U of C Law Grad Accused of Submitting Phony Grades to Sidley Austin

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Legal Ethics

U of C Law Grad Accused of Submitting Phony Grades to Sidley Austin

Posted May 20, 2008, 03:30 pm CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Updated: A lawyer who attended the University of Chicago Law School has been accused in an ethics complaint of lying about his grades when he applied for a summer position at Sidley Austin.

Loren Elliotte Friedman is accused in a complaint filed May 6 by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. He was listed as an associate at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle in New York on the firm’s website earlier Tuesday, but his name was removed by the afternoon.

Joseph Pizzurro, managing partner of Curtis Mallet-Prevost, told ABAJournal.com that Friedman, a bankruptcy associate, disclosed the bar complaint to the law firm on Friday and submitted his resignation.

The complaint says Friedman altered transcripts of his law school grades in 20 classes to reflect better grades than he received. Friedman worked at Sidley Austin the summer of 2002, and the firm extended an employment offer for him to begin work as an associate in 2003.

The complaint also alleges that Friedman failed to reveal he flunked out of medical school in his application to law school, and that he failed to disclose the altered law school transcripts in his bar application.

Friedman did not accept the full-time job offer with Sidley Austin, said his lawyer, George Collins. He said the bar is accusing Friedman of altering his grades to obtain the summer job, "and then he was offered a law job as a result of his good work as a summer associate." Sidley Austin was the source of the complaint to the Illinois bar, he said.

Collins is preparing an answer to the bar complaint and said he could not comment on its contents at this time.

Pizzurro said he was shocked to learn of the ethics complaint. "I can’t say that this is something that anybody would have foreseen," he said.

Pizzurro said he does not know if Friedman's grades were altered in his application with Curtis Mallet-Prevost, but the law firm generally does not check the accuracy of law school transcripts. "We generally will take it at face value if someone submits what looks like an authentic transcript," he said.

Curtis Mallet-Prevost performs the checks done by most law firms: It makes sure a lawyer is a bar member in good standing, and it checks references, according to Pizzurro.

When asked if Curtis Mallet-Prevost would change its procedures because of the allegations, Pizzurro replied, "We’re going to have to give that some thought."

Representatives of Sidley Austin did not return e-mails or phone calls.

The Legal Profession Blog reported on the allegations by the Illinois ARDC in a post entitled “Trifecta Alleged.”

Updated at 7 p.m. on 5/20/2008 to incorporate comments by Joseph Pizzurro and at 9:15 a.m. on 5/21/2008 to include comments by George Collins.

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Posted by MSG - 1 month, 1 week, 6 days, 22 hours, 23 minutes ago

This makes me wonder how many other grads have done what he did and have not got caught since the law firms obviously are not asking for original certified copies of transcripts or are not verifying grades! I can’t believe there is such a loop hole when they are paying those salaries.
Posted by He's wrong BUT - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 23 hours, 54 minutes ago

What he did was very wrong.

HOWEVER. . .it goes to show that law school grades don’t correlate with performance/competence as a lawyer. Afterall, Sidley Austin offered him a permanent position after his SA and he worked for 5 years at Curtis before anyone found about about his lie. If law firms didn’t place such imphasis on subjective law school grades, things like this wouldn’t happen.

Having said that, he should lose his license.
Posted by Hadley V. Baxendale - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 23 hours, 42 minutes ago

STOOOOPID!
Posted by new-bee - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 23 hours, 16 minutes ago

its a shame. i dont know why he had to do it? i mean, getting into univ of chicago is very competitive and needs high lsat [which he probably cannot alter] and that tells he is probably a smart guy to begin with… shudnt he be able to find jobs easily just based on where he went to lawschool?
Posted by civigal-t - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 22 hours, 59 minutes ago

I just wanted to reaffirm the comment that was posted by He’s wrong BUT. This goes to show that the emphasis on ranking and grades by law firms will cloud judgment as opposed to looking at competence and performance as an attorney. There are many other attorneys who are out there who would excel in a law firm environment, but are ignored merely for grades.

