According to the lawsuit, Camille Rich and her ex-husband, Stephen M. Rich, also a professor at USC Law, and now a vice dean of the law school, divorced in 2019. During the divorce process, Camille filed a Title IX complaint alleging Stephen was carrying on an affair with a student.<\/p>\n
In the lawsuit, Camille says years of dealing with a hostile work environment and the implosion of her marriage left her with PTSD, trauma she says worsened when she learned Stephen\u2019s relationship with the student was ongoing. Stephen later married the former student, Deanna Rafla-Yuan, and the couple had twins in March 2020.<\/p>\n
This wasn\u2019t just messy. This was nuclear.<\/p>\n
Camille also alleges that during their separation, Stephen attempted to defame her to colleagues, \u201cpainting himself the tormented victim\u201d in an effort to pressure her into returning to the marriage. A bold strategy, which did not, in fact, pay off.<\/p>\n
Camille claims the university conducted a \u201cperfunctory and sham inquiry\u201d into her Title IX complaints, dismissing them as unfounded without even interviewing Stephen. She says that instead of protecting her, USC officials retaliated by denying disability accommodations she needed for PTSD, refusing to restore lost pay for trauma-related absences, and handing her poor performance evaluations. She also alleges that then\u2013dean and current provost Andrew Guzman denied her request to cap class sizes, and that Guzman\u2019s personal friendship with Stephen made impartial review impossible.<\/p>\n
USC, for its part, says oh absolutely not.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the university insisted: \u201cThe lawsuit has no legal merit. We look forward to defending the university\u2019s position in court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stephen\u2019s now-wife, Rafla-Yuan, also issued<\/a> a statement pushing back hard on the narrative, saying the complaint contains \u201cnumerous untrue statements\u201d about her and her relationship with Stephen. She insists their romantic relationship began after<\/em> she left USC Law.<\/p>\n The post Top Law School Accused Of \u2018Sham\u2019 Title IX Investigation In Wake Of Professors\u2019 Divorce<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n Buckle up, the allegations in this lawsuit against the University of Southern California are wild.<\/p>\n USC Gould School of Law Professor Camille Rich filed a federal lawsuit<\/a> claiming that the university ignored her Title IX complaints about her ex-husband\u2019s alleged affair with a student \u2014 and then retaliated against her when she dared to speak up.<\/p>\n According to the lawsuit, Camille Rich and her ex-husband, Stephen M. Rich, also a professor at USC Law, and now a vice dean of the law school, divorced in 2019. During the divorce process, Camille filed a Title IX complaint alleging Stephen was carrying on an affair with a student.<\/p>\n In the lawsuit, Camille says years of dealing with a hostile work environment and the implosion of her marriage left her with PTSD, trauma she says worsened when she learned Stephen\u2019s relationship with the student was ongoing. Stephen later married the former student, Deanna Rafla-Yuan, and the couple had twins in March 2020.<\/p>\n This wasn\u2019t just messy. This was nuclear.<\/p>\n Camille also alleges that during their separation, Stephen attempted to defame her to colleagues, \u201cpainting himself the tormented victim\u201d in an effort to pressure her into returning to the marriage. A bold strategy, which did not, in fact, pay off.<\/p>\n Camille claims the university conducted a \u201cperfunctory and sham inquiry\u201d into her Title IX complaints, dismissing them as unfounded without even interviewing Stephen. She says that instead of protecting her, USC officials retaliated by denying disability accommodations she needed for PTSD, refusing to restore lost pay for trauma-related absences, and handing her poor performance evaluations. She also alleges that then\u2013dean and current provost Andrew Guzman denied her request to cap class sizes, and that Guzman\u2019s personal friendship with Stephen made impartial review impossible.<\/p>\n USC, for its part, says oh absolutely not.<\/p>\n In a statement, the university insisted: \u201cThe lawsuit has no legal merit. We look forward to defending the university\u2019s position in court.\u201d<\/p>\n Stephen\u2019s now-wife, Rafla-Yuan, also issued<\/a> a statement pushing back hard on the narrative, saying the complaint contains \u201cnumerous untrue statements\u201d about her and her relationship with Stephen. She insists their romantic relationship began after<\/em> she left USC Law.<\/p>\n Buckle up, the allegations in this lawsuit against the University of Southern California are wild. USC Gould School of Law Professor Camille Rich filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the university ignored her Title IX complaints about her ex-husband\u2019s alleged affair with a student \u2014 and then retaliated against her when she dared to speak […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":138088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-HoIHrV.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568.jpg?resize=174%2C160&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/10\/USC-Gould-Law-300x224.png?resize=300%2C224&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
\nKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"