RHODE ISLAND
The American Lawyer
Jennifer Henderson, The Am Law Daily
January 21, 2016
A week after a storied New England boarding school hired former Massachusetts Attorney General L. Scott Harshbarger to lead an independent investigation into an onslaught of sexual abuse allegations against former employees and students, the former Proskauer Rose senior counsel has been abruptly replaced by Foley Hoag.
On Wednesday, St. George’s School in Middletown, Rhode Island, and SGS for Healing—a group comprised of more than 40 alleged victims working to hold the elite Episcopalian institution accountable in a decades-old sex scandal and provide others with support—announced the hire of Foley Hoag partner Martin Murphy in Boston to conduct the inquiry.
Murphy, who focuses his practice on complex investigations, civil litigation and regulatory work, will replace Harshbarger as the private school’s new independent investigator. (Harshbarger left Proskauer late last year to join Casner & Edwards, where he is now senior counsel in the Boston firm’s litigation and nonprofit groups.)
In a joint statement, St. George’s School and SGS for Healing said the decision to replace Harshbarger, who was hired on Jan. 11, came “after being unable to reach agreement on legal terms of engagement” with Harshbarger and his firm. The statement did not provide any further reason for the switch, and a spokesman for the school did not return a request for comment Thursday.
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