Harvard Plays Hardball

As Abramian worked to rebuild his life, the University strategized for its appeal of his legal case.

While the 50-year-old immigrant was represented by two lawyers who had never handled an anti-discrimination case before, Harvard hired the venerable Boston law firm Ropes & Gray to assist in their defense.

According to Abramian's lawyers, the University made no settlement offer above $15,000 during the trial--none of which would have gone to Abramian, since $17,000 of any settlement would go to the lawyer who did pre-trial work on the case.

And while Abramian was not represented by counsel after his initial lawyer withdrew from the case, he says, University Attorney Allan A. Ryan tried to convince him to settle for less than 0.1 percent of the damages he was seeking.

"Ryan said: 'Let's settle this. How about $1,000? Soon it will be Christmas,'" Abramian recalls. Abramian, who does not celebrate Christmas, says he found Harvard's tactics bullying. Ryan declined to comment on the incident or to confirm that it had occurred.

Doherty says Harvard's confidence may have been one reason why the University did not make larger settlement offers throughout the trial.

"I think what happened was the Harvard lawyers said, these are a couple guys who do indigent criminal defense, we don't have to take them seriously because they're not from big law firms," Doherty says. "They just walked into this blind alley, and we were waiting for them."