The University of Oregon has ousted its general counsel after several weeks of turmoil surrounding a controversial buyout of its former athletic director.
On Thursday, Oregon’s president, Richard Lariviere, reassigned Melinda Grier, the university’s general counsel since 1998, to an instructor position at Oregon’s law school, and said her contract would not be renewed when it expires next year.
The controversy has centered on the departure of Mike Bellotti, who apparently received a $2.3-million buyout from the university after announcing last month that he would take a job as an ESPN analyst. Mr. Bellotti never signed a contract spelling out the terms of his $975,000 salary — or the buyout, a situation Mr. Lariviere has called a “surprising fact.”
It’s unusual for a university’s top lawyer to lose his or her job over an athletics scandal. The most recent one that comes to mind was in 2008 at the University of Iowa. There, the university’s president fired the general counsel, along with a vice president, amid accusations that the two officials had bungled the university’s response to a student who said she had been sexually assaulted by two football players.
University lawyers often bump up against an athletics world where speed and money trump legal deliberation. When it comes to hiring elite coaches, for instance, many legal safeguards used in high-level hirings elsewhere on the campus are shelved during a whirlwind courtship. Contracts aren’t always signed, and sometimes a memorandum of understanding is all there is.
At Oregon, Mr. Lariviere has not said whether the unwritten contract and buyout led to Ms. Grier’s departure. But the timing and the circumstances suggest that they did. Ms. Grier, in a statement, said as much: “I want to emphasize that it was not my role to negotiate the terms of Mike Bellotti’s contract as athletic director.”
10 Responses to In Oregon, the Drama Continues
tridaddy - April 26, 2010 at 9:14 am
The AD usually answers directly to the Prez, so perhaps the Prez should be making sure the contract is signed, sealed and delivered before he/she rushes to announce the next AD. Too bad for the legal counsel.
jmleonard - April 26, 2010 at 11:01 am
Lariviere has been president of the University of Oregon only since July 2009.
egreenco - April 26, 2010 at 11:16 am
As a former employee of the University of Oregon, I have the utmost respect for Melinda Grier. I’m saddened to see her caught in this web of athletic largess to a former football coach.
ehackett - April 26, 2010 at 11:29 am
I don’t understand: a buy-out is typically the price an organization pays to end someone’s contract before it expires–a “take-the-money-and-get-out-of here” deal. When a person chooses to leave one job for another there is nothing to “buy out”–if anything, such premature departures can trigger penalty clauses that would cost the coach some money. Maybe the lawyers did goof…..
opicedu - April 26, 2010 at 11:51 am
I have known and admired Melinda Grier for over 20 years as a colleague and friend. She is an excellent attorney and a leader in our profession. Having been in and seen many situations like this, it is sadly no surprise that she ended up as the scapegoat for an athletic program and an administration that let things get out of control. The good old boys head into the sunset with the cash, laughing all the way. The ones who do the real work get booted, regardless of whether it was their work to do or not.
xtrcrnchy4 - April 26, 2010 at 12:15 pm
We’ve also seen countless times where the cowboys in the president’s chair, who don’t really have much business negotiating experience, insist on doing it their own way, ignoring the lawyers who want to document and discuss the process. They want to land the deal all on their own and claim all the glory. Only when their rash, undocumented or foolish plans fall apart late do they want to involve the lawyer, as the scapegoat. “You should have insisted this be done better,” they’ll say, as they cover their behinds.
willynilly - April 26, 2010 at 5:03 pm
It would seem quite clear that Mr. Lariviere decided it was best for him if Ms. Grier took the fall for his blunder with Mr. Bellotti’s contract. If there is any justice gyrating throughout the universe, the Board of Trustees will see right through this scam.
kauffmanmo - April 27, 2010 at 9:51 am
As indicated above, Melinda Grier is a star: knowledgeable, collegial, respected by those who work with her and a leader of those who represent colleges and universities, and oh yes, a truly wonderful person. Attorney Grier was the scapegoat for a president who wouldn’t accept responsibility and needed to find someone on whom to paint concentric circles. All in all, a bad day for the University of Oregon and for intellectual honesty.
randomprofessor - April 27, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Many of the comments above are pretty hilarious to anyone who actually worked with Melinda and knows all too well that she was not exactly “a star: knowledgeable, collegial, respected….”They do have a germ of truth in them though. Melinda Grier was the scapegoat for former President Dave Frohnmayer. Frohnmayer was a onetime Oregon AG, appointed UO President as a consolation prize, after he lost the 1990 race for Governor. He quickly decided the normal rules didn’t apply to a man of his character and responsibility, and Melinda’s job was to coverup the scandals, of which there were many. She was an expert at resisting public records requests, helped out by the fact that the Oregon DOJ was staffed with Frohnmayer’s old colleagues, and that her husband, Jerry Lidz, was Oregon Solcitor General.The new president, Richard Lariviere, got advice from many people that he should fire Melinda off the bat. Unfortunately he kept her on, until this athletic scandal exploded in his face. Interestingly, it’s been a month since the scandal and a week since the firing, and Melinda Grier’s old boss, Dave Frohnmayer, hasn’t yet provided a word of explanation or a word of defense for the woman who was his legal advisor and colleague for 12 years. Unless he is one of the anonymous posters above!
randomprofessor - April 29, 2010 at 8:34 pm
The Oregon DOJ report is now out, and it finds General Counsel Melinda Grier provided “deficient legal representation” to UO.See http://uomatters.com for a copy.