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Harvard - Did It Make Error of Judgment Related to Kyle Kashuv's Error of Judgment?

When he was 16 years - and before the maturing experience of surviving the Parkland, Florida massacre - Kyle Kashuv transmitted racial slurs digitally. That was through texting and Twitter. They were private, that is, the recipients were friends.

After that content had been leaked, long story short, Harvard rescinded Kashuv's acceptance for the Class of 2023. Here are more details from the Washington Examiner. 

Before Harvard took official action, it had received numerous requests to pull back in the welcome mat for Kashuv. It also asked him for a written explanation of the content. 

Kashuv apologized for any offense. That was not his intention. Instead he was focusing on the "shock" value of the tone. He meant no "racial animus." 

Harvard didn't buy in.

Obviously, a few years ago, teenage male Kashuv made an error of judgment. He expressed regret for that. Also, one has to assume that being part of the Parkland attack accelerated his emotional, social, and spiritual development.

But, the question that isn't so clear is this: Did Harvard also make an error of judgment in rescinding Kashuv's acceptance? Hopefully, that institution of higher learning is receiving push-back from those who disagree with its decision on this one.

Reflection: Has political correctness crossed the line to downright injustice?

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Both M.B.A. and JD = BigTicket to Debt, Not Necessarily BigMoney

Old