University of California Wins Dismissal of Class Action by Students Disciplined for Sexual Assault or Harassment

Munger, Tolles & Olson secured a victory for the University of California in obtaining a dismissal of a class action filed on behalf of all students across all ten UC campuses who were disciplined by the University for sexual assault or sexual harassment in the past five years. The lawsuit alleged that the University denied these students due process.

On July 2, 2020, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman sustained a demurrer to the University’s Third Amended Petition without leave to amend and dismissed the class allegations with prejudice. The court found that, in spite of being given leave to amend twice, the petitioner failed to properly plead an ascertainable class or predominant, common issues of law or fact.

Hailyn Chen, Co-Managing Partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson, who serves as the University of California’s lead counsel for virtually all student and faculty sexual misconduct litigation across all 10 of its campuses, led this matter along with Munger Tolles attorneys Juliana Yee, Andrew Rubenstein and Laura López.