SJC Nominee Led Controversial Harvard Probe

Margaret H. Marshall, A. Paul Cellucci's controversial nominee for chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC), commissioned an internal investigation which some say mishandled discrimination charges, according to University documents.

As Harvard's General Counsel, Marshall selected her own former law firm to investigate complaints filed by several guards against the University about seven years ago.

Marshall's report found no misconduct on Harvard's part, but in 1997, a jury ruled differently and ordered Harvard to pay over $2 million in compensation to one of the guards. The jury found that the racial discrimination that Viatcheslav Abramian complained of seven years ago led to his dismissal in 1993.

Stephen G. McCombe, president of the Harvard University Guards' Union, said he believed Marshall acted improperly in hiring her own firm to investigate the charges.

"She should've hired someone from an outside firm to do it," said McCombe, who testified for Abramian in the lawsuit. "They didn't really interview everybody that was involved. They kind of stacked it."

"Evidently from the evidence that was prepared, 12 jurors agreed with me," McCombe added.

University officials defended Marshall's conduct, saying she called for a report voluntarily out of a desire to get to the bottom of the issue.

But McCombe said Marshall may have acted because of pressure from a Crimson article outlining the guards' charges.

"She had to do something," McCombe said. "I think she was pressured to do it."

University Attorney Allan A. Ryan Jr. said Marshall hired her a lawyer from her own firm because of his credentials alone.

"She knew he'd give her the straight skinny," Ryan said."She did not do anything improper," Ryan added. "There's simply nothing here."

The controversy over Marshall's conduct as Harvard General Counsel comes at a time when her nomination is already hotly contested.

Members of the governor's council, who will vote on her nomination on Oct. 13, are sharply divided over her candidacy, with some saying she lacks sufficient judicial experience to hold the post.

And last week, Roman Catholic Cardinal Bernard Francis Law '53 wrote in a private letter to Cellucci that he fears Marshall may hold anti-Catholic views. As Harvard's General Counsel, she admonished a Catholic professor at the law school for using Harvard stationary to voice anti-abortion sentiments.

After speaking with Marshall, the Cardinal said this week that he neither supports nor opposes her nomination.

McCombe also said he felt Marshall's involvement with a later case that led to the reduction of the damages in the Harvard suit had been improper.

Marshall wrote the court's majority opinion in a separate case that made it more difficult for plaintiffs to receive large amounts of money in punitive damages. As a result of the ruling, the damages awarded in Harvard's case were cut.

McCombe said Marshall should have recused herself from the case since it had the potential to impact her former employer.

But Ryan said the Court's ruling was based on existing precedent and did not involve substantial innovation.

Marshall's husband, J. Anthony Lewis '48, who is also a former Crimson executive, said Marshall will not comment on the controversy surrounding her nomination until after the governor's council decision.