Yale ‘Tiger Mom’ Law Professor Seemingly Punished For Allegedly Throwing Parties During Pandemic, Which She Denies

A Yale Law School professor publicly accused of hosting dinner parties during the coronavirus pandemic and violating a previous agreement with the university has apparently been punished.

Amy Chua will no longer teach a small-group of first-year law students, apparently due to allegations against her that she says are false. The ordeal began last week when the Yale Daily News reported that Chua would no longer be teaching the small-group of first-year law students. The article claimed that “students raised allegations that she is still hosting private dinner parties at the home she shares with her husband, suspended law professor Jed Rubenfeld, despite having agreed in 2019 to cease all out-of-class hours interactions with students.”

The News also reported that it had received a December 2019 letter from Law School dean Heather Gerken that said Chua had agreed at the time to no longer drink or socialize with students outside of the classroom or office hours after she was accused of misconduct. The News also said it had reviewed “documented allegations” against Chua, alleging she had continued to host “private dinner parties with current Law School students and prominent members of the legal community.”

The day after the article was published, Chua took to Twitter to defend herself, publishing a letter she sent to the Yale Law School faculty, which questioned whether Yale had disclosed confidential information to students and the press. Chua wrote that she had been contacted by the News on March 28, asking her for comment regarding the news that she would “not be leading a small group at the law school next year.” Chua said in her letter that this was the first she had heard about the change to her teaching schedule, and that she had never wanted to teach the small group in the first place, but had been repeatedly asked by a Yale administrator. Chua said that the email from the News reporter was also the first time she heard she had been accused of “hosting parties” at her house during the coronavirus pandemic.

Further, Chua said the News reporter had “a shocking number of confidential details about an agreement I reached” with Yale in 2019, which she said were inaccurate in numerous ways, but contained “enough correct details to leave no doubt that confidential information, known only to the Dean’s office, has somehow been disclosed.”

Chua said that instead of responding to the News reporter, she reached out to Gerken to discuss, and agreed to talk to her and another administrator on a Zoom call. Chua wrote that she “was treated absolutely degradingly, like a criminal,” by Gerken during the call. Gerken, according to Chua, never explained how the reporter received the confidential information.

Gerken on the call allegedly pushed Chua to “be candid” and kept asking if she had invited a federal judge over to her home during a gathering with students.

“I honestly had no idea what she was talking about, and I felt that was in an inquisition,” Chua wrote. “I was distraught and totally confused. I kept asking what was going on. A federal judge over to my house with students?! No, no, no, I told her. The suggestion is not only 100% false but (during COVID) ludicrous.”

What Chua did admit to was counseling a handful of students throughout the pandemic who had reached out to her because they felt they had no one else to turn to; students who were concerned about recent racist and violent messages sent around campus, accusations that the Law Journal was racist, and the recent claims of anti-Asian violence in the news. She met with these students (not all together) at her home on occasion to discuss their concerns and try to help, something she said she would “not only stand by, but am proud of.”

Chua in her letter suggested all faculty and staff should be concerned that a confidential agreement with Gerken had been shared with students or the press and that a teaching decision could be made public before the person involved is even informed.

Chua has called for an “outside investigation into the disclosure of confidential and private personnel information.”

Chua told The College Fix in an interview that the situation was “surreal,” especially considering she is a professor at a law school where students are taught “due process and transparency and rule of law.”

Chua is known for writing the 2011 book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” defending Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh from dubious allegations of sexual assault, and helping J.D. Vance write “Hillbilly Elegy,” a best-selling book that was recently turned into a film.

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