Texas Tax Lawyer's Suit Over Georgetown Job Fair Ban Is Tossed
John Anthony Castro alleged that Georgetown University Law Center discriminated and retaliated against him when it barred him from a 2015 recruiting event for tax LL.M students. He was excluded from the same event as a student for allegedly lying about attending West Point.
August 16, 2018 at 11:59 AM
3 minute read
A federal judge has thrown out a Texas tax attorney's lawsuit against his alma mater, Georgetown University Law Center, that claimed the school unlawfully banned him from a job fair after concerns arose over discrepancies on his resume.
Judge Barbara Lynn of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas dismissed John Anthony Castro's suit Tuesday on the grounds that the court lacked personal jurisdiction over the law school in Washington, D.C. “Defendants' only alleged contact with Texas is that Castro, a Texas resident, placed a phone call, on an unidentified date, to Georgetown University's Career Services Office,” Lynn wrote in her opinion. “This single contact is not evidence that Defendants purposefully directed any activities to Texas.”
Castro, who is Hispanic, sued the law school in March claiming that Georgetown's decision to bar him from its tax hiring fair constituted racial discrimination and retaliation.
Castro's attorney, Joshua Milam, did not immediately respond to request for comment Thursday. A Georgetown Law spokeswoman reached Thursday declined to comment.
Castro's dispute with the school dates back to his days as a student in Georgetown's tax LL.M. program during the 2012-13 academic year, according to his complaint. (Castro obtained his J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law.) Prior to Georgetown's spring hiring fair for tax LL.M. students, administrators raised concerns about discrepancies in Castro's resume and barred him from attending the fair as a student.
“Undeterred by the University's decision, Castro reached out directly to employers who would be attending and sought to arrange interviews with them at the job fair,” according to the school's April 17 motion to dismiss. “When the University found out, it also became aware of another misrepresentation Castro had made: he claimed to have been a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, when in fact he had only briefly attended a prep school for students not yet academically qualified to attend West Point.”
In his complaint, Castro claims that he, in fact, was accepted to West Point and attended the prepatory program. He had not intended to mislead anyone, he said, about his record of military service. He alleged that associate dean Nan Hunter sought to have him expelled but that an independent review concluded he should not be kicked out of the program.
The law school's motion said that the matter was referred to the university's ethics counsel, which concluded that Castro should not be disciplined.
Two years after leaving Georgetown, Castro sought to attend the same spring hiring event for tax LL.M. students from which he had been earlier barred, now in the role of employer seeking talent for his firm, Castro & Co. But Hunter excluded him from the event, according to both Castro's complaint and the school's motion to dismiss.
“Castro is a clearly Hispanic individual and Defendant's concerted actions continually targeting Castro are in clear violation of Castro's Constitutional rights, and Castro is being denied equal protection because of his race through Defendant's conspiratorial actions,” reads his complaint.
The school's motion to dismiss argued that its 2015 denial of Castro's participation in the hiring fair falls outside of the statute of limitations and that the Texas court has no jurisdiction over the Washington-based matter.
Lynn focused her opinion on the later argument, ultimately dismissing the case.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllHomegrown Texas Law Firms Expanded Outside the Lone Star State in 2024 As Out-of-State Firms Moved In
5 minute readEnergy Lawyers Working in Texas Expect Strong Demand to Continue in 2025 Across Energy Sector
6 minute readTrending Stories
- 1The Key Moves in the Reshuffling German Legal Market as 2025 Dawns
- 2Social Media Celebrities Clash in $100M Lawsuit
- 3Federal Judge Sets 2026 Admiralty Bench Trial in Baltimore Bridge Collapse Litigation
- 4Trump Media Accuses Purchaser Rep of Extortion, Harassment After Merger
- 5Judge Slashes $2M in Punitive Damages in Sober-Living Harassment Case
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250