Laurel Pyke Malson

Recent key representations included: Title IX litigation defending universities against claims brought by both complainants and respondents; defending putative class action claims for tuition refunds arising out of the COVID-19 campus closures in 2020; litigation involving faculty tenure disputes, race and sex discrimination, faculty abuse of students, and the institution’s duty of care regarding suicidal students; compliance counseling, student disciplinary matters, and independent investigations of historic faculty misconduct with students, of racially hostile campus environments, and of sexual harassment on Division I athletic teams; counseling independent schools on procedures for responding to sexual misconduct and similar allegations of discrimination; counseling regarding athletic coach abuse investigations by SafeSport; defense of public university systems involving First Amendment freedom of speech claims; advising state universities regarding tuition benefits for undocumented students; advocating for victims of Libyan State-sponsored terrorism before the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the United States; securing judgments for victims of Iranian State-sponsored terrorism and advocating on their behalf before the U.S. Victims of State-Sponsored Terrorism Fund; defending a large urban public school system in a class action and U.S. enforcement action involving English Language Learners under Title VI and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act; defending the District of Columbia Public Schools in a major class action under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; defending the American Psychiatric Association in the Ritalin and ECT consumer fraud class action litigations in multiple state and federal jurisdictions; and representing a class of thousands of African American farmers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture to redress claims of race discrimination in federal farm loan credit transactions. She was also a key member of the team that secured a $6 billion judgment on behalf of the estates and family members of seven U.S. nationals who perished, and the U.S. owner of the aircraft that was destroyed, in the 1989 bombing of UTA Flight 772 over the Sahara Desert (Pugh v. Libya, Case No. 02-2026 (D.D.C.)). In addition, she represented a non-profit health plan in arbitrations asserting breach of contract and fraud claims against pharmacy benefit managers arising out of the “usual and customary” price charged for certain prescription drug products. Ms. Malson was a Mediator for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. She chaired the Committee on Grievances for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia from 2001 to 2004.

Before entering private practice in 1985, Ms. Malson served in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice for four years, where she was responsible for a broad range of constitutional and federal statutory matters. Ms. Malson clerked for the Honorable Harry T. Edwards on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (1980-1981) and the Honorable Damon J. Keith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1979-1980).