shame on you, law school cheaters! shame on you.

[julie anne ines]

Sometimes, I imagine law students, law school and the lure of high grades akin to throwing a bunch of hungry, ugly-cute baby sharks into a small tank with a juicy piece of red meat.

Besides being fiercely competitive over-achievers, these Type-A sharkies have been told their survival in the law school tank depends on them being able to get those yummy ‘As’ and ‘Bs’.

Which is why it came as no surprise when we wrote a couple weeks ago that the Syracuse University College of Law would be taking measures to flush out cheaters who used their bathroom breaks to cheat on exams.

It is also no surprise that the National Law Journal recently reported that students are seeing more gray areas between honesty and dishonesty, and are using technology and changes in testing administration to get ahead.

What is surprising, to me at least, is that law students still see cheating as a viable option.

We’ve all been told since kindergarten that “cheaters never win, and winners never cheat,” and that “the only person you cheat when you try to cheat is yourself.” Call me square and naive, but I think both quotes are true, especially in law school exams.

Yes, law schools use exams to gauge how you fare against your classmates. But students should also take advantage of exams as an opportunity to reflect on material learned and possibly predict how well they’d do on the bar exam.

If you cheat in law school, you may be able to stay afloat and keep swimming. But when you get into the bigger ocean out there, you’ll be eaten alive if you fail to know your stuff.

Comments

[Anon]

Haha really? Why can't we be honest here. Cheaters obviously prosper - they get better grades than they would have if they didn't cheat. Also - law students take exams to get grades, not to reflect on material learned or predict how well they'll do on the bar. If you're using law school exams as a method of predicting whether you will pass the bar or not, you're wasting your time because they're very different beasts.

How about this: Cheating is wrong because it gives the cheater an undeserved, unfair advantage over his classmates.

If the fact that it's unethical and immoral isn't enough to stop cheaters - then vigorous regulation and punishment will have to do the trick. "Cheaters never prosper" has never convinced anybody not to cheat because it's so obviously false.

[SFJD]

How about "cheaters run the risk of sinking their tuition into a dead end, because the bar will never admit them if they get caught." The risk to reward scenario is so astoundingly bad that I would question not only the ethics of a law school cheater, but their judgment. I would not want someone with judgment that deficient representing me, ever.

[Anon#2]

Given the example of the guy who quite literally whited out his law school transcript as way of getting hired, "cheater's never prosper" is rather laughably false. The simple truth is that it's a complex risk/reward mixture with disbarment on the one hand and fear of unemployment on the other.

By this point every law student knows (or ought to know) that their classes are worthless. You don't really learn anything in law school, and the sole purpose of grades is to help firms in recruiting.

[Paul Author]

I wonder if cheating (during law school) explains why every year there are some (not many) top students from top schools who manage to fail the bar exam. I always thought it was just that they freaked out under the pressure. However, now having taken both California and New York, I wonder how you could ace all your law school exams (which at my school where similar to the bar in content, format and stress level) and tank the bar exam?

Also, as far as the previous poster's allegation that law school classes are worthless, I must disagree to a point. While law school is pretty worthless in regards to practice, I found it a good intro to bar exam topics and exam style. Of course the bar exam is equally worthless in preparing you to practice.

[SavvyD]

Considering what experience I have had with my law office being incompetent and not doing their research, passing the bar and getting the top grades isn't everything!!!! How many relax in the real world and forget to look at Witkin. Leave it to a future paralegal and perhaps someday law student to nip at their heels. Might have to sue and report them to the bar.

Do your work!

[SavvyD]

And by the way--this is the law office I am using for lawsuits. Once I am done with these cases, I will be done with them.

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