MSU trustee bullying, misconduct investigation costs approach $2 million

EAST LANSING — Costs for the investigation into claims of bullying and misconduct by Michigan State University trustees are approaching $2 million, easily outpacing the inquiry last fall into whether someone leaked the name of the woman who accused former football coach Mel Tucker of sexual harassment.

Legal expenses continue to add up and a final total isn't available because law firms have only billed through January. The report stemming from the investigation wasn't given to the board until late February.

So far, the public university has paid for about $340,000 of the total.

The university has also been billed for at least $22,000 in travel and meal costs, including a $158 meal at East Lansing bar the HopCat, for attorneys and their staff who traveled to East Lansing to interview board members and others.

MSU spokesperson Mark Bullion said the university has not received invoices for legal work in February and March yet.

The report that resulted from the investigation, and led to the censure of Trustees Rema Vassar, D-Detroit, Dennis Denno, D-East Lansing, and Brianna Scott, D-Muskegon, was presented to the board in February. It began after Scott's public claims that then-board Chair Rema Vassar bullied MSU administrators and other trustees , and broke the board's codes of ethics and conduct.

The board, at the recommendation of Washington, D.C.-based law firm Miller & Chevalier, also has asked Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to consider removing Vassar and Denno. Whitmer's office has said it is weighing the request but has not publicly disclosed any action since receiving the request in early March.

MORE: Who is Dennis Denno? What to know about MSU Board of Trustees dispute

MSU covered legal fees for trustees

The university is paying three law firms for the investigation, with Miller & Chevalier representing the university and two other firms providing legal counsel for Vassar and Denno.

An invoice dated April 15 and obtained through a public records request by the State Journal shows that Miller & Chevalier billed the university $1.4 million for its work through January, about three months of work.

Attorneys from the Rochester-based Miller Law firm, who represents Vassar, have billed the university $318,979 for December, January and February. The law firm has continued to represent Vassar since the report was released Feb. 28, and in March released a response to the investigation's findings and called it "inaccurate," "incomplete," "flawed," and lacking due process.

It isn't clear whether the university is still paying for Vassar's representation. Bullion said he wasn't sure who would be covering the costs, and the trustees have not publicly discussed removing Vassar's legal representation. Vassar's attorneys said they wouldn't take "future options" off the table, indicating they might take legal action against the university.

MSU paid Denno's attorneys, with the Royal Oak-based attorneys Ahmad & Akbar, a $7,000 retainer fee, but no other invoices were sent to the university regarding continued representation of Denno by the firm.

MORE: Who is Rema Vassar? What to know about MSU Board of Trustees dispute

$960 an hour for attorneys

Most of the attorneys conducting the investigation or representing Vassar have hourly rates of nearly $1,000.

Miller & Chevalier charged MSU between $960 and $350 an hour; most of the staff involved have rates on the higher end of that range.

Attorneys from Miller Law's hourly rates ranged from $850 to $925.

This is the second high-profile investigation into the board's conduct since the academic year started. The first, an inquiry into whether a trustee or another top-level MSU administrator leaked the name of the woman who Tucker sexually harassed , cost the university about $850,000. The firm conducting the investigation, Jones Day, billed MSU almost $600,000 over four months. A second law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, billed an additional $250,000 to represent Trustee Rema Vassar in that inquiry.

Contact Sarah Atwood at satwood@lsj.com, or follow her on X @sarahmatwood

MSU Invoices by Susan Vela on Scribd

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU trustee bullying, misconduct investigation costs approach $2 million