Emory University hires attorney to review its response to campus protests

Emory University on Friday announced it had hired an attorney to review its response to protestors who set up an encampment as part of a nationwide demonstration over the Israel-Hamas War.

When the April 25 protest, similar to others around the country, sprang up at Emory, the University said, “these individuals are not members of our community.” Later the University admitted that 20 of the 28 people arrested were part of the Emory community.

The incident led to votes of no-confidence in the leadership of President Gregory L. Fenves.

“Emory University has engaged attorney Richard H. Deane Jr. to conduct a review of events that took place on the Atlanta campus April 25 and led to the arrests of 28 people, including 20 members of the Emory community,” the University announced.

The results of the review will be shared with the public.

Here’s Emory’s full announcement about the review of its actions on April 25:

Emory President Gregory L. Fenves announced in a community message April 29 that the university would launch a review “so we can develop recommendations to improve how we keep our community safe.”

The review led by Deane will focus on the decisions Emory University leadership made on April 25, which included electing to remove the encampment set up by protestors and engaging external law enforcement. The review will not examine external law enforcement’s use of force, which is governed by those agencies’ internal review procedures.

Deane and his team will be given full latitude to examine all of the factors that led to the April 25 arrests. The thorough review, now in its early stages, will be conducted over the next several weeks. At its conclusion, the university anticipates sharing with the community any process improvements that may be implemented following receipt of the report.

Deane, an attorney in the Atlanta office of the global law firm Jones Day, has an extensive legal and investigative background, including serving as a United States magistrate judge. Working with federal law enforcement authorities over a period of almost 20 years, he conducted and supervised investigations when he served as chief of the criminal division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia and later as the United States attorney in that office under both President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush.

Deane’s experience in private practice at Jones Day includes conducting sensitive and high-profile investigations, including an investigation of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and the Atlanta Police Department and how those offices handled rape kits and rape investigations. He also has overseen investigations for several colleges and universities across the country. A member of the American College of Trial Lawyers, in 2023 Deane was honored by the Atlanta Business Chronicle with its Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Lifetime Achievement Award.

This story was provided by WABE content partner Decaturish.