Klein vs. Bernardo - Part 5 (the decision)

One of our posts yesterday noted a success for UCLA in litigation. There was another success earlier this month in the Klein vs. Bernardo case which we missed. In that case, an instructors at the Anderson School of Management got caught up in the campus aftermath of the George Floyd demonstrations way back in 2020. Gordon Klein responded to a student who asked if Black students might have some dispensation in grading in a manner that led then-Dean Tony Bernardo to suspend him - although he was later reinstated. Klein sued on the grounds that the suspension damaged his reputation and caused loss of consulting income. You can see our past coverage of this situation and case at the links below.*

From the Daily Bruin: A Superior Court judge in Santa Monica tentatively ruled in favor of UC administrators in a lawsuit brought by a UCLA lecturer requesting more than $13 million in damages. Gordon Klein, a continuing lecturer in accounting, initially sued Antonio Bernardo – the former dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management – and the UC Board of Regents in September 2021. The lawsuit followed UCLA placing Klein on administrative leave in June 2020 because of an email in which he said he would not provide grading accommodations for Black students in the wake of the murder of George Floyd – an unarmed Black man killed by a Minneapolis police officer.

Judge H. Jay Ford III sided with the Regents and Bernardo on all claims in his tentative Dec. 1 ruling. Klein’s lawyers filed an objection to the entirety of the tentative ruling Dec. 16...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2025/12/23/court-tentatively-rules-in-favor-of-uc-administrators-in-lawsuit-by-ucla-lecturer.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/09/klein-vs-bernardo-part-4-now-we-wait.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/08/klein-v-bernardo-and-regents-part-3.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/07/klein-v-bernardo-and-regents-part-2.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/07/klein-v-bernardo-and-regents.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-trial.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/02/slowly-grinding-wheels-part-2.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/01/slowly-grinding-wheels.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/07/two-speech-cases-that-involve-ucla.html (scroll down); https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2021/09/reinstated-year-later-now-lawsuit.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/09/reinstated.html.