Though I agree that his actions were wrong; perhaps he opened the door to a discussion on ranking and grades. For some, it is not an indication as to how they would perform beyond the classroom and I think this matter is a perfect example.
Posted by Glenn - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 22 hours, 55 minutes ago

Altering grades? That’s nothing. The first summer I clerked, I worked alongside a clerk who, as we found out later, wasn’t even enrolled in law school. She simply “informally audited” classes by just appearing on the first day of class and giving her name to the professor when it wasn’t called out during normal roll call. Her entire resume was a fake. The law school had no idea who she was or where she came from.
Posted by Ashley - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 22 hours, 39 minutes ago

I think the “wrong BUT” comment is on the right track. That you went to U Chicago or anywhere else impressive doesn’t matter at ALL anymore. I went to a top tier law school and was in the top half of my class and was passed up for not a job, but an INTERVIEW for someone who went to a law school that received its accreditation last year, but happened to be in the top third. The emphasis on grades is beyond ridiculous - you have a very select group of shockingly intelligent people competing on a mandatory curve. Someone gets stuck at the bottom, and its usually not a reflection of talent within the profession.

I mean, he obviously did well enough as a clerk to warrant an offer, regardless of his grades. He wouldn’t have gotten his foot through that door without the lie. His behaviour was obviously wrong, but I think it says a LOT about our profession and the misguided emphases on numbers. A high GPA does not a talented lawyer make.
Posted by Jade - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 22 hours, 39 minutes ago

This is one of those cases where if he hadn’t gotten caught it would have been fine. However, it like everything else in life - if you DO get caught, then you have to pay the piper. A bigger question is, how did they find out now after 6 years???
Posted by Lee - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 22 hours, 32 minutes ago

The profession doesn’t need someone like this. Good riddance.
Posted by EAC - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 22 hours, 31 minutes ago

We live in a world where it is still fairly easy to fake credentials, grades, and test scores. This is because firms/businesses/schools often do not do appropriate follow-up. Nor do some require original/official documents. Having previously worked in test security for several years, I was always shocked at the amount of cheating that occurred, but also at the number of undergraduate institutions that accepted scores that were not official, ie, not directly from the testing company. And, I’ve been surprised by the number of jobs I’ve been offered and then later found out that none of my (real and good) references had been contacted. With that said, I’m curious as to how this came to light now and/or how SA came to know about the fraud. Does anyone know?
Posted by Jade - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 22 hours, 10 minutes ago

Yeah I’ve never had my references contacted for a job.
Posted by MM - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 21 hours, 58 minutes ago

This is a glaring example of why law firm recruitment is flawed and misguided. While unethical and wrong, Friedman’s actions were likely the only way he would have gotten to the INTERVIEW for the positions which after 6 years he has proven he was (and is) clearly qualified for. Likewise, his failure from Medical School is mentioned but irrelevant to his professional competence in the practice of LAW. However, the article insinuates - probably correctly so - that this would be a deal-breaker if it were properly disclosed. I don’t believe that one or two blemishes somewhere on one’s academic history should be fatal to one’s employability in an unrelated field, especially without the opportunity to explain. The above comments cumulatively address the ridiculousness of relying on an often-arbitrary grade curve.

Although the ethical violation cannot be overlooked, this situation shows the great pressure that law firms place on applicants to be perfect ON PAPER. The big take-away for law firms reading this should be that more questions need to be asked of honest applicants before dismissing them without a chance to be heard based on numbers. Firms should not lose sight of the arbitrariness of law school grading. A perfectly competent law student shouldn’t be unemployable merely because- heaven forbid- he/she landed lower on the curve than his/her peers a few or even many times. Given the arbitrariness we all know exists (yes, although to do so may be an ego-blow, even those at the top must begrudgingly acknowledge this), such a result is illogical in a logic-based profession.
Posted by FJF - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 21 hours, 58 minutes ago

Shouldn’t this give us all an opportunity to make law firms have a conversation about the importance of grades? I went to a top-tier law school where people cheated (didn’t start testing software until well into the exam period) and lied (were “diagnosed” with fake-ADHD) to get extra time to take exams; which definitely translated into higher grades. I’m not saying that what this guy did is correct, but what I am saying is that what your transcript says (altered or not) is not necessarily a true reflection of your capabilities as an attorney.
Posted by chi law - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 21 hours, 39 minutes ago

Sseveral years ago in Chicago it was discovered that a very well regarded litigator at a well regarded firm had not graduated from law school and had not been admitted to practice. Imagine the embarrasment of those attorneys who had to contact a client re moving to vacate a judgment on that basis. The result was law licences are regularly reviewed by admin committees in Chicago firms. Setting the standard for the level of scrutiny for an offer o f employment is not a happy place to be.
Posted by NN - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 21 hours, 7 minutes ago

