Michigan State University. Photo: EQRoy/Shutterstock.com

When Michigan State University general counsel Robert Noto resigned under pressure in mid-February for his handling of the Larry Nassar sex scandal, he took with him a severance package worth about $436,000.

Details of Noto's severance deal were contained in Michigan State records provided to Corporate Counsel this week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Noto repeatedly has not returned messages seeking comment.

According to a Feb. 19 letter from MSU Interim President John Engler to Noto, the general counsel's retirement was effective March 5.

Among other items, Engler's letter said, “You will be paid transition support in an amount equivalent to six months salary.” According to the records, as of Oct. 1, 2017, Noto earned $403,100 a year. So six months' severance pay equaled $201,550.

In addition, Noto was to be paid for 151 accumulated vacation days. Based on an average of 260 working days in a year, his earned vacation pay was about $234,108. That gave him a total cash payout of just under $436,000.

The letter also granted Noto computer support from the university as well as the use of his university-owned car, both through Sept. 5. Noto accepted and signed the deal on Feb. 25.

The university did not immediately reply to messages seeking comment on the severance package.

In his resignation letter dated the same day as Engler's, Noto wrote, “I have long understood that a successful relationship between a university president and that institution's general counsel depends on the intangibles of that relationship as much as it does on the general counsel's technical legal proficiency. I, therefore, also understand your desire to fashion such a relationship with a principal counsel of your own choosing at the inception of your term as Interim President of MSU.”

Noto had served as general counsel since 1995, and was the longest-serving vice president at MSU and the longest-serving principal legal officer of the Big Ten Academic Alliance.

But he came under heated attack by critics and school trustees for failing to detect and resolve sexual abuse complaints against Nassar, a university sports doctor, from hundreds of women before they exploded into lawsuits against the university and damaged MSU's reputation.

Especially troubling was a 2014 Title IX complaint against Nassar that was investigated by an in-house attorney who became an assistant general counsel under Noto. The probe cleared the doctor of misconduct.

But Nassar has since pleaded guilty to sexually abusing and assaulting young women athletes for years, and will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

MSU named deputy general counsel Kristine Zayko as acting GC to replace Noto.

The Nassar scandal has claimed at least four high-ranking MSU executives. Besides Noto, the former university president and the athletic director both resigned under pressure. And the dean of the osteopathic medical school, who supervised Nassar, was fired and then charged on March 27 with criminal misconduct.

In addition, the Detroit Free Press reported April 17 that Vice President Scott Westerman, the executive director of MSU's Alumni Association, was under investigation by the school's Title IX office and has resigned. No further details about that investigation were available.

Nearly a dozen investigations into how the university handled the Nassar complaints are ongoing.

The story updated to correct the name of the attorney serving as acting GC of MSU.