With lawyer’s help, dentist finally gets Harvard doctorate degree

A Boston litigator decided a straight-up contract suit in Massachusetts Superior Court was the best course for getting Harvard College to finally award a doctorate degree and certificate that a client had earned years earlier.

Timothy J. Bradl’s instincts turned out to be right on the mark.

“We had evidence of a clear breach of contract,” Bradl says in the aftermath of a successful resolution of his client’s case. “They didn’t follow their own student handbook. It appeared to me that they felt they had the clear upper hand and could act however they wished.”

Bradl represents “Dr. Doe,” who was working toward a post-doctoral degree from Harvard School of Dental Medicine from 1999 through 2002.

According to court records, in February 2002, another student at the dental school accused Doe of rape. After two jury trials — the first of which ended with a hung jury and the second which resulted in a conviction that was reversed by the Supreme Judicial Court — state prosecutors dropped criminal charges stemming from the Harvard student’s rape complaint.

But even though the rape case was noll prossed and Doe proceeded to complete his coursework, the school refused to award him the Master of Medical Science degree and periodontal specialty certificate he had earned.

The school withheld the degrees based on the results of internal disciplinary proceedings that the plaintiff claimed were tainted by the report of an allegedly biased outside investigator.

With the years ticking by and Harvard unwilling to budge, Doe enlisted Bradl to take his case.

In 2015, Bradl filed a complaint in Suffolk Superior Court suing Harvard for breach of contract and breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing.

“Most of these (student discipline) cases are filed in federal court under Title IX,” Bradl says. “I looked at a ton of Title IX cases, and the federal court was always throwing out the Title IX claims. The federal courts only let these cases proceed on the contract claims, and they are very deferential to the notion that schools shouldn’t be second-guessed on decisions they make regarding their students.”

Bradl figured that his client was unlikely to succeed in federal court. So, he decided a state court action that emphasized contract claims was the best strategy.

“I was in state court where I’ve practiced for 30 years and dealing with state contract claims. It’s the KISS principle: Keep It Simple Stupid,” he says.

In his complaint, Doe alleged that Harvard breached its obligations under the student handbook by failing to provide him with fair notice of the rape complaint and a fair opportunity defend himself in the disciplinary process, in large part due to the school’s reliance on an internal investigation in which the rape complainant refused to allow herself to be interviewed or questioned.

The complaint also contended that the outside investigator retained by the school was an attorney who on her own website touted a specialty in insulating large corporations and businesses from liability. According to Bradl, the adverse findings by the outside investigator “provided an unfair and one-sided framework” for the school’s disciplinary tribunals to rule against Doe again and again.

“Here, a group of dental professors and school administrators took it upon themselves to conduct an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct — and fouled it up badly, causing serious harm to Dr. Doe, who still awaits an apology,” Bradl says.

Though Doe filed his lawsuit in 2015, the years ticked by without relief.

According to Bradl, because his client has a successful dental practice and wouldn’t have been able to show economic damages, the case has been all about forcing Harvard to award his client the degrees he deserves.

“That was the silver lining,” Bradl says. “Even though we couldn’t make a claim for damages, he had the resources to fight Harvard.”

Finally, in March, Judge Cathleen E. Campbell conducted a two-week bench trial to hear Doe’s contract claims.

On Sept. 1, Campbell entered judgment for Doe on his claims for breach of contract and breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing. In her order, Campbell directed Harvard to partially expunge the record of the disciplinary proceedings conducted by the school from Doe’s educational records and transcripts.

“It was total victory,” Bradly says, crediting his client’s determination.

Pat Murphy is a reporter for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.