Interesting Legal Story

This doesn't have anything to do with the DA's office, but it's entertaining nonetheless.

Apparently, the background checkers at UrbanCenterMajorLaw&Firm should all be fired for incompetence. They had a paralegal, much like myself, who had been working there for approximately 5 years, much unlike myself. One day he tells the associates he works for that he's been accepted to law school, he's going to be taking classes at nights. He promises it won't interfere with his work life. He gets congratulations from all associates and a few of the partners who have come to know his name.

A couple months pass and a few associates begin to inquire how law school is going. "Oh, it's tough, but I'm getting through it", the paralegal would always reply. They would swap stories about professors being boring, absurd situational paper topics, and the reclusion of 1L life. The associates kept telling him that the 2L year was better and 3L might actually have some fun mixed in. The paralegal always thanked them for the encouragement.

4 years go by like this (generally going to law school at night takes 4 years vs. the 3 it takes if you go full time). And then in may the paralegal announces that he has graduated, he takes a month of his saved vacation time to study for the bar. He comes back after a month and claims he has taken the bar. After about 3 weeks he comes into work ruefully and admits that he has failed the bar, but plans to take it again in 6 months. After 6 months the same thing happens, he has failed again. He says he will try one more time, and man, that test sure is hard.

Lo, and behold, the third time is the charm, he passes. He comes into work full of life, he tells the associates and partners that he is now an attorney. They act accordingly and start assigning him clients. He performs well beyond any expectations they have for a new attorney, and why not, hes been doing it for 10 years already. He is raking in cash for the firm. Everyone is pleased with the current situation.

But, like all good things, this mutually beneficial relationship had to come to an end. In a single moment of weakness, the paralegal turned promising attorney let it slip to a client he misplaced trust of secrecy to that he had actually made the whole thing up, he had never even applied to law school much less attended, graduated, and passed the bar. I guess maybe he thought the client would be more impressed if he knew his client was this good without ever going to school for it. He didn't get the reaction he was looking for, whatever that was. Instead, he got dimed out to the firms HR department and was called in first thing in the morning.

They began by saying how impressed they were that he was able to accomplish so much without actually going to law school. Then they fired him for practicing law without a license and he now faces misdemeanor charges in criminal court.

My first reaction was How does something like this happen? How can nobody really have noticed that the guy never went to school, had no diploma, didn't really pass the bar, wasn't ever admitted to the bar. But then I thought, I could probably do the exact same thing at my job, and chances are, it would be decades before anyone caught on.

Now don't get me wrong, I wouldn't jeopardize my future by pulling a stunt like that, but my hat gets tipped to the guy for keeping the scam going for as long as he did, I wonder if he would've made partner had he just kept his mouth shut. Oh well once he pays his $150 fine, and another $500 to have his B misdemeanor sealed or expunged, he'll probably secure a teaching position at some 3rd tier college and lecture on business ethics with Mike Milkin and Kenneth Lay as special guests.