university $318,979.
The law firm has continued to represent Vassar since the report’s Feb. 28 release and in March issued a response to the investigation’s findings, calling them “inaccurate,” “incomplete,” “flawed” and lacking in due process.
It is unclear whether the university continues to pay for Vassar’s representation. MSU spokesman Mark Bullion said the question of who would cover his legal fees was still being decided and administrators had not publicly discussed removing his legal representation.
MSU also paid Denno’s attorneys, along with Royal Oak-based Ahmad & Akbar Attorneys, a $7,000 retainer, but no further invoices were sent to the university regarding the firm’s continued representation of Denno.
Contact Sarah Atwood at satwood@lsj.com or follow her on X @sarahmatwood
This article originally appeared in the Lansing State Journal: MSU investigation into administrator misconduct, bullying tops $2 million.
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