The Penn State Board of Trustees approved a resolution to allow for a legal subcommittee to approve possible settlements against the university related to the former assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky at Friday’s special meeting.
The Subcommittee on Legal, headed by Trustees Keith Eckel and Ira Lubert, will work in compliance with Feinberg Rozen LLP, the law firm hired to work with the lawsuits from the Sandusky sex abuse case.
Kenneth Feinberg said he and Michael Rozen have been chosen to help facilitate and mediate the settlements, and that they do not have the authority to bind Penn State to do anything.
He also said the university has not allocated them an “aggregate amount of money” to divide among the cases. Instead, each case will be handled individually and some may not even be settled, he said.
“We will see over time whether all of the disputes get resolved, some of the disputes get resolved or none of them get resolved,” he said.
Rozen added that there are currently 20 to 25 claims against the university, and that number may increase or decrease in the future. All of the current cases have begun discussions, but no counsel for the settlement cases have concluded that their case will in fact be settled, he said.
Current discussions have not resulted in approved settlements so far, Chairwoman of the Board Karen Peetz said. When asked if settlements will be publicly announced when approved, Peetz said, “We haven’t gotten that far yet.”
Peetz said that in an earlier discussion, they moved to add another member to the subcommittee, Adam Taliaferro. The subcommittee meets on a weekly basis and is comprised entirely of attorneys, except for Eckel and Lubert.
Prior to the special meeting, Trustee Anthony Lubrano said he was not in favor of the resolution. But, due to discussion from Feinberg and Rozen, he in turned favored the resolution.
Read Monday's edition of The Daily Collegian for more details.
