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I interviewed at a V10 firm and filled out a form where I had to report any accusation of plagiarism from my past. I had been placed on a warning level of probation early in college (6 years ago or so) when a professor recommended me to the academic resource center due to bad citations (works fully cited in bibliography) in a paper and university policy mandated anything shady with citations to be an automatic warning. I don't have a mark on my transcript and I honestly forget it happened until I'm asked about it specifically. I'm curious if it could have an affect on my chances of getting an SA offer?

I obviously got into law school in spite of this and have since won awards for writing and am on law review. In fact, the incident only made me a better writer.

Anonymous User wrote:I interviewed at a V10 firm and filled out a form where I had to report any accusation of plagiarism from my past. I had been placed on a warning level of probation early in college (6 years ago or so) when a professor recommended me to the academic resource center due to bad citations (works fully cited in bibliography) in a paper and university policy mandated anything shady with citations to be an automatic warning. I don't have a mark on my transcript and I honestly forget it happened until I'm asked about it specifically. I'm curious if it could have an affect on my chances of getting an SA offer?

I obviously got into law school in spite of this and have since won awards for writing and am on law review. In fact, the incident only made me a better writer.

I would bring this up with your CSO. I am not sure how thorough the bar is, but I have heard of ridiculously minor things in people's backgrounds shafting them out of the July exam simply because they failed to disclose... In almost every case, disclosing would not have done a damn thing to the candidate's ability to get onto the bar.

Why take the risk? If you disclose, tell them how long ago it was and make the best of it. If you do not disclose, I would personally worry about not disclosing and have something awful like a no offer or bar exam issues pop up after you worked hard for 2 + years in law school and during your SA.

Could you contact your UG and have some formal documentation brought up to minimize this incident?

I disclosed it on the firm's form and on law school applications. Honestly, I'm not embarrassed about talking about it, I just forget it was ever an issue. I would think they'd want to know more at the least, and perhaps request a college transcript. I can also see the firm thinking I'm not worth the effort and just dinging me. But I would think my accomplishments since should more than overshadow something that happened 6 years ago.