In a survey last year, less than a quarter of the Yale Law School library staff agreed that employees there were “treated fairly.” Behind changes to services and staffing, a News investigation found discontent with the library’s director.
Beneath the arched windows and bountiful book shelves of the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale Law School, discontent among some staff has been simmering.
In a virtual staff meeting in May, Professor and Law Librarian Femi Cadmus presented results from an employee engagement survey conducted last December. The survey results showed that the library scored lower on every metric of staff morale than the average for all Yale staff, according to images obtained by the News of a slideshow used in the meeting to display the Employee Engagement Survey results.
According to the data, less than a quarter of employees at the law library agreed that “all employees, regardless of their differences, are treated fairly,” compared to 55 percent among all University staff.
In the hours after the virtual meeting where the survey results were shown, then-Dean Heather Gerken announced that the Law School had asked an outside auditor — Jessica Wilen, an assistant professor at the Yale Child Study Center — to “conduct a review of issues” that emerged from the engagement survey, a previous employee survey and a related working group.
The survey results and subsequent external review are two signs of recent turmoil at the law library.
Staff members have chafed at a top-down management style under Cadmus, the library director, which they say has contributed to low morale and high turnover. Meanwhile, the library has seen several changes that ruffled feathers beyond the staff — including, over the summer, the removal of a freshwater wood-encased aquarium that delighted students in a basement area. Three part-time staff members who previously manned a library entrance were replaced by a self-checkout machine.
John Nann, a librarian who retired from the Law School at the end of August, described Cadmus as making heavy-handed decisions that created a hostile environment, especially for long-time employees.
“She started ripping into the way things needed to be done,” Nann said, alleging that Cadmus and other librarians called him a “legacy librarian” and an “old-timer.”
The News interviewed 12 current and former staff members, who described a significantly changed workplace since Cadmus’ beginning as director of the law library in July 2021. Current employees — who requested anonymity to speak candidly, saying they feared retaliation — described a stressful and tense environment at the library.
When asked to respond to a detailed list of questions about this article’s contents — which the News also shared with Cadmus — Law School spokesperson Alden Ferro did not address specific allegations about her leadership.
He wrote that he would “not respond to anonymous allegations or provide information about personnel matters” and that the Law School “works to review and resolve issues fairly and in accordance with University policy” when employees raise concerns through official procedures.
In her May email announcing the external review, Gerken wrote that Wilen, the auditor, would examine the survey results before starting “confidential staff interviews” and concluding with “a report to the Dean in the fall.” Wilen did not respond to multiple emailed requests for comment.
In his statement, Ferro did not respond to the News’ inquiries about whether Wilen’s report had been completed or had been shared with Interim Dean Yair Listokin LAW ’05, who replaced Gerken after she left the deanship in July.
“Fostering a positive and productive work environment is a top priority, which is why the Law Library has engaged with outside professionals to review the climate survey results and speak confidentially with library staff and management,” Ferro wrote.
“The goal of this ongoing work is to gain deeper insight into team dynamics and organizational culture and highlight opportunities for positive change. This process has been welcomed by both managers and staff,” he added.
In a September email to the News, Law School Associate Dean and Chief of Staff Debra Kroszner wrote that Cadmus did not wish to be interviewed for this article. Cadmus did not respond to the News’ direct interview request in October.
“A very hard head”
Before she ran the Yale law library, Femi Cadmus wrote extensively about best practices for 21st-century law libraries and how they could navigate budgetary strain, new technologies and employee discontent.
In a 2012 article about employee “happiness” for the now-defunct publication “Trends in Law Library Management and Technology,” Cadmus wrote: “Some might question whether there is a need to be mindful of the emotional state of employees, but rather perceive it as an unnecessary distraction that’s not within the set of employer responsibilities.
“It would, however, be a gross mistake to ignore the emotional well-being and health of employees,” she wrote, “because studies have shown that content and satisfied employees are demonstrably more motivated and productive.”
Cadmus first arrived at Yale’s law library in 2008 as the associate director for administration and a lecturer in legal research. She left Yale in 2011 for a position at Cornell University’s law library, and she served as the president of the American Association of Law Libraries from 2018 to 2019.
After Cornell, Cadmus worked at Duke Law School, until her return to Yale in 2021 as the director of the law library. Unlike other full-time staff at the law library, Cadmus is also a tenured faculty member. She currently teaches a course called “Technology in the Practice of Law.”
Blair Kauffman — who led Yale’s law library from 1994 to 2016 — told the News in an interview that he believes that Cadmus has a different temperament and a different vision for the law library than prior directors. Kauffman now lives in North Carolina but said “a few” former colleagues have kept him updated on happenings at the library.
