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Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., a Harvard University law professor, has stepped down as one of the lawyers on Harvey Weinstein's defense team. Students have been pushing for Sullivan's removal as a dean of one of Harvard's residential colleges, saying that role with Weinstein lost him the trust of students. Harvard recently said it would not renew Sullivan and his wife as deans of a residential college, but the university cited other reasons for doing so.
In an email on Monday, Sullivan said that his decision to quit the Weinstein team had nothing to with the student protests. He released this statement on Monday: "Today the court approved my request to withdraw from representing Harvey Weinstein in his pending criminal trial. The rescheduling of the trial to begin September 9, 2019, created an unresolvable conflict between continuing the representation and my teaching obligations at the Harvard Law School. Though I stated my September unavailability in the defense motion to continue the matter, the court was unable to accommodate a later trial date. My decision to represent Mr. Weinstein sparked considerable discussion and activism around issues of sexual violence, the appropriate role and responsibilities of Harvard and its faculty in addressing those issues, and the tension between protecting the rights of those criminally accused and validating the experience of those who are survivors of sexual violence. My representation of those accused of sexual assault does not speak to my personal views on any of these matters."
