Judge OKs Duke’s $19 Million Faculty No-Poach Settlement

The professor leading antitrust litigation over an alleged faculty no-poach agreement between Duke University and the University of North Carolina (UNC) persuaded a federal judge to approve a US$19 million class action settlement with Duke that builds on an earlier US$54.5 million deal.

Judge Catherine C. Eagles signed off on Monday, August 30, on the agreement, which ends the second successive lawsuit brought over the alleged no-poach pact in the US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. The earlier case, which settled in 2019, involved only medical faculty.

The lawsuit sought to cover a class of more than 5,000 potentially affected faculty members.

UNC settled the allegations last year in a court-approved deal in which the university agreed not to enter into no-poach deals with other employers. The university also agreed to assist Dr. Seaman in her case against Duke. It did not admit to any wrongdoing.

In the proposed settlement, Duke agreed to similar commitments as well as the US$54.5 million payment to compensate medical faculty members who allegedly were harmed. Like UNC, it did not admit to any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

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