Cal law dean on leave, accused of sex harassment

UC Berkeley’s Law School dean has been placed on indefinite leave of absence at reduced pay after his assistant filed a sexual harassment lawsuit this week, alleging that her boss hugged, kissed and touched her during 2014 and 2015 and that the campus did nothing to stop it.

The hugs became tighter and more lingering and the kissing more intimate, in that, over time, Choudhry’s kisses began to land closer and closer to (Sorrell’s) lips.

A thorough investigation of this case found that Dean Choudhry’s behavior in this situation violated policy, and that he demonstrated a failure to understand the power dynamic and the effect of his actions on the plaintiff personally and in her employment.

According to the report, the dean said it was his way of “saying thanks.”

“We feel very strongly that the (school) failed to take Ms. Sorrell’s complaints seriously enough,” said her attorney, John Winer, calling the discipline a slap on the wrist.

The employee’s allegations come less than five months after Berkeley received widespread criticism for its light-handed approach to disciplining famed planet hunter Geoffrey Marcy, a Berkeley astronomy professor, after revelations that he had groped female students over nearly a decade.



Since 2010, the University of California has paid $330,850 to settle five sexual harassment lawsuits across the system since 2010.

Sorrell didn’t push him away because “she was in shock that someone of Dean Choudhry’s stature would even engage in such conduct,” her complaint says, adding that she hoped by not hugging him back he would “take the hint” and stop.

“Other times, he would lean down and kiss her cheek while she was typing,” says the complaint, which also alleges that Choudhry “blocked the entrance of her cubicle so that she could not avoid his hugs” and kissed and hugged her in front of other staff members.

The complaint identifies Sorrell as a former victim of domestic and sexual abuse and says her boss’ conduct made her feel “disgusted, humiliated exposed and dirty.”

The human resources director said she would forward it to the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination and that Sorrell should use her own sick and vacation time so that she would be away from the office during the investigation, according to the complaint.