Former West Virginia University men's basketball coach Bob Huggins has lawyered up in order to challenge the university’s claim that he resigned following a DUI arrest last month.
As reported by WV News, the Cleveland-based law firm of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith asserted in a letter to WVU president Gordon Gee that Huggins never provided the school with a signed resignation letter and that WVU was pressuring him to leave the program after the DUI incident in Pittsburgh on June 16. The letter also stated that Huggins is soon to leave a rehabilitation program and will be fully able to resume his coaching duties.
Related: Bob Huggins Resigns as WVU Coach Following DUI Arrest
The firm's David Campbell writes that Huggins isn’t looking to sue the university, “Rather he is simply looking for the correction of a clear breach of his employment agreement with WVU.”
In WVU correspondence with Campbell, WVU officials question which lawyers are representing Huggins because the school has heard from at least three in the past two weeks, WV News reported. WVU officials also strongly disagree with Campbell’s assertions and say they will vigorously defend the school’s position that Huggins did resign.
Campbell’s letter also asserted that while WVU has indicated the resignation communications came directly from Huggins, that is not the case.
"However, although the press statements purport to have resignation communications directly from Coach Huggins to you and/or the Athletic Director, Coach Huggins has never communicated his resignation to you, the Athletic Director, or anyone at WVU. To the contrary, we understand that the purported ‘resignation’ is incredibly based on a text message from Coach Huggins’ wife.”
Campbell wrote that Huggins’ employment agreement calls for any such correspondence to be in writing and sent by either certified or registered mail.
"Based on the press statements issued by WVU over the past days, it is quite obvious that WVU recognizes this legal issue and has tried to correct it through claims that Coach Huggins communicated his resignation directly to you and that he signed a resignation communication sent through WVU’s social media page. Coach Huggins never signed a resignation letter and never communicated a resignation to anyone at WVU. Accordingly, the WVU public comments are not only false, but appear to be an after-the-fact attempt to remedy WVU’s breach of the Employment Agreement.”
WV News reports that in a response to Campbell, WVU general counsel Stephanie Taylor wrote:
"Aside from being completely factually inaccurate, which we address briefly below, the allegations within this letter are at odds with my conversations yesterday with Mr. Bob Fitzsimmons, a West Virginia lawyer who has recently represented Mr. Huggins in various matters, and with the University’s prior conversations and documented correspondence with Mr. James “Rocky” Gianola, Mr. Huggins’ long-standing lawyer who has historically represented him, who represented him during the May 2023 negotiations with the University, and who represented him in conversations with the University on June 16-17, 2023 when Mr. Huggins decided to resign as WVU Head Men’s Basketball Coach and retire from the University effective immediately.
"Yesterday, Mr. Fitzsimmons called me to discuss the benefits to be provided under Mr. Huggins’ contract, as a result of his resignation and retirement. We specifically discussed the payment of his deferred compensation and annual leave balance payout, both of which would not be currently owed to Mr. Huggins if he had not resigned. It appears to us that you may not be aware that Mr. Fitzsimmons, as Mr. Huggins’ other lawyer, has been proceeding under that very same understanding as the University, and the reality as it exists, that Mr. Huggins has in fact resigned and is retired.
"The conflicting communications and correspondence from various counsel on Mr. Huggins’s behalf leave the University unclear as to its next steps: continue working collaboratively with Mr. Fitzsimmons on common resignation/retirement benefits for a former University employee and as outlined in Mr. Huggins’ contract; or respond to meritless demand letters and possible frivolous litigation brought forth by you.
"What is clear, however, is that on the evening of June 17, 2023, Mr. Huggins met with members of the men’s basketball staff and student-athletes to announce that he would no longer be coaching the team. The same evening at 9:38 p.m., following a series of written and verbal communications with Mr. Gianola, who was acting as his counsel, Mr. Huggins clearly communicated his resignation and retirement to the University in writing via email (not text message as asserted in your letter).
"Later that same night at 9:42 p.m., Wren Baker, the University’s Athletics Director, with a cc to me as General Counsel, wrote back via email, accepting Mr. Huggins’ resignation and retirement. Both parties have reasonably relied on that resignation and retirement notification in a number of ways since then. Moreover, until Mr. Campbell’s letter of yesterday, 20 days have passed since Mr. Huggins’ resignation and retirement submission with no claim by Mr. Huggins, or his other two lawyers, that he did not in fact resign and retire."
According to USA Today, the university provided The Associated Press with a copy of a notice sent by Huggins' wife, June, that read: "Please accept this correspondence as my formal notice of resignation as WVU Head Basketball Coach and as notice of my retirement from West Virginia University, effective immediately."
The notice was sent from an email address associated with June Huggins, with a signature indicating it had been sent via iPhone. It was sent to WVU deputy athletic director Steve Uryasz's email address and did not appear to be a text message, as Campbell claimed.
CBS Sports reported that on June 17, the day after Huggins recorded a blood alcohol content reading of .210, a statement by Huggins read, "Today, I have submitted a letter to President Gordon Gee and Vice President and Director of Athletics Wren Baker informing them of my resignation and intention to retire as head men's basketball coach at West Virginia University effective immediately."
