Michigan State University. Photo: EQRoy/Shutterstock.com

Michigan State University continues its search for a new general counsel while the legal problems and lawyers' fees keep piling up in the lingering aftermath of sports doctor Larry Nassar's sexual abuse scandal.

In the past week, a Michigan state judge ruled that former president Lou Anna Simon, who resigned her post under pressure from the scandal and later retired, must stand trial on four criminal charges that she lied to investigators about what she knew and when she knew it. Simon faces several years in prison if convicted.

Simon, who has pleaded not guilty, could not be reached for comment Friday. Her attorney is Lee Silver of the Grand Rapids, Michigan, firm Silver & Van Essen, which emailed this statement to Corporate Counsel on Friday, "We are disappointed by the district court's ruling in light of the complete lack of evidence to support the charges against Lou Anna Simon. We plan to vigorously defend Dr. Simon and will be appealing the decision of the district court. We remain confident that we will ultimately prevail and that [she] will be fully acquitted of these charges."

Two in-house counsel who were key witnesses in her preliminary hearings in Michigan District Court 56A are expected to also play key roles at Simon's trial, if there is one.

They are Paulette Granberry Russell, senior adviser to the president for diversity and director of the Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives, which investigated Nassar in 2014; and Kristine Moore, the Nassar investigator who was later named assistant general counsel at the university.

A university spokeswoman said the school along with Moore and Granberry Russell declined to comment Friday.

Moore was admonished, but not disciplined, by the Michigan Supreme Court's attorney grievance commission in August for conducting a "deficient" investigation that wrongly cleared Nassar in 2014.

Moore remains in her job at the university. Meanwhile, since February 2018 two former Michigan State general counsel and a deputy general counsel promoted to acting general counsel were either ousted or departed under pressure because of the Nassar fallout. The school has been without a permanent general since February 2019.

Public records show the university has already spent nearly $1 million on defending Simon during seven hearings over the summer and providing outside counsel to Granberry Russell and Moore.

Lansing, Michigan-based law firm Fraser Trebilcock Davis & Dunlap represents Granberry Russell, who testified she told Simon in 2014 about the complaint against Nassar but did not recall the details of what was said.

Grand Rapids-based law firm Varnum represents Moore, who also had to testify recently in the criminal case against Nassar's supervisor and former medical school dean William Strampel, who was convicted and sentenced to a year in prison.

In total, the school has spent over $20 million on attorneys alone, including for civil suits and numerous state and federal investigations, since the Nassar sex crimes became public in 2016, and the figure keeps rising.

Those fees include ongoing payments to attorney Mary Chartier, of the Lansing law firm Chartier & Nyamfukudza, to defend former university gymnastics coach Kathie Klages.

Klages has been charged with a felony for allegedly lying to police about a Nassar abuse complaint she received in 1997. Her preliminary hearings continue, and her criminal trial is expected to start in early 2020.

In related news, Nancy Schlichting, the newest member of the school's board of trustees, resigned Oct. 26, citing the board's refusal to pursue a promised independent investigation into how the university overlooked or enabled the Nassar sexual abuse. The board had announced in June that it was hiring McDermott Will & Emery to conduct such an investigation, but then decided against it last month.

Schlichting is the former CEO of the Henry Ford Health System. School president Samuel Stanley Jr. issued a statement saying, "I'm sorry that she is stepping down, but I wish her much personal success and happiness with her other projects. We valued her insight and contributions while she was with us."