High-Profile Lawsuit Against VC Joe Lonsdale Dropped

Former Stanford student Elise Clougherty has dropped a high-profile lawsuit against venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, a former paramour who Clougherty later accused of sexual assault.

Lonsdale, who had strongly denied Clougherty’s allegations and filed a countersuit against her, including for defamation, has dropped his lawsuit, too.

Clougherty’s suit received national attention in the months after she filed it in January, even garnering a lengthy New York Times Magazine piece. The allegations also resulted in a 10-year ban from Stanford for Lonsdale, who dated Clougherty while her mentor for an undergraduate course called Technology Entrepreneurship, Engineering 145.

At the time, the school cited its Title IX policy, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender in educational programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.

But Stanford Review reported earlier today a university investigator had considered “new evidence that came to light during litigation” and determined that Lonsdale did not violate Stanford’s sex discrimination policies.

“Accordingly, there is no basis to support a ban from the Stanford campus,” a spokeswoman said in a statement.

Lonsdale, a Stanford graduate himself, was a protégé of Peter Thiel earlier in his career, working with Thiel at his hedge fund, Clarium Capital, before cofounding the big data company Palantir Technologies with Thiel, Alex Karp, Stephen Cohen and Nathan Gettings. Once described by Fortune as a “man in a hurry,” Lonsdale also cofounded Addepar, whose software helps rich clients manage their wealth; Backplane, a social network for people with “like-minded interests” that has since pivoted into a different business; and the venture firm Formation 8.

Reuters has more on today’s developments here.