I graduated from law school last Sunday. I was probably the oldest law student in history! I went to school at night while working full time - so four years, 3-4 nights a week, including summers. My law school ranks the night students with the full time day students. My grades were pretty good but not the top of the class by any means. I know a large firm would never look at me b/c they wouldn’t get beyond the grades and rank. And I know my many years of experience in transactional work would allow me to bring so much more to the table than pretty much any of the top 10% of my class. What this guy did was WRONG but the law firm hiring system is by no means right.(and I’ll stop whining now!)
Posted by MM - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 20 hours, 44 minutes ago

I also graduated last weekend, evening program, 4 years, 11 hours a semester while working full time, about 15 years older than the average law student. I was not top 10%, but did well enough to get a good firm offer. I killed myself over the past 4 years for that offer because I knew how the system works, but there are plenty of my classmates that I know would make excellent attorneys that the big firms just glossed over due to grades. This is a real shame and a loss to the legal profession. Some of the top students may have the numbers but lack important social skills that are needed to be able to work with clients and colleagues. The system needs to be changed so those with talent are simply not passed up because of grades. There is so much more to the making of a good attorney than where they fall on a curve.

The actions of Friedmen show a deeper problem of serious dishonesty, regardless of how he performed. We do not need lawyers like that in the profession.
Posted by 3L - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 20 hours, 26 minutes ago

These types of stories are appalling. Granted that the guy would not have got his job without altering his grades, but by doing so, he probably caused the firm to pass over someone who actually deserved the position based on whatever criteria the firm picks (of course, the firm has the right to hire people for whatever constitutionally-acceptable reason it wants). I graduated last week too, from a bottom tier school and was a non-traditional older student through it all. If I could bust my rear end to get my grades to the point that BigLaw wanted, then so should everyone else who got there ultimately.

Whether I agree with how BigLaw chooses its associates or not, if we’re all going to play this game, then let’s play it fair and get where we need to be on our merits. He may be a good lawyer now, but there could have been another good lawyer at Sidley Austin who did not lie to get there. Our character is essentially all that we have going for us in this profession - this guy’s is completely shot at this point.
Posted by Moving Beyond Grades - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 20 hours, 18 minutes ago

This article points out the glaring differences between how law schools and law firms are measuring intellectual abilities and performance. Several of the top law schools have moved away from grades and class rankings while law firms continue to hold onto these “Paper Chase Era” criteria. Law schools which have done away with these criteria, have the power and authority to require that firms which interview on campus no longer use or require grades and class rank as criteria for evaluating their students.
Posted by oldtimer - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 20 hours ago

There is too much emphasis on grades but that occurs at all levels of school and in a number of professions. I see that most of the posters are students or recent grads. OK, so you won’t get the offer from some 400 atty firm and the 160k starting salary. Look at the postings from some of those individuals who are in those positions and very unhappy. So you end up at a smaller firm for less money. Cream rises to the top. Get out there and work hard and make a name for yourself as a hard working and ethical attorney and you will be successful, happy, and a credit to the profession. I have been doing civil litigation for 30 years in LA. Nobody checks your GPA, they check your trial results and your reputation. Once you establish yourself in whatever specialty you choose, no one will give a damn about your GPA nor will you ever give it a second thought.
Posted by Stuart - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 19 hours, 51 minutes ago

Who would you rather hire: a perfectly competent graduate who had mediocre grades, or a perfectly competent graduate who busted her butt to get top grades? For any given position to fill, you are going to hire the best possible applicant, even if most or all would do a fine job.

The students who work hard to get the good grades deserve to get the top jobs. For those that would rather not go insane in law school (a group that included me), they will need a few years of working less preferable jobs. The system is not unfair. You get out of it what you put into it.
Posted by GM - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 19 hours, 48 minutes ago

How did this come to light after 6 years?

Hmm.. I wonder if he was involved in litigation against the original firm?
Posted by 1L - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 19 hours, 45 minutes ago

He should absolutely NOT lose his license; that is utterly absurd to suggest that.

It is unfortunate that people have resorted to lying about their grades. As a 1L, I just submitted unofficial transcripts to my possible employer for a summer legal internship. I of course did not lie or anything like that.

The employer, however, did not require any verification that my grades were accurate (they were, just so you know).

