Cozen O'Connor's vice chairman has found himself in the spotlight again for statements made as a board member for Temple University, after he sharply criticized a Temple professor's speech before the United Nations about Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Patrick J. O'Connor, one of Cozen O'Connor's founders and chairman of Temple's board of trustees, drew backlash over the weekend from the Temple Association of University Professionals after suggesting that professor Marc Lamont Hill's status with the university might be in danger. O'Connor made those remarks in reaction to Hill's speech before the United Nations last week, in which he criticized Israel's treatment of Palestinians. O'Connor called the speech ”lamentable” and “disgusting,” according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“I'm not happy. The board's not happy. The administration's not happy. People wanted to fire him right away,” O'Connor said in an interview with The Inquirer on Nov. 30. “We're going to look at what remedies we have.”

Hill had also been a commentator for CNN, but the news network ended his contract after the U.N. speech Thursday. Some have called Hill's statements anti-Semitic, particularly his call for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea.” Hill has defended himself on social media, saying he supports Palestinian freedom but does not support anti-Semitism.

Temple University president Richard Englert made a statement Nov. 30 as well, in part highlighting the university's stance on religious and ethnic tolerance. “Temple condemns in the strongest possible terms all anti-Semitic, racist or incendiary language, hate speech, calls to violence, and the disparagement of any person or persons based on religion, nationality, race, gender, sexual orientation or identity,” the statement said.

Englert's statement also emphasized that “Professor Hill's right to express his opinion is protected by the Constitution to the same extent as any other private citizen.” But TAUP criticized university leadership for failing to note explicitly that Hill's comments are protected by “academic freedom,” as lined out in university professionals' contract with the school. And the union called O'Connor's statements to the Inquirer “unacceptable.”

“We are also deeply disturbed by chairman O'Connor's claim that the administration is looking at 'what remedies we have' to discipline professor Hill,” the union's statement said. “We trust that the contract will be followed; if it is not, the administration can count on a vigorous defense by TAUP of professor Hill's rights as set forth in it.”

It is not the first time O'Connor has drawn criticism from certain members of the Temple community. A group of students called for him to step down earlier this year because of his previous representation of Bill Cosby, who has since been convicted of aggravated indecent assault and sentenced to at three to 10 years in prison. O'Connor represented Cosby in 2005 and 2006, when former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, whose allegations led to Cosby's criminal charges and conviction, sued the comedian for sexually assaulting her in 2004.

In an October interview with The Temple News, a campus publication, O'Connor said he did not regret representing Cosby, despite criticism from some students. In 2005, Cosby and O'Connor were both members of the university's board of trustees.

“Trial lawyers, and the great trial tradition of Philadelphia lawyers, to represent people in unpopular causes … doesn't mean you embrace what the person was alleged to have done, it just means that in the great traditions of legal acumen lawyers serve their clients,” O'Connor told The Temple News.

O'Connor will step down as board chair in July, after 10 years in the role, the university announced in October. O'Connor did not return a call seeking comment Monday.

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