Coleman Phillipson, international lawyer and Professor of Law at the University of Adelaide from 1920 to 1925, became the first Australian professor of law to be forced to resign, when a controversy over private coaching of students ended his academic career. He was the first Australian professor of law of Jewish heritage, his family having settled in northern England after leaving Russian Poland as anti-Semitism flared there in the early 1880s. Before it appointed Phillipson, the University received private warnings that he was Jewish. While he conceded the truth of the key allegations that led to his resignation, he believed that he was unfairly treated. The details of the controversy, recorded in archival sources, allow it to be seen in the context of Phillipson’s life and the University’s history.