AutoAdmit, a chat site for law students that sparked a maelstrom of controversy because of its degrading comments about some students, is now at the center of a legal battle. Two women at Yale Law School have sued Anthony Ciolli, the Web site’s former chief educational director, and several other people who posted messages to the site under pseudonyms. Mr. Ciolli graduated this year from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court for Connecticut, does not identify the plaintiffs, but states that they suffered “emotional distress” and “economic injury” from Web-site postings about them. One student says she was denied work as a summer associate in a law firm. Another says she developed insomnia and visited a therapist. The complaint seeks $245,000 in punitive damages and other, unspecified damages from the defendants. —Andrea L. Foster