HBS Professor Gino Amends Lawsuit Against Harvard to Claim Gender Discrimination

Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino filed a motion on Monday to amend her $25 million lawsuit against the University to include Title VII and discrimination claims.

This motion comes more than a month after U.S. District Court Judge Myong J. Joun dismissed Gino’s defamation charges against Harvard. Still, Joun allowed a key portion of Gino’s lawsuit to proceed: the claim that Gino’s contract with Harvard was breached by allegedly subjecting her to unfair disciplinary actions.

Gino currently faces the possibility of her tenure being revoked over allegations that she committed data fraud in her academic work. In July 2023, the University’s top administration began a review of Gino’s tenure as professor at Harvard.

Gino, who has denied all allegations of academic misconduct, revised her initial complaint alleging Title IX discrimination to incorporate Title VII claims that specifically prohibit sex-based discrimination as it applies to discipline and firing in the workplace.

Harvard Business School spokesperson Mark Cautela declined to comment on the filing.

Andrew T. Miltenberg, an attorney for Gino, wrote in a statement on Monday that “in a system that claims fairness, Professor Gino was subject to an unprecedented and retroactive policy — one crafted specifically for her as a woman, while her male peers were protected by long-established protocols.”

“This is not just selective justice; this is discrimination hiding in plain sight,” Miltenberg wrote.

Gino was placed on a two-year unpaid administrative leave following the investigation — a move made in accordance with a newly created “Interim Policy and Procedures for Responding to Allegations of Research Misconduct.”

Gino alleged in her lawsuit that the new interim policy was created in order to sanction her. She also claimed that she was unfairly targeted because of her gender as Harvard conducted an internal investigation into the data fraud allegations against her.

In a 2023 op-ed published by The Crimson, seven tenured HBS faculty voiced their concerns about the lack of transparency regarding the interim policy, writing that the “policy was in place for two years before ever being mentioned to faculty.”

“The new policy appears to have been designed specifically for Gino. It created artificial and arbitrary restrictions that limited her ability to defend herself,” the professors wrote.

Key details in Gino’s new filing about discrimination hinge on HBS Dean Srikant Datar allegedly discriminating against female faculty members at the school.

Gino’s lawyers wrote in the complaint that she has “specifically alleged facts that, in their totality, support a reasonable inference that Dean Datar bore discriminatory animus toward Professor Gino’s protected class.”

The filing also cites inconsistencies between institutional discipline for female and male faculty, referencing the case of an unnamed male junior professor at HBS who was charged with research misconduct in November 2019. After being investigated under the 2013 policy, the unnamed professor cited in the complaint allegedly faced no sanctions and was later awarded tenure.

Gino’s revised complaint also alleges Datar handpicked members for the investigation committee that had a history of not promoting women.

The lawsuit was also amended to allege that Datar asked a colleague at HBS to “counsel out” Gino, “meaning to ask Plaintiff to resign based on anonymous allegations of research misconduct.”

Miltenberg wrote in his Monday statement that “Datar asking an HBS colleague to ‘counsel out’ Professor Gino when concerns about her work manifested was not a matter of justice, but a desperate attempt to quiet a voice they could not truthfully condemn.”

“When those in positions of power lack evidence to support their decisions, they resort to silence through coercion,” he added.

—Staff writer Kyle Baek can be reached at kyle.baek@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @KBaek53453.

—Staff writer Ava H. Rem can be reached at ava.rem@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @avar3m.