Long, very interesting story on the attorneys who are representing the survivor of the alleged basketball gang rape, and the effects their cases have had on campus culture and policy, in the WaPo here:
BOULDER, Colo. — The phone calls come in waves, sometimes one or two a week, sometimes eight or 10. Women, mostly college students, call from across the country to a law firm in this city on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains.
Their stories vary, but usually share similarities: a rape, an indifferent police officer, a fumbled response by the school.
They’re either calling for John Clune, the lawyer who helped rape accusers take on star athletes Kobe Bryant, Johan Santana and Jameis Winston; or they’re calling for his coworker, Baine Kerr, whose landmark lawsuits on behalf of women who said athletes raped them at the University of Colorado and Arizona State ended with massive settlements.
Clune and Kerr are widely recognized as the best lawyers in the country for victims of sex crimes at colleges, with an expertise in high-profile cases involving athletes. They currently represent women suing Florida State University, the University of Oregon, and the University of Tulsa — all asserting the schools are financially liable for sex crimes committed by athletes — and are also suing Winston, the former Florida State star and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, on behalf of his accuser.
Over the past 15 years, these two lawyers — and a troubling number of athletes — have played starring roles in cases that have triggered a seismic change in how American colleges handle reports of sex crimes. …
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