Savannah Law School (Photo: Wikimedia)

A former professor at the soon-to-be-closed Savannah Law School has sued the institution and its dean and owner, alleging her 2017 termination was based on her age, gender and her cancer treatments.

Maggie Tsavaris filed suit on May 25 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, claiming she was unlawfully fired from her tenure-track position to make way for younger faculty members. She claims that, at 60 years old, she was the oldest women faculty member at Savannah when she was terminated. She alleges that Atlanta's John Marshall Law School—which operates Savannah as a branch campus—also has a history of employment discrimination against minority women and legal writing instructors. (Tsavaris is white.)

“I've never felt discrimination before,” Tsavaris said in an interview Tuesday. “It's the most crushing, demoralizing sensation ever, and it's the 21st century and it's a law school? It has just been awful.”

Tsavaris is representing herself. The law school through a spokeswoman declined to comment on the suit.

Tsavaris' suit is just the latest litigation for John Marshall. At least two proposed class actions have been filed since April by Savannah Law students over the decision to close the school. John Marshall officials announced in March that the Savannah campus would not accept any new students and that its historic building had been sold. They cited low student enrollment as the reason for its closure. Students and alumni have launched a campaign to save the school by affiliating with a public university. For now, remaining students will be able to attend classes at an alternate location.

According to her suit, Tsavaris was hired to teach legal writing at Savannah in 2013 after teaching as an adjunct and visiting professor at several other law schools. Prior to the school year, however, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent surgery. She was reappointed for each of the next three years and was selected by the Class of 2017 to deliver a speech at graduation, the suit says. But Dean Malcom Morris in January 2017 informed her that the school was terminating her employment at the end of the academic year due to subpar teaching.

Morris allegedly visited her class on one occasion to observe and told Tsavaris that it was too lecture-heavy and was not interactive enough. Morris also cited allegedly low student evaluations in her termination, though Tsavaris claims that several younger faculty members with lower student reviews were allowed to keep their jobs.

“Defendant Morris singled out Ms. Tsavaris, an age-protected, disabled, white female professor, before she could apply for the tenure for which she worked very hard, for termination for pretextual reasons that her teaching was not up to par and her student evaluations were purportedly confirmation of that,” reads the complaint.

Tsavaris also alleges that Morris threatened her with bad references if she did not resign her position, which she refused to do. She claims she has applied to positions at many law school, but has yet to receive any offers.

She has brought 11 claims, including violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act; age discrimination, sex discrimination; breach of contract; and defamation.

She is seeking back pay, compensatory damages and other damages.