The university has retained multinational law firm Jones Day to defend against Brenda Tracy’s lawsuit which alleges, among other things, that a board member leaked her name to the press during a confidential investigation into former football coach Mel Tucker’s sexual harassment of her.

The firm had previously been hired by MSU to independently investigate whether someone inside the institution was behind the leak of Tracy's name and the existence of the investigation into Tucker.

In court filings, Tracy has criticized MSU's decision to retain the firm again, arguing Jones Day shouldn’t be defending the very same figures they previously investigated.

The investigation and subsequent litigation have been handled by two separate groups of attorneys at Jones Day — which employs thousands of lawyers — with the exception of a single attorney.

Louis Gabel, a Jones Day attorney who led the leak investigation, was billed for half an hour of work for MSU's defense on the day Tracy first filed her suit, June 3, according to invoices obtained by The State News through a public records request.

Gabel was paid $565.50 for his work on that day. He does not appear in any other invoices through Sept. 16, 2025.

The nature of that work is unclear. Gabel declined to comment and the description on his timesheet was redacted by the university.

"It concerns me that the person that did the investigation is from Jones Day, and now Jones Day is representing MSU," said Tracy's attorney, Karen Truszkowski.

Ethical standards in the legal profession require attorneys to avoid representing a client when their responsibilities to another client, a former client or a third party can jeopardize the attorney's ability to represent their client. That means even large firms like Jones Day must avoid having lawyers take on conflicting cases.

However, Megan Bess, a law professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, told The State News in September that it's unlikely that Jones Day has a conflict of interest since the firm was brought on in an independent capacity.

"Even though MSU paid for them," Bess said of the 2023 investigation, "in that role, their only loyalty was to the truth."

One potential concern Bess raised at the time was that the Jones Day attorneys could hypothetically use information they uncovered during the original investigation but never reported to aid their present-day defense. Alternatively, it's possible the firm was brought on precisely because its lawyers were most familiar with the facts of the case, Bess said.

The Jones Day attorneys representing MSU in the case, Terri Chase and Andrew Clopton, did not respond to requests for comment. University spokesperson Amber McCann declined to comment, saying the university does not comment on litigation.

Truszkowski has argued in court filings that Jones Day's "dual role" compromises the independence of the investigation's findings — which ultimately could not determine who produced the leak — and "signals institutional tolerance of insider misconduct rather than accountability."

The filing also alleges that the university's handling of Tracy's complaint against Tucker was "heavily influenced" by another conflict of interest: An apparent desire to satisfy MSU alum and super donor Mat Ishbia.

According to the filing, the Title IX Coordinator overseeing the investigation into Tracy's complaint failed to inform Tracy that David Zacks, the late general counsel for a company owned by Ishbia, was representing Tucker in the investigation. That concealment, Tracy said, "created, at minimum, the appearance of donor-driven influence and institutional bias."

Tracy's lawsuit, which began in June, has been at a standstill since October while a judge reviews the university's motion to strike her amended complaint. 

At the most recent meeting of the MSU Board of Trustees on Oct. 31, Tracy said she was driven to sue the university after school officials backed out from mediation, despite initially floating a means to settle her complaint out of court.