As an aside, I think we invest too much into law school grades. Respectfully, there is no correlation between doing well in law school and being an effective, competent attorney.
Posted by Bird Smack - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 19 hours, 44 minutes ago

I’d love to know how Sidley discovered, so many years later, that this guy fakes his grades. How strange! Nearly six years after his summer associateship ended, someone at Sidley decided to what - run a background check on old summer associates? Or was someone out to get this guy? Were Sidley and Curtis on opposite sides of a dispute and Sidley wanted Curtis out? So very strange.
Posted by Law Student in Madison - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 19 hours, 35 minutes ago

No. 22 “1L,”

This is an ethics violation of the worst kind! It is absurd to suggest that he should not lose his license. There’s no telling what other lies he may have told throughout his career.

Whether you believe that grades are overemphasized or not, the focus on this forum should not be on grades. Instead, we should be talking about the consequences of lying. In our profession, as was stated in an earlier post, all we have is our character and integrity. This guy has lost both.
Posted by it's not about the interview - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 19 hours, 30 minutes ago

It’s not just a matter of whether or not you should have to have high grades to get an interview at a particular firm, it’s a matter of integrity. We work in a profession where ethics and integrity are extremely important, and falsifying your transcript for any reason calls into question that integrity. It’s a competitive landscape no doubt, but I think we all knew that when we signed up to go to law school, and saying it’s not fair to be critiqued on grades doesn’t in any way justify compromised integrity.
Posted by John - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 19 hours, 4 minutes ago

Grades are clearly not always a great predictor of how you will perform as an attorney. They are, however, an excellent predictor of how hard an associate will work to pass the bar exam, how hard they will work during their summer associateship and practice, and also that student’s dedication to the profession.

It is very easy to blame this problem on law schools and rankings/grades. Either way, this associate is not the type of person I want in my firm or my profession. Until we can start hiring associates on feel-good and winks & smiles, grades are one of the best predictors available. Maybe it seems arbitrary, but so is selecting someone on the color of their suit, or whether they can list off where all the shareholders went to undergrad.
Posted by Chicago lawyer - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 18 hours, 41 minutes ago

In response to John, grades are not a predictor of how hard you work. Perhaps your grades are not stellar because you are working full time and carrying a full course load. Not every student can devote 100% of their time to his or her studies. The only thing that grades show is how well you do at school. It has no real-world significance. I believe this despite graduating in the top third of my class at a top ten law school. The grades opened doors, but for all the wrong reasons.
Posted by Chris - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 18 hours, 30 minutes ago

I’m guessing he worked for Sidley in the Chicago office, since Illinois has that god awful decision that requires attorneys to report violations or they themselves risk losing their licenses. Otherwise this would reflect rather poorly on Sidley (since they turned him in 6 years after the fact) and make them look malicious and petty.

I,for one, don’t think he should lose his license - at most he should get a short suspension.
Posted by Marcus - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 18 hours, 13 minutes ago

While I agree with #26 on the ethics issue (that this individual should not be practicing law - no question), I respectfully disagree on the grades issue. Remembering back to the search for my summer internships and first job, employers were always obsessed with GPA and class rank. I was middle of the road, which made it hard to get an interview slot with many desirable firms.

High grades are usually correlated with good work ethic and good legal competence, but not always. I wouldn’t hire most of the top ranked students in my class, not because I was jealous of their academic success, but because they lacked the “it” factor to make good lawyers (communication skills, grasp of the big picture, etc). Many of my peers in the 2nd and 3rd quartiles worked just as hard - if not harder - to get their lower grades, and in conversations and class seemed to understand and apply the material better than many of the 1st quartile students. One peer of mine was a single mother who commuted 1.5 hours each way every day and had three kids to take care of - she was very sharp and deserved to explain the circumstances which kept her out of the top of the class, but she often didn’t get the chance (the commute and kids wouldn’t be the same kind of impediment with a local job and income (for childcare), so any concern of constant excuses for performance on the job wouldn’t be a factor).

I don’t think the earlier posts mean to suggest that law firms should go by “feel-good and winks & smiles,” but merely that the pick of the litter in academia does not always equal the pick of the litter in practice. Kudos to the schools using their influence to change the system.....may the trend continue.
Posted by R - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 17 hours, 59 minutes ago

I feel sorry for the guy in one sense. First, for being such an idiot to do such a thing to get a summer job in the first place, and then - after he’s committed the sin and there’s no going back - living with his lie for six long years, probably wondering over and over again whether it would come to light.