“Femi’s got a very hard head and she’s got her own vision for what the law library should be, and it’s not quite as expansive as me or Teresa,” Kauffman said, referring to Teresa Miguel-Stearns, who directed the law library immediately before Cadmus.
Miguel-Stearns, who was library director from 2016 to 2020, declined to comment. Ferro, the Law School spokesperson, did not respond to a question about Kauffman’s characterization of Cadmus’ leadership style.
“She’s no-nonsense. She doesn’t welcome dissent,” said Kauffman, who in 2010 coauthored an article with Cadmus about the law library’s response to budgetary pressures after the 2008 recession and said “she was a great deputy” in her first stint at Yale.
An analysis of the law library’s current staff page and official printed Law School facebooks dating back to the 2009-2010 academic year — images of which were reviewed by the News — reveal an increase in staff turnover since the start of Cadmus’ tenure leading the library.
Of the 39 staff members listed in the 2019-2020 facebook, 23 are no longer at the law library, according to the staff webpage. In each of the two five-year periods preceding the 2019-2020 academic year, only about a dozen employees left.
“As with any organization,” Ferro wrote in the Law School’s statement to the News, “employees choose to move on from their current positions for many reasons, including professional advancement opportunities at other institutions and retirements.”
A survey, a meeting and a firing
Just over two years after Cadmus took the helm and the year before the employee engagement survey was conducted, a separate employee survey that Yale library system administrators conducted in September 2023 already suggested troubles at the law library.
In the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Climate Survey results from 2023, which the News obtained, 78 percent of law library staff members responded “yes” to the statement “favoritism is a problem.” In the same survey, 71 percent of staff members disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement “we are good at bringing conflict into the open so it can be discussed and resolved.”
The law library’s leadership drew criticism from staff members for their handling of the survey results. Three staff members who spoke with the News on the condition of anonymity alleged that Cadmus delayed the release of the survey data, leading to frustrations that boiled over in a contentious February 2024 staff meeting.
In an email to the entire library staff hours later, Cesar Zapata, then the access and collections coordinator, wrote that Cadmus arrived at the meeting 45 minutes late — which Zapata called “completely disrespectful” — and claimed Cadmus was “being on the defensive” about the DEIA survey results.
Ferro did not respond to the News’ inquiries about the meeting or the internal rollout of the DEIA survey results.
The results were ultimately shared with the staff in early March 2024, nearly six months after the survey was conducted, according to three staff members.
That July, Zapata was fired by the Law School.
Zapata’s termination letter — sent from Rachel Gordon, then the director for library operations — accused Zapata of performing a “knowing and intentional approval of staff timecards that reflected remote work hours when their duties could not be performed remotely” between 2021 and 2023, describing it as “gross misconduct.”
But in a message he emailed to several law school professors and library staff members, with the subject line “I got fired yesterday after 23 years of excellence at the YLS Law Library (the facts),” Zapata claimed he was fired because the law library administration was angered by his earlier criticisms. Zapata included a copy of his termination letter with the message, which the News obtained.
Zapata acknowledged in the message that he had allowed staff members to work remotely some days but disputed some details and insisted it “wasn’t intentional or maliciously done.”
“I was fired as a retaliation for speaking up against irregularities by our senior library management,” Zapata wrote at the time. Shortly after, Zapata started a GoFundMe fundraiser seeking financial support for legal representation.
In a statement to the News, Zapata repeated his claim that the termination was retaliatory but declined to comment further, citing a non-disclosure agreement.
Ferro, the Law School spokesperson, did not respond to the News’ questions about Zapata’s account of his termination and whether Zapata pursued legal action against the Law School.
Three employees said they viewed Zapata’s firing as a warning that any criticism of the law library leadership would not go unnoticed.
The library worker’s departure also caused pushback from some Law School students. In a July 2024 letter to Gerken obtained by the News, 65 current and former students praised Zapata’s contributions to the Law School community and raised concern about Zapata’s firing.
“During our time at Yale Law School, we experienced firsthand Cesar’s immense love for the library and his unwavering dedication to its mission,” the students wrote. “Cesar’s presence in the library was more than just professional; he was a friend — a constant source of support, encouragement, and kindness for countless students navigating the challenges of law school.”
The students wrote that “it seems that another, much less extreme, route of action could have been taken” and they were “particularly alarmed by the possibility, as Cesar noted in a public message, that his firing was an act of retaliation against him.”
