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Ogletree Faces Discipline for Copying Text

“Nonetheless, knowing Professor Ogletree and his work, any speculation that anyone knew of the repetition of Professor Balkin’s material beforehand would, frankly, be outrageous and even libelous,” Capone wrote in an e-mail.

The copied material begins Chapter 16, entitled “Meeting the Educational Challenges of the Twenty-first Century.” The two-page passage details desegregation efforts in recent decades.

Ogletree said that after reviewing the matter, he contacted Balkin to apologize.

“He has been incredibly gracious throughout the process,” Ogletree said of Balkin.

W.W. Norton publicity director Louise Brockett said that they have inserted an errata sheet explaining the attribution in all books that remain in their warehouse. She added that future printings, including the paperback due out next spring, will properly attribute the material.

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She said the error was “impossible for us to detect,” because the copied passage was properly footnoted, and Norton found the footnotes to be accurate. Ogletree informed his Norton editor as soon as he discovered the missing attribution, Brockett said.

“Norton did check every footnote to the book,” she said. “You wouldn’t have any other way of knowing unless you had read Balkin’s book and had an exceptional memory.”

Brockett said she thinks errors of this nature occur “from time to time throughout the industry,” although she couldn’t recall another example involving Norton.

Clark and Balkin could not be reached for comment by phone or e-mail.

Ogletree is a prominent national figure on racial and criminal issues and has written multiple books. He helped represent Anita Hill in her lawsuit against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and has led a lawsuit seeking reparations for the descendants and survivors of the 1921 race riot in Tulsa. The National Law Journal has named him one America’s 100 Most Influential Lawyers in 2000 and Savoy Magazine named him one of the 100 Most Influential Blacks in America in 2003.

—Staff writer Stephen M. Marks can be reached at marks@fas.harvard.edu.

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