The University of Nevada at Reno has spent about $1.7-million on outside law firms to help staff lawyers defend against just four of dozens of lawsuits filed by current or former employees, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported. More than 70 complaints — including civil-rights, defamation, discrimination, and wrongful-termination lawsuits — have been filed against the university since 2000, and more than 30 are now working their way through the courts or the appeals process. The university says most of the cases are meritless and were ">filed by a single lawyer. But the lawyer, Jeff Dickerson, told the newspaper that he turns away 85 percent of the prospective plaintiffs who ask him to sue the university on their behalf. “Many cases are not taken,” he said, “because although the working environment is hostile, it does not rise to the level of legal liability under the law.” Two of the four cases that outside lawyers are assisting on were dismissed last month, but Mr. Dickerson said he plans to appeal. He filed those cases on behalf of Hussein S. Hussein, a former professor who says his firing in April was in retaliation for whistle-blowing about the mistreatment of animals at the university. —Charles Huckabee