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Law Deans and Federal Prison Time, Not so Crazy...

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 1:44 am
by PDaddy
I told you so...

Just about everybody said I was crazy two or three years ago for (1) suggesting that the heads and admins of law schools that were misleading the ABA, the ranking systems and, by extension, law school applicants were essentially committing fraud...the same type(s) of fraud that led to execs from MCI Worldcom and other Wall Street giants getting marched out of their cushy corner offices en mass...and (2) that they should possibly be subject to criminal as well as civil prosecution as a result.

I drew the parallel between the two (Wall Street and the law schools) and argued that the false reporting law schools were no different than corporations that reported misleading quarterly figures to shareholders. TLSers said I was nuts for thinking it. Some law school admins could be headed to prison down the road if people like the two Emory Law profs cited in the below article have their way.

Man, I love being secure enough to think for myself. THAT is what's going to make me a great lawyer. :wink:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/wlf/2012/03 ... n-lawyers/

Re: Law Deans and Federal Prison Time, Not so Crazy...

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 3:37 am
by senorhosh
Hm. Isn't the comparison is a bit off because LS students still get an education and a diploma? Even though it's not worth as much as previously thought, it still is valuable to a certain extent (depending on the school).
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But either way, I do think they should face some sort of prosecution.

Edit: Read this and thought i should clarify. I meant once a company reports losses, there's nothing you can do about it as a shareholder except lose money. As a student, your diploma might come in handy sometime later, just not as beneficial as the school advertises.

Re: Law Deans and Federal Prison Time, Not so Crazy...

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 4:11 am
by lobolawyer
I think fraud is on point.

The JD and it's value might be mitigating factors, but they're knowingly making false representations with the intention that applicants rely on them, which is reasonable b/c they're are deans/admins, and the applicant's suffer damages as a result of their reliance. Proving damages might be complicated, though.

Re: Law Deans and Federal Prison Time, Not so Crazy...

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 4:19 am
by romothesavior
PDaddy wrote:I told you so...

Just about everybody said I was crazy two or three years ago for (1) suggesting that the heads and admins of law schools that were misleading the ABA, the ranking systems and, by extension, law school applicants were essentially committing fraud...the same type(s) of fraud that led to execs from MCI Worldcom and other Wall Street giants getting marched out of their cushy corner offices en mass...and (2) that they should possibly be subject to criminal as well as civil prosecution as a result.
Did anyone ever argue with you on (1)? Because I am skeptical.