In an interview with the News, Omar Yousef Shehabi LAW ’20 ’26, one of the signatories of the letter to Gerken, emphasized Zapata’s great value to the law library.
“He didn’t have an academic affect. He came from hotel management. He was just a no bullshit, hardworking guy,” Shehabi told the News. “He didn’t scream Yale, but that’s a virtue.”
“A culture of ‘no’”
The tensions within the law library staff have been accompanied by noticeable changes for library patrons.
In a May 23 email to the law library staff, which the News obtained, Cadmus announced the planned removal of the fish tank the following month, citing “immediate budget cuts” in the 2026 fiscal year, and acknowledged the removal of the positions of three book monitors — part-time workers stationed by a library entrance to prevent theft.
“I also want to acknowledge that it has been a challenging week with significant changes and transitions,” Cadmus wrote, referring to the book monitors’ recent departures.
Kauffman, the former library director, said he believes Cadmus does not see features like the fish tank as being in line with creating “a traditional library,” meaning one centered on books and research support.
Lorraine Avena, who worked as a book monitor for 22 years before retiring in 2020, questioned the administration’s stated rationale of budgetary concerns. “They may save a few bucks, but it’s not going to be worth it in the long run,” Avena said in an interview, saying that people could easily steal books without a monitor’s supervision.
Ferro, the Law School spokesperson, wrote that the book monitor positions “were no longer necessary after other security enhancements were put in place at the law school.”
Four law students described the book monitors to the News as an integral part of the Law School community who brought warmth to the library.
Shehabi said the book monitors especially supported him and other doctoral students who do not take classes and spend much of their time in the library writing their theses.
“They added a lot of color to the law school community,” Shehabi said. “It’s great to have folks around who are just normal folks.”
Rafael Bezerra Nunes LAW ’18 ’24 wrote in a message to the News that the book monitors helped patrons outside of regular workday hours and brought “a personal touch to the place.”
The library once offered more unconventional resources for students, including soccer balls, Kauffman said. According to a 2015 News article, the library lent students a variety of items ranging from tech equipment to sports gear to sleds, which a staff member said are no longer available at the law library.
“If the students wanted it, we’d do it — that was our attitude,” Kauffman said. He said Cadmus thought items like the sleds were “too peripheral” and wanted to “stick closer to the mission,” adding, “I understand that.”
Nann, the librarian who retired in August, said he had been a law librarian since 1988 and started at Yale in 2003.
Nann said that, compared to her two non-interim predecessors, Cadmus “has a more limited view of the role of the library and thinks that the services should be very standardized.” Nann said the law library used to have a “culture of ‘yes’ towards students and faculty, where we would really try to fully meet each patron’s needs,” but is now “closer to a culture of ‘no.’”
He said librarians now more often refer students to a resource instead of finding and scanning it for them.
In the Law School’s statement, Ferro wrote that “the dynamics of library services have changed substantially” in the past decade and “library management has worked to ensure existing services meet the evolving needs of our community.
“The Law Library must also balance the delivery of these services within budget constraints, which requires responsible allocation of resources and careful fiscal management,” Ferro added.
Nann said the first segment of his time at the law library, before Cadmus returned to lead it, was “the highlight of my career.”
“I certainly would have stayed a few more years, had it been more congenial, but it was so toxic that I couldn’t stay,” Nann said.
An employee survey from 2017 — whose results the News obtained — showed significantly more positive staff sentiments in the law library than the 2024 employee engagement survey, whose results were released eight days before Cadmus’s email regarding the fish tank and book monitors was sent.
In 2017, 61 percent of law library staff agreed or strongly agreed that “I do not feel stressed by my work responsibilities,” 12 percentage points higher than the University-wide average at the time. In the 2024 engagement survey, 30 percent of staff agreed that “the stress levels at work are manageable” — 35 points less than the Yale staff as a whole.
A decade ago, Cadmus wrote about a fictitious law library director’s predicament that seems to have strangely anticipated her situation at Yale in recent years.
In a chapter she contributed to the 2015 book “Academic Law Library Director Perspectives,” Cadmus wrote a response to a hypothetical case study prompt involving “Cheryl,” a recently appointed law library director who was asked by the unnamed law school’s dean to reduce library expenditures.
“Cheryl has become a director in a library with legacy (long standing) staff who are used to doing things in a particular fashion,” she wrote. “Already the signs of resistance to change and a building resentment are evident.”
The Lillian Goldman Law Library spans six levels in the Sterling Law Building at 127 Wall St.
At changing law library, internal tensions prompted workplace review