It’s the same anytime anyone fakes something on his or her resume: for the rest of their lives they’re going to have to wonder if and when they’ll get caught. Life is too short!
Posted by Jonathan Edwards - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 17 hours, 18 minutes ago

re #15 and #16 - I just graduated also, at age 53. I knew, going in, that I was never going to get a job offer, being older than many partners. I determined at the beginning I would be solo, geared my school years to that, found a place within commuting distance where a goodly population has a single law firm, have found a good place to put my law office, at low cost. Read “Foonberg” if you can’t land a job, he will teach you how to create one.
Posted by Why are we reading about this? - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 16 hours, 35 minutes ago

This guy makes one stupid decision and 6 years later we’re all reading about it. Tough world.
Posted by Brooks Eason - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 14 hours, 32 minutes ago

It’s absurd to use this unethical conduct to justify an attack on law firms for overemphasizing grades. Law firms are entitled to place as much emphasis on grades as they see fit. We all know excellent lawyers who were poor students and poor lawyers who were excellent students. But firms get to decide how important grades are to their hiring decisions, and firms are entitled to the truth from those who want to be hired.
Posted by THE TRUTH - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 14 hours, 28 minutes ago

I am sort of surprised that most of you took the opportunity to complain about employers’ emphasis on grades during the hiring process.

That is not the issue here; we should be concerned about how many other shmucks in the profession lied about their grades to our detriment. Whether this guy is a competent lawyer is besides the point.

Also, every person who complains about emphasis on law school grades and the so-called zero correlation between attorney competence and high marks are just upset that he/she didn’t do well him/herself in school.

THOSE WHO BUST THEIR ASS AND INCARCERATE THEMSELVES IN LAW SCHOOL to earn high marks DESERVE a better shot coming out a school than those who didn’t don’t try as hard. It is more than logical to choose the competent hard-worker over the competent arrogant ass who chose to skid by during law school.

And, the fact remains that those with higher LSAT scores (not law school grades) are given more opportunities than those with lower LSAT scores who graduate top 5%. We SHOULD be complaining about the zero correlation a high LSAT score has with legal competence, NOT high grades compared to attorney competence.

In short, grades SHOULD MATTER in terms of opportunities to START one’s career. I feel this way because we all know how difficult law school is if we put our heart and soul into it. It is MUCH HARDER TO GET GREAT LAW SCHOOL GRADES THAN A HIGH LSAT SCORE. Period. Paragraph.
Posted by T-T - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 14 hours, 24 minutes ago

Using a cost-benefit analysis, It may be worth it. After 6 years in a Bigfirm he probably earned between 700,000 to 900,000 in Chicago. Sure, he may lose his license but at least he has the money to pay off those law loans. Unlike honest me who graduated in the 40th percentile and 1 year later still unemployed.
Posted by HBK - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 13 hours, 6 minutes ago

re #33 - “the Truth”.
My law professors said that “A"s go to future law professors, “B"s go to future judges and “C"s go to future great lawyers.
I did very well in law school but still recognize that grades (and even intelligence) do not correlate with the skills needed by lawyers.
However, people who earned good grades might have personalities more suited for being a junior associate at a large firm and certainly have evidenced their ability to spend large amounts of time obsessing about minutia.
Posted by the TRUTH - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 12 hours, 38 minutes ago

o #35 - HBK:

Okay, I read your post, and you haven’t added anything new to this discussion. Also, you didn’t respond to my point.

My point is that grades should matter IN THE BEGINNING, and LSAT scores should not have a lasting afffect beyond law school admittance.

Also, the line about “A’s go to future judges, B’s go too ... “

What a great expression; I have never heard that horsehit before.

Sort of like “1L scare you to death, 2L work you to death, and 3L bore you to death!”

Ever heard that one before? : )

Bottom line is this: People who work hard and do it the right way (with honesty and integrity) deserved to be rewarded. It is as simple as that. How can we argue with that?

a hard worker will be an asset to ANY organization. Period, Paragraph.
Posted by dumbasspatrol - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 7 hours, 28 minutes ago

wot an idiot!
Posted by N. Young - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 7 hours, 22 minutes ago

My law school is ranked 100th, and we are required in our second year to take legal ethics. This one is a no-brainer that anyone in my school would know not to even attempt. How can U. Chicago be ranked so highly when they produce unethical attorneys like this guy!?

