This post was updated Jan. 8 at 10:04 p.m.

A Santa Monica Superior Court judge officially sided with UC administrators Monday in a lawsuit brought by a UCLA lecturer who alleged he was unfairly put on leave in 2020 and requested $13 million in damages.  

The move followed Judge H. Jay Ford III’s tentative decision, which he filed Dec. 1, to which an attorney for plaintiff Gordon Klein responded with a 58-page objection Dec. 16. The judge sided with the defendants – the UC Board of Regents and Antonio Bernardo, the former dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management – on all claims. 

[Related: Court tentatively rules in favor of UC administrators in lawsuit by UCLA lecturer] 

Steven Goldberg, an attorney for Klein, said the lecturer plans to appeal the decision. 

Klein, a continuing lecturer at the School of Management, sued Bernardo and the board after UCLA suspended him in June 2020. Klein was placed on administrative leave following an email exchange in which he said he would not provide grading accommodations to Black students after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, in May 2020.

Klein said in his emailed response to the student that “a white student from there (Minneapolis) might possibly be even more devastated by this.” He added in his emailed response that granting accommodations would amount to “special treatment,” and asked the student how he would accommodate “any students that may be of mixed parentage,” suggesting that those students might then only receive partial accommodation. 

Klein’s email response was widely circulated on social media and resulted in a petition calling for his removal that collected more than 21,000 signatures. A counterpetition supporting his reinstatement gathered more than 75,000 signatures. 

Bernardo called Klein’s email “outrageous” and “inexcusable” in a June 2020 email to students who complained about its contents and said in an email to the School of Management community later that month that Klein would be placed on leave.

[Related: Klein v. Bernardo and UC Regents]

Klein sued Bernardo for negligence and emotional distress, alleging that Bernardo’s actions in June 2020 resulted in significant harm to Klein’s expert witness practice. 

He also sued the regents for damages to his reputation, citing a breach of confidentiality and contract.

“The more credible evidence shows any negative opinions formed by others concerned Klein’s objectional emails, and the resulting social media fervor that began before UCLA made any public statements regarding Klein,” Ford III wrote in his statement of decision. 

Mary Osako, UCLA’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, said in an emailed statement that UCLA supports freedom of expression and respects the court’s decision. 

“Our university and its leaders support freedom of expression while ensuring a respectful learning environment where all Bruins can thrive,” Osako said in the statement. “When allegations arise that academic personnel or others have failed to uphold these values, we have rigorous processes in place to ensure fairness for all involved.”

Goldberg described the decision as “shocking,” and said Klein’s legal team made the decision to forfeit a jury trial in favor of a bench trial – in which a judge is the sole decider – because they believed Ford III to have “intellectual capability and apparent fairness.” 

He added that he believes the court violated Klein’s academic freedom and that Klein was penalized solely for expressing an opinion UCLA “did not like.”  

“This decision is a grotesque miscarriage of justice,” Goldberg said. “The judge seems to have set aside both the evidence and the law to come to a decision that was somehow made outside of the evidence and the law.” 

A status conference in the case is scheduled for Jan. 15 at 8:30 a.m. 

“The credible evidence shows the harm Klein claims was more likely than not caused by Klein’s own statements, and the statements of third-parties unrelated to the actions and statements by Bernardo,” Ford III said in the decision.