http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/education/30yale.html?_r=1&hpw
A major Korean university is engaged in a heated legal battle withYale University, bringing a culture preoccupied with honor into a clash with bare-knuckled American lawyering.
Shin Jeong-ah at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York in July 2007. She had been hired by Dongguk University in Seoul as a professor but questions about her Yale credentials quickly surfaced.
Dongguk University, a 103-year-old Buddhist institution based in Seoul, has accused Yale of negligence and a cover-up after it mistakenly confirmed a Dongguk professor’s claims of having a Ph.D. from Yale. Robert A. Weiner, the lead lawyer for Dongguk, said Yale’s response to the ensuing scandal added insult to the injury, and decried “the cultural arrogance of not recognizing the harm you’re doing in Korean culture.”
Yale argues that while it made mistakes, it did nothing that merits court action.
The controversy began in 2005, when Dongguk hired Shin Jeong-ah — a rising star in the art world — as a professor. Shortly after hiring her, questions arose about her credentials and Dongguk sent a letter to Yale asking for authentication of a document provided by Ms. Shin. The document, which appeared to have been signed by a Yale administrator, stated that Ms. Shin had earned the degree.
The confirmation letter was a fake, but the Yale administrator whose name was on it confirmed its authenticity in a fax to Dongguk, apparently not checking the university’s records or even noticing that the administrator’s name was misspelled.
Dongguk officials and Korean reporters pressed Yale on the question of Ms. Shin’s degree again in 2007 as rumors persisted. After checking its records, Yale announced that Ms. Shin had no degree but also initially denied having received the original inquiry from Dongguk and said documents suggesting otherwise were forged.
The growing scandal made headlines in Korea and became known there as “Shin-gate.” Ms. Shin resigned and was eventually convicted of falsifying records and of embezzlement. Yale did not reveal its mistake in confirming the 2005 letter until later that year, saying the error occurred “in the rush of business.” Yale’s president, Richard C. Levin, issued an apology to Dongguk on Dec. 29, 2007.
Dongguk filed suit for $50 million the following year, alleging in court filings that Yale had engaged in “reckless” and “wanton” conduct, and had defamed Dongguk, which “was publicly humiliated and deeply shamed in the eyes of the Korean population.” The university lost millions in contributions and the opportunity to build a new law school, it said.
Yale fought back with briefs arguing that despite the error, it had caused no harm. “Instead of facing up to its own responsibility for hiring such a person,” the university argued, “Dongguk seeks to shift the blame for its own inadequate efforts on to Yale.”
Settlement negotiations broke down last year, and earlier this month Dongguk filed new papers in the case with potentially embarrassing internal e-mail messages from Yale showing anxious discussions of the growing scandal, including a professor’s warning that the incident “seems to have ‘litigation’ written all over it.”
Mr. Weiner said, “the documents we have prove that Yale was not only grossly negligent, but lied once they knew the truth.”
Tom Conroy, a Yale spokesman, said there was no negligence or recklessness. If the case goes to trial, he said, “we think the jury will certainly consider the fact that the chairman of Dongguk’s board was convicted of soliciting and receiving an illegal government subsidy from Ms. Shin’s lover, who was an adviser to the Korean president.”
Mr. Weiner said he was outraged by the Yale tactics, which he said constituted “attacking the victim” and “an effort to deflect attention from Yale’s wrongful acts” with titillation that has nothing to do with the lawsuit. If Yale had responded accurately when first asked about Ms. Shin’s claims, he said, the worst of the scandal could have been avoided.
Lanny Davis, a former White House official in the Clinton administration and a partner of Mr. Weiner at the law firm McDermott Will & Emery, said he was disappointed in Yale, which is his alma mater, and in President Levin — who, he said, had “dishonored the slogan, ‘light and truth,’ ” that can be found in Latin on the university’s seal.
Mr. Conroy, the Yale spokesman, said, “I have no idea what that means.” The university, he said, made “an innocent mistake, and we apologized.”
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