Cheryl Butler v. Jennifer M. Collins, et al.

Dallas, Texas employment law lawyers represented the Plaintiff on a civil rights job discrimination claim.



Southern Methodist University ("SMU”) previously employed Plaintiff-Appellant Cheryl Butler as a non-tenured law professor at the SMU Dedman School of Law. After being denied tenure in 2016 and leaving the law school in 2017, Butler sued SMU and a number of its administrators and professors (the "Individual Defendants”), asserting federal- and state law claims arising from and/or related to her tenure application and its denial. Deciding that the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act, Texas Labor Code §21.001 et seq., preempts Butler's negligent supervision claim against SMU, as well as her fraud, defamation, and conspiracy-to-defame claims against the Individual Defendants, the district court granted

the defendants' Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss as to those claims. Thereafter, following additional motion practice, Butler's remaining claims were dismissed by summary judgment granted in the defendants' favor.

Reversed in part, affirmed in part and remanded.