Ethical Convergence

Doesn't the country seem to be a more ethical place today since countless of us law students and lawyers took the MPRE yesterday?

I think I did OK on the test--knock on wood. I was worried about running out of time, but I finished the test with a few minutes to spare. I have long given up on the idea of trying to figure out how I did on a law test. There have been so many instances of when I thought I did well, only to have not done so well, and vice-versa.

But this is a real test that counts. This is part of the bar exam, and that is scary! We find out our results in 5 weeks. It will be a long five weeks.

After I finished the test, I felt fine, but later on that night felt like I had been beaten with a stick. I guess partly because I hadn't gotten enough sleep the week before.

Out of curiosity, I looked up the disciplinary cases on the Board of Professional Responsibility website. I was surprised to see the cases listed there. Many of them were exactly what we had studied in the review. I even noticed one of my former high school teachers was censured on there!

The charges included lawyers doing such things as failing to keep the client informed, failing to file on time, failing to pay dues and not keeping up with CLE courses. But some were worse--stealing money from clients, forging checks, and pretending a client won an award when they didn't. How in the world would you pull that off? The most curious were the listings that said that this lawyer or that lawyer was a danger to the public (or some such language like that). That really gets the curiosity up.

I am surprised that lawyers would act like this. I guess it is a good idea to teach professional responsbility in school and make people take the MPRE. Those of us in law school will know ahead of time what is expected of us and what the consequences will be if we don't follow the ethics rules.