Character and Fitness - Applications to jobs you DIDN'T get Forum

[anxol]

Weird/funny/ potentially silly question about C&F here,

Is it typical that a state bar would somehow find/review documents you submitted to prospective employers that *didn't* hire you? I ask because I'm really concerned about one thing:

At the guidance of a staff member at the career services office of my school, I submitted a number of direct-send applications to firms during 2L recruiting season that all contained one particular error that I was to realize later was very wrong. I'm not going to get into the specifics, but it was a response to a particular question about a qualification that could be misinterpreted. I was to find out later that this staff member was known for giving out colossally terrible advice, but I know that's really no excuse.

If/when I went for screening interviews, I did verbally clarify any misapprehensions to the interviewer about that part of my application, but did not correct it in writing. None of the prospective employers who received these erroneous applications ever hired me. The employer who hired me did not ask for such an application.

I know it's a huge stretch, but, what should I do with respect to C&F? Disclose that I made this error, on *some* applications for employers that never hired me? Even after I verbally corrected the mistake? Another complication is that, since it was long ago (over a year), and it was relatively minor (I corrected the misapprehensions), I just hadn't thought of it for a while, and I actually now don't even remember what employers even received these applications. So a disclosure to a bar authority would read something like "Hey, I made a mistake about qualifications on a few applications for employers who didn't hire me, and I don't remember who those employers are." Do most bar authorities even have the power to review documents to employers who didn't hire you? Is this just not worthy of thought?

Thanks!

[bwh8813]

First off, how would they ever know what jobs you've applied for but didn't get?

Second off, unless you held yourself out as an attorney (which would be a HUGE issue and I'm sure even the most incompetent career services person would never advise you to do so), I'm not sure how it would even come up on the C&F application. We'd need more information on what the error actually is to give real advice. If it's truly minor and you verbally corrected it, don't worry about it.

[anxol]

1) You're right. I don't know. I have no idea how they would ever find this. It's not really relevant and it's not included in the Bar's C&F application questions. They don't ask you to talk about jobs you didn't get. I'm just curious if some some reason they had their way of finding this information.

2) It's nowhere near as bad as pretending to be a lawyer on an application.

Thanks for your reply! It was pretty reassuring.