Set Expectations with Faculty Member : Office of Faculty Development : UMass Amherst

Seeking Legal Advice

If the faculty member seeks legal advice, help them convene a meeting with MSP’s lawyer and/or the University’s General Counsel Office.
- MSP: @email
  - Note that graduate employees can seek free legal consultation through Student Legal Services Office.
- General Counsel: @email and umassp.edu/general-counsel/legal-resources-employees.
  - All employees of the university have the right to General Counsel’s legal services.

If the faculty member seeks to pursue proactive legal action, such as a defamation (a libel or slander case), it is important to communicate that the university will be unlikely to do this. The university is constrained by its status as a state institution and lacks the infrastructure to thoroughly investigate cases.
It is important to adjust faculty expectations:
- If the faculty member is sued for a matter that falls within the scope of their university work, they are legally indemnified by the university and they will be defended.
- However, the university’s defense of academic freedom does not translate to proactive action, such as the university demanding a retraction or mounting a public defense or legal action around defamation, which is very difficult to prove.
- In cases where the faculty member wishes to sue for defamation, University and Union Counsel can give legal advice, but the faculty member will need to hire a private attorney.
AAUP will sometimes intervene on behalf of faculty in cases where administrations (usually privates) have unjustly taken punitive action against a harassed faculty member.
- Such incidents can be reported here: @email