It must be nice to rule with impunity He’s in good company with the likes of Elliot Spitzer et al!!
Posted by Willie - 1 month, 1 week, 3 days, 23 hours, 8 minutes ago

Ich bin ein Berliner
Posted by STANLEY SCHEINMAN - 1 month, 1 week, 3 days, 21 hours, 30 minutes ago

What ever happened to valuing the fundamentals upon which our legal system is based.? Does the Bar want an “Officer of the Court” to be lacking an ability to tell the difference between right and wrong? Isn’t that insanity?
Posted by Cleo - 1 month, 1 week, 3 days, 19 hours, 1 minute ago

A couple of thoughts. First, it is deplorable that he would make fake his grades and there is just no excuse.

Second, with respect to comment #33. I would like to know if you had to work full-time while attending law school? Or if you have a different opinion with respect to those that did?

I worked full-time at a very stressful, demanding job the entire four years I attended law school on the weekends and weeknights. I had no time to do moot court, law review or any of the like. I competed with much younger day students who didn’t work and could devote their entire heart and soul to law school. I got respectable grades but was not up in the higher percentile. I just didn’t have the time to devote to straight A’s and to compete with those who did.

While my record shows an ability to juggle many things at once and remain successful at all; I still don’t seem to get much consideration for holding down a professional position full-time, raising children and keeping a marriage and household together while meeting the demands of law school.

The bottom line are the grades. What a shame. Thankfully I have no desire to work for Biglaw. My brief experience working at a law firm was awful...with lawyers with such delusions of Grandeur it was nauseating and disheartening to see the noble profession reduced to petty in-fighting, the almighty bill-able hour, disprespect for others and plain old bullying.

I quit and am now much happier outside of the Biglaw environment.
Posted by jd - 1 month, 1 week, 3 days, 11 hours, 19 minutes ago

To all: please focus on the dishonesty. Grades are just part of the landscape. This guy got what he deserved, even though it took 6 years. I also wonder whether there was some litigation strategy involved in the timing of the complaint against him.

I went to law school at night while working full time at a job where my boss was actively hostile to my ambitions, yet paradoxically wanted me out so she could hire her own people. I started law school at 39, made top grades (was ranked in the single digits throughout school), made law review and snagged a BigLaw job. Many law firms refused to interview me (due to my advanced age, no doubt, since my grades were fine), and I went on interviews where it was obvious that I wouldn’t get a callback once the partner figured out I was a night student. But, my attitude is that these are some of the facts of life and you might as well know about it going in.

Yes, it sucked to be overlooked for younger, less-qualified applicants, and yes, it sucked being at the library doing cite checks for law review articles at 3:30 am when I had to be at a job I hated at 8:30, but no one ever told me it would be easy. I killed myself for those grades precisely so I would have a chance. It was a huge gamble for me at my age to incur such an enormous student loan debt with such a shorter career during which to pay the money back. I hate that someone could cheat and get away with it.

This guy should be disbarred.

Law firms should consider other factors than grade.

But we live in the real world, no?
Posted by Jesse Espinoza - 1 month, 1 week, 3 days, 5 hours, 33 minutes ago

Funny so many of you equate higher grades in law school with higher work ethic. I know too many people that got high grades (top 10, not top 10%) with an exam technique that allowed them to take it with minimum thinking and maximum typing. Those who are trained before law school to think things through carefully before answering often don’t even finish an exam or are too thorough in their analysis which takes points from other issues. These people often make good litigators but were not able to get the maximum points. My best grades came when I did less thinking and more trash work which would amount to malpractice in real life. In those instances I ended up with more balanced points across all issues and that means better grades. Unfortunately I didn’t realize this until after first semester of 1L when it was already too late. I also know people that were smarter than me with lower grades who worked just as hard if not harder. I also know of people in the top that made it onto law review and only do the minimum amount of work to get the job done just to get their credit. How do I know, becuase I wrote on and became their Chief Editor and had to review a lot of their work! There are a lot of reasons why people land in different places on the curve and of course those at the top will try to maintain the status quo; “of course they made it becuase they are brilliant” (for those of you that need the pat on the back). Some great author once wrote that you could put a list of names on the wall and pick the top 10% by throwing darts. That aside, grades (which are not indicative of best quality enough to be statistcally relevant or reliable) are relevant to this discussion because they part (not all) of the driving force that led to the ethics violations in the first place. High tuition is another factor, and our infatuation with numbers is part of what got this person into U of C to begin with. This person has issues that are reflective of poor character and judgment and which should have been detected when admitting him to law school. Instead we focus on numbers, a great LSAT. Grades and top law schools are important to firms, not because of true quality, but because of the appearance of quality, which allows large firms to justify high billing and to attract major clients. This in turn leads to higher profits per partner and a higher rank for the firm. Its all about the power of illusions to make money.
Posted by Jesse - 1 month, 1 week, 3 days, 5 hours, 28 minutes ago

