Not All Law School Grades Are Created Equal
Mike - Crime and Federalism blog
Walter Olson's recent post notes that because of litigation, not all high school diplomas are created equal. The same thing can be said of law school grades.
My alma matter, like all law schools, is required to give testing accommodations to students with disabilities. Usually, accommodations meant a private room with additional time to finish a test. At my law school, most exams took three hours. If you had a disability, you got more time.
One student was blind. He was also brilliant and successful. Only someone truly debased would have a problem with a school giving this student additional time to take a written test. But, as with every law that aims to protect students with actual disabilities, there was a major loophole.
As it turns out, ADD/ADHD was covered (or thought to be covered) under the same law that required law schools to give testing accommodations to blind students. (Whether or not ADD/ADHD is an actual medical condition is something I'll put to the side, as what I'm about to tell you is much more interesting.)
There was a psychiatrist in Los Angeles who would write a letter diagnosing anyone with $95, with ADD. The student would take this letter to the school's disability-assistance office, who would then ensure that the student received testing accommodations.
These students with their newly-discovered cases of ADD would get 4.5 hours to take their law school exams. So many students discovered this disease that the rooms the law school had set aside for students taking tests with accommodations were overfilling. It was literally creating logistical problems.
The administration must have been in a bind. To call out a student who claimed to have a disability might have been an invitation for a lawsuit. Thus, every student who paid for the letter got extra time to take an exam.
It thus might fairly be said that not law school grades are created equal. And we can thank the threat of litigation for that.
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