Opening a new chapter in the history of Villanova Law

Villanova Law: Restoring a reputation

VSL Dean John Gotanda

by Jeff Blumenthal -- Philadelphia Business Journal

Mark Sargent certainly left an imprint on Villanova University School of Law. But that appears to have taken the form of two black eyes.

Sargent, the school’s dean for 12 years, resigned in June 2009 after being linked to a prostitution ring. Then Monday, an American Bar Association  American Bar Association Latest from The Business Journals Villanova Law censured by ABANakasone picked to replace McKenna on First Circuit CourtAmerican Bar Association censures Villanova Law Follow this company investigation indicated that Sargent “directed” three other law school administrators to knowingly report falsified admissions data. The report doesn’t specifically name Sargent, but it says a “former dean” directed the misreporting and that dean and the three other administrators are no longer employed by the school. Sargent was dean when the alleged false reporting occurred from between at least 2002 to 2009. Villanova Law said it could not speak about any former employees but confirmed that the responsible administrators are no longer working at the school.

When longtime Villanova Law professor John Gotanda was elevated to dean this past January, he immediately inherited the false reporting scandal that was uncovered that month through an internal investigation. Already burdened with succeeding Sargent, Gotanda had to spend the next six months trying to get to the bottom of the reporting discrepancies while trying to preserve the school’s reputation and openly communicate with its various constituencies.

Gotanda told me Monday afternoon that the wrongdoing was committed by a “small group of people in secret. There’s no question there was wrongdoing, but we hope people see that once it was uncovered, we stepped up and did the right thing by self-reporting [to the ABA] and taking steps to not just remedy the situation but set up a compliance program equivalent to Sarbanes Oxley.”

The ABA said that is what saved Villanova Law from a more serious penalty such as probation or removal from the list of approved law schools. Instead, it received a public censure that must be posted on its website and the ABA’s Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar for the next two years. The school is also required to issue a public statement of correction approved by the ABA and hire a compliance monitor for at least two years.

Villanova Law hired accounting firm KPMG to assess and recommend improvements to all of its procedures revolving around ABA compliance and law firm Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan to develop and monitor all ABA compliance matters and serve as independent compliance officer for the next two years.

Villanova Law students and alumni I’ve interviewed over the past several months said Gotanda was very open with them during course of the investigation. While he took some heat for not speaking publicly on the matter until yesterday, Gotanda said the ABA had asked the school not to speak publicly while the investigation was ongoing.

In addition to seeing its reputation disparaged, Villanova Law also incurred a financial hit. Gotanda said its investigation and compliance remedies cost more than $500,000. Gotanda said he knows the mess is not behind the school.

“It was really damaging to the institution,” Gotanda said. “Once you lose your integrity, it’s hard to regain it. But the entire [Villanova Law] community came together to try and restore our reputation and right the wrong. Students could have abandoned the school but 120 of them helped recruit. And so did alums.”

Gotanda recognizes he still has work to do when it comes to repairing Villanova Law’s reputation. While the school’s most recent U.S. News and World Report ranking fell. Gotanda said the Villanova Law still attracted “high achieving” students whose bar exam passage rates increased in recent years. But only time will tell if the scandal produces any lingering negative residue.