P.S. Sorry bout the typos. Fire me!!
Posted by Catherine - 1 month, 1 week, 2 days, 22 hours, 6 minutes ago

Disbar him!
Posted by Veronica - 1 month, 1 week, 1 day, 9 hours, 54 minutes ago

I am truly disturbed by the lengths this individual went to- to secure employment with a large law firm. He was so insecure (or knew that he didn’t stand a chance) that he invented a new academic history. It is indicative of a few things to me:
1. The emphasis that law schools and law firms put on academic performance- even if the person is unethical, socially inept, etc-- they look good on paper, no?
2. The lure (i.e. illusion) of the large law firm paycheck
3. How it obscures the reality of law practice for law students and obscures their values in the process

There is more to being a lawyer than grades and the law firm paycheck. Grades don’t necessarily equate with success in the profession… it just means you know how to take tests. Period.

This young man got it completely wrong but I feel the profession has a small share of the blame. What are they teaching future lawyers? Where are the values?

This young attorney needs to be severely punished for his actions- he has no place in the profession. He should be disbarred. If he could lie about something this important- I question his honesty in ALL things.
Posted by Me - 1 month, 1 week, 11 hours, 41 minutes ago

This is just speculation, but I would bet an awful lot that this came to light as a result of the slip of his own tongue, e.g. bragging to buddies about what he got away with, then someone blows the whistle, Sidley checks its records, and lo and behold… There’s just no other way to explain how this was discovered 6 years after the fact. Despite the brutal dishonesty, I do feel sorry for him.
Posted by Boraxo - 1 month, 1 week, 5 hours, 14 minutes ago

old news. i know a guy that did this 20 years ago. same result (lost job, disbarred) at a major new york firm.

yes, what he did was dishonest and wrong, and there should be consequences. but a bar complaint? pretty vindictive on sidley’s part. and did they refund the clients for the work done by a summer associate with C grades instead of A grades? I bet not. hypocrites.

clearly someone had an axe to grind against this guy.

and disbarred? ridiculous. i’ll bet there are attorneys at sidley who have done far worse on behalf of their clients.
Posted by Peter - 1 month, 6 days, 20 hours, 43 minutes ago

All points should be well-taken. What matters depends on where you sit. Given the fact that the pre-profession and post-law-school environments are extremely competitive, in consideration of the fact that human beings are not perfect in many aspects, it is obvious that we have not established and will probably never establish a fair process of selection. But that does not mean such a flawed process will prevent a good lawyer to excel. Gold is gold, regardless.

Perhaps I may have the honor to use myself as an example. I did not go to the top-tier, even though I applied to more than 10 of them over 10 years ago. Within 1 year after earning my J.D.
and 6 months after admission to the bar, I hung out my shingle.

What further surprised me is that I have not been, after litigating all kinds of cases for 10 years, often against top litigators of the nation,
including copyright cases in the federal courts,
really impressed by the legal or professional skills or performance of my opponents. As a result, I am often confused as to what standards should be applicable to judging or evaluating a lawyer. What matters for me is the power to set my own strategies, territories, and theaters of war; to select my clients; to set my own schedules, including quarterly vacations, instead of annual ones; and even to practice law in my S500, on the beach, or in the pool.

At any rate, I learned to appreciate what my parents give, what God is giving, what my teachers gave, and what this wonderful country has given me. Let’s move on.
Posted by Marrie_Mason - 1 month, 6 days, 18 hours, 38 minutes ago

Well said, Mr. Peter #49
Posted by Nicole - 1 month, 6 days, 14 hours, 36 minutes ago

To Moving Beyond Grades at #18 - even those schools that don’t grade, such as Boalt Hall, will provide a student’s ranking so the firm will know whether an applicant was in the top 5%, 10%, 15% or lower. So, even though students don’t know their rank, the schools do (really, what’s the difference between “high honors” and “A” after all?).
Posted by Peter - 1 month, 6 days, 13 hours, 27 minutes ago

Not as time-pressed now as then when I was typing up my previous comment numbered 49, I feel necessary to say a few words about law school grading.

