On August 30, 2021, a federal judge in North Carolina issued an order granting final approval to a settlement in the class action labor antitrust “no-poach” lawsuit against Duke University on behalf of Lucia Binotti, a Professor at UNC, and a class of non-medical faculty who worked in the period between 2001 and February 2018 at Duke and UNC. The case has ended.

Originally, on May 27, 2020, Lieff Cabraser and co-counsel filed a complaint against Duke University challenging a conspiracy between Duke and the University of North Carolina whereby the two schools agreed not to compete against each other for faculty.

The complaint alleged a secretive understanding dating at least back to 1974, and which was reaffirmed and policed by senior administrators of both institutions throughout the subsequent decades. That case led to a certified class of all doctors of the two schools with an academic appointment, and a settlement of $54.5 million.