🔒Goodwin University sues former enrollment director poached by competing college

Goodwin University has filed a civil lawsuit against one of its former enrollment directors, alleging that he improperly downloaded sensitive student enrollment data before taking a similar job at a potential new, competing university.

Goodwin filed the federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Connecticut on Aug. 18 against Daniel Williamson, who worked at the university up until July 22, when he took a new job with the Arizona College of Nursing, according to court records. Arizona College has plans to open a nursing school in East Hartford located about three miles away from Goodwin’s campus. Those efforts recently hit a regulatory road bump that could threaten the expansion.

Meantime, the Arizona College of Nursing confirmed to the Hartford Business Journal that Williamson was initially placed on leave pending an investigation, and now no longer works for the school.

In a statement, Arizona College said "it first became aware of Goodwin University’s allegations after Goodwin had initiated its lawsuit, and it was neither aware of, nor did it ever encourage, any copying or misuse of Goodwin University information at any time. Upon learning of the allegations, the College conducted a prompt investigation, which found no evidence that any information originating from Goodwin University was ever placed on its systems or otherwise shared with its staff by Mr. Williamson. The College is not able to otherwise comment on the substantive allegations of the lawsuit. The College and Mr. Williamson have since parted ways, and he is no longer employed by Arizona College."

According to the lawsuit, after Williamson announced he would be leaving to join Arizona College as its enrollment services executive director, Goodwin hired an independent data systems consultant, West Mountain Data Consulting LLC, to conduct a search of his activities with respect to accessing and downloading files and data from Goodwin’s student information system.

The consulting firm found that, since June 2022, Williamson had accessed and downloaded onto his desktop computer recruitment data containing leads to approximately 12,000 local prospective nursing and health sciences students, court records said.

Additionally, Goodwin learned that Williamson had downloaded onto his desktop computer a number of files and reports on July 21, his last day in the office, the lawsuit said.

According to court records, Williamson — in an exit interview with Goodwin — admitted he downloaded certain files onto an external USB drive, but claimed they were only personal information, such as his resume.

Williamson eventually returned the USB drive. The school, court records said, hired an outside forensic computer consultant who found that the drive contained Goodwin University data and reports “that provide a detailed road map for setting up and operating an admissions office.”

If the Arizona School of Nursing obtained the materials, the lawsuit states, it could potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, and get an “enormous head start in setting up and operating an admissions office and filling the ranks of its first class at the expense of and to the detriment of Goodwin.”

Goodwin said it views the materials as “trade secrets” and it’s asking for relief under the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and Federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, court records show. It’s asking for any Goodwin College records obtained by Williamson and shared with Arizona College of Nursing to be returned and/or destroyed.

It’s also asking for attorney’s fees, interest, costs and any other relief deemed appropriate by the court.

Williamson is represented by Gerald Pia Jr. and Brian Roche, both with Shelton-based Roche Pia LLC. Neither attorney responded to a request for comment.

Updike, Kelly & Spellacy attorney Richard Order is representing Goodwin University and didn’t provide comment on the lawsuit.