Rep. Stefanik Criticizes Harvard for Hiring Firm Linked to Former Board Member

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., criticized Harvard University after a recent congressional report revealed that the school hired a prestigious law firm led by a former board member to deal with the plagiarism accusations against its former president.

As per the New York Post, the university enlisted the services of the law firm WilmerHale last year when questions were raised about then-Harvard President Claudine Gay being accused of plagiarism.

William Lee, a former senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation until June 2022, is a senior partner at WilmerHale.

The Harvard Crimson reported that Lee, who is also a law professor at the school, “has continued to exert significant influence among Harvard’s top leadership” despite stepping down, “including senior administrators, members of the Corporation and his successor Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker.”

In a statement, Stefanik told the Post that the governing board “actively worked to cover up the negligence and failures of Harvard University” and defended “its corrupt leadership.”

“In fact, instead of protecting Jewish students and removing Claudine Gay, former Harvard Corporation Board senior fellow William Lee lined the pockets of his law firm WilmerHale, [hired] to defend the former Harvard President’s history of serial plagiarism and antisemitism,” she said.

“A reckoning is occurring; our robust congressional investigation will continue to expose the institutional problems plaguing our most elite colleges and universities and deliver needed accountability to the American people.”

According to an article from April 2022, posted on the law firm’s website, Lee was recognized by the Harvard Alumni Association with the Harvard Medal and was “instrumental in the university’s past two presidential searches.”

He told the Post the article was referring to past Harvard presidents “Drew Faust and Larry Bacow” and that he “was not involved in the most recent search.”

Lee and another lawyer from WilmerHale were reportedly personally involved in preparing Gay to testify before Congress last month on campus antisemitism. The embattled president, who came under fire for her damning testimony and numerous allegations of plagiarism, resigned earlier this month.

“Harvard is playing games with everyone,” Carol Swain, a former professor who has accused Gay of plagiarizing her work, told the Post. “This is how they responded every step of the way.”