First of all, a little background. From grade school all the way to undergraduate, I would challenge any classmate who could earn a better grade then me. I was more than often, if not always, the best student of all classes in my academic history. I graduated from junior high and was admitted into a major university when i was 16. I already earned an M.A. in US history by the time i went to law school.

Yet I was never a top 10%, although i worked about 30 hours a week for nearly the entire law school years. Believe me. I tried very badly to get into the top 10%. One or two As don’t mean nothing. You have to basically get straight As.
I honestly believe that I probably did not much better even if i did not work at all. In my humble opinion, it is not the ability to learn. Rather it is the ability to quickly digest all of the information with high efficiency in a relatively short amount of time. That’s where distinction comes from.

Another fact: my grades at law school were extremely consistent across the board. According to my research, it is true for most of law students in most law schools.

All i am saying is that don’t be sour merely because your grades were not idea. People are different. What I must accept, though, is that I tried my best to get straight As in law school and failed. In a very bad way. Because that could not be me. Nonetheless, best grades do not always guarantee much. Surviving in the legal profession takes much more than grades.
I thank you for your time to read my message.
Posted by x - 1 month, 6 days, 6 hours, 30 minutes ago

I had a horrible experience in my first year, but then again who didn’t?
Anyway, what about when u suspect your school is tampering with grades to make students of a certain race look better than others? What about the nepotism, the fact that certain teachers live in the same neighborhoods as thier students parents, and know each other and carpool together. In my lawschool, which is a small private school, I often felt that some students did not have to work as hard to get to teachers, to get reccomendations, or anything. Not becuase they were dynamic students but becuase the teachers knew their parents or ther families, in some instances the teachers WERE thier parents or family members.
There is so much that goes on behind the scenes that I have lost faith in the neutrality of the grading process. IT IS SAD.
Not to mention, that in the same year that the most minorities were admitted to the school, the school randomly decided to “adjust” the grading curve and make it more steep, and harder for these groups to suceed.

Indeed submitting fake grades is repulsive. I would submit my grades no matter what they are becuase I realize they do not determine if I will be a good lawyer or not.

But then again I consider the fact that most of white classmates who make it into big firms after thier first year or even after the end of law school don’t do so becuase they are hard workers, or becuase the are truly intelligent. It’s becuase its handed to them, like everything else in thier perfect lives, mommi and daddi happen to be big time lawyers who didnt have to work, and junior is just picking up the family jewels. To these kind law is never about justice, or helping people, its about making money, sitting at abig desk and shooting the breeze, dooing nothing, going to company lunches. They never know what it means to struggle.

Lets face it, legal edication is NOT neutral or objective in the placement of students after lawschool.

Certain races are funnelled into certain professions by thier law schools. In over 100 years the KKK has diverisified its membership more than the legal profession.

While this may sound harsh, its the blunt truth. Even though faking grades is cowardice, I cant blame this guy for trying to steal his way in.

After all, there are set no provisions or guidelines for the regulation of schools who discriminate agianst certian students. The institutionalized racisim, sexism and nepotism is standard in a good majority of American Law Schools, and ironically, the students who PAY for the institution to continue are left without an outlet. From the time you take your LSAT to the time you complete your first year finals, all of the decision-making and grading is done behind closed doors. There is hardly any direct accountability to students, we are just supposed to “trust” that the process is neutral and objective and that we are being judged soley on our performance. But at the end of the day minorities end up on the bottom of the list, and whites end up on the top. This dynamic has been in place for decades.

It needs to change.
Posted by Peter - 1 month, 5 days, 14 hours, 55 minutes ago

Thanks, Marrie, for your comment (#51).
Posted by Angry Grad - 1 month, 4 days, 22 hours, 8 minutes ago

As a recent grad unemployed for 11 months now, I understand why he did it. Biglaw makes a show of the huge demand they have, but won’t interview you if you’re outside the top ten percent or not “white” enough for them. Screw Biglaw and the profession. This market sucks.

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