Written by Isabel Sherriffs
On 5 February 2025, the not-for-profit organisation Good Law Project (GLP) called for funds for a new campaign to use legal means to combat sexual misconduct and suppression of dissent at LSE, according to a post on its website. The organisation criticised LSE’s alleged mishandling of a series of sexual misconduct complaints against an LSE professor.
GLP announced its intentions to provide one of the women involved in the case with counsel, as well as opening its own investigation. The organisation also accused LSE of “silencing women” who spoke on the situation, and invited anyone affected by the situation to contact the GLP.
The allegations described by the GLP were first published by The Beaver in March 2024. In 2021, five women brought forward formal complaints against an LSE professor, prompting an internal investigation, which the GLP claim was “botched”. The investigation resulted in the dismissal of the allegations, whilst the complainants allege the investigation was a heavily flawed process.
GLP is now asking the public for donations to support one of the complainants in drawing up an internal complaint about the university’s mishandling of the investigation to the LSE’s vice president. If this new complaint was to be dismissed, the organisation declared it would bring the case before the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education.
Since the sexual misconduct allegations were published in March 2024, many members of the LSE community have voiced their dissatisfaction on campus and on social media. GLP claims some of those who spoke out publicly, particularly on social media, have been met with disciplinary procedures. For example, one student was required to attend a disciplinary meeting because of a social media comment referencing a specific professor and criticising the LSE’s mishandling of sexual misconduct complaints. With its campaign, GLP hopes to defend students from action taken by LSE.
In addition to support with internal procedures, GLP plans to launch its own investigation, which it hopes will result in more details on the case being publicised, including the accused professor’s name. Thus far, the professor’s name or department has not been made available to the public, and publication could carry the risk of a defamation lawsuit.
In a comment to The Beaver, GLP urged any students facing disciplinary action or feeling affected by the case to reach out to the organisation.
An LSE spokesperson said:
“While we do not normally comment on the details of individual disciplinary investigations, we want to assure both students and staff that the allegations in this particular case were investigated very extensively and in light of specialist advice. We are confident that the investigation was robust and that the outcome, in which the allegations were not upheld, was the correct one in light of the evidence presented. “
“We can also assure the community that no staff or students have been disciplined for speaking out about sexual harassment.”
“LSE is committed to a working and learning environment where people can achieve their full potential free of all types of harassment and violence. We take reports of sexual harassment extremely seriously and encourage any member of the LSE community who has experienced or witnessed this to get in touch via one of our many channels, which allow students and staff to make anonymous reports and access specialist support.”
“LSE has developed, and continues to develop, a number of measures to ensure that any allegation of misconduct receives a trauma-informed, robust and compassionate response.”
“These measures include the new Report + Support system, which enables us to address issues more quickly and consistently across the School and vastly improves our approach to case management and communication with all involved. In line with sector best practice, we also plan to make greater use of external investigators in the future.”
“We have commissioned Rape Crisis South London and Survivors UK to run an Independent Sexual Violence Advisory service for the School. This provides practical and emotional support for any student (or staff member) who needs it, and supports them through a reporting process and/or the criminal justice process if they wish. This service is available online without a waiting list. This represents a step-change in the level of specialist support we’re offering our students.”
”We have also implemented an all-staff online training course on addressing harassment and sexual misconduct affecting students, developed with Advance HE, tailored to LSE’s needs and linked to our policies. This training is being rolled out across the School.”
“LSE’s approach on this vital area is grounded in sector-leading policies and specialist advice. These policies include the prohibition of personal relationships between students and staff whose role includes supervising or otherwise interacting with students as part of their job; training for specialist staff and senior leadership focused on trauma-informed investigations, adjudication, and sanctioning; and commissioning a range of dedicated external specialists to provide wellbeing support and outreach victim-survivor support services on campus.”
“Alongside this, in close working with the Students’ Union, we have redesigned our Consent Ed programme to set out clearly to students what is, and is not, acceptable and made this training required for all new entrants to LSE. We have also employed a specialist member of staff with expertise in sexual harassment and violence, to provide a consistent point of contact from disclosure through to any other university or criminal processes.”
A spokesperson from the student-led anti-sexual harassment campaign group HandsOff said:
“HandsOff stands in complete solidarity with the Good Law Project’s support of one of the survivors of sexual misconduct that LSE attempted to silence. We support them in their pursuit of justice and action from LSE. The support of such an important organisation such as the Good Law Project speaks to the injustice of LSE’s protection of predators and suppression of survivors’ voices. HandsOff will continue to campaign against such injustice and to make LSE an environment that uplifts survivors’ voices, rather than silence them and suppress them, as LSE has done with the women who spoke out against the International History professor.”
A spokesperson for Good Law Project said they would “like to hear of any disciplinary actions that have been taken against students in regard to this case, and is willing to provide guidance on these.”
“We would also like to offer the opportunity for anyone who has been impacted directly by this case to come to us if they would like support in making a complaint to LSE or simply would like to share their story with us.”
