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Law lecturers sue Portobello College over ‘bullying’
24 January 2010 By Kieron Wood
Three law lecturers at Dublin Business School, including the dean of the law school, have taken High Court actions for bullying and harassment.
John O’Keeffe, Mary Rose Molloy and Lesley Anne Walter are all suing Kitagarth Services, which was acquired by the owner of DBS, Kaplan Inc, and trades as Portobello College.
O’Keeffe, who has lectured in tort and contract law at Portobello for ten years, claims that his job title was unilaterally removed 18 months after Kaplan took over the law school. O’Keeffe also claims that DBS failed properly to investigate his claims of bullying and harassment.
Molloy, a solicitor with 16 years’ lecturing in company and employment law in Portobello, claims that she was bullied for questioning the ‘‘inappropriate changing of marks’’ for students.
She also said she was excluded from two meetings with the King’s Inns, which was considering renewing its recognition of the DBS law degree.
The Inns eventually agreed last month to continue recognising the degree.
Walter, an American attorney and solicitor with five years’ experience teaching criminal law at Portobello, said she was given extra work and there was an implicit threat of dismissal because of her visa status. She also complained about the stress imposed by the DBS exam policy.
All three litigants are seeking declarations plus damages for personal injury, loss, distress and injury to their reputation.
A year ago, the law school had 14 permanent lecturers, but that number has now halved. More than 100 law students left last year because of fears that the King’s Inns might not renew its validation of the degree, which would affect graduates hoping to become barristers.
The DBS law degree is validated by the University of Wales, which was due to conduct its quinquennial review of the validation in 2008.That is now due to happen on February 3.
DBS spokeswoman Cliona O’Beirne said: ‘‘We would never comment on personnel or HR issues, as part of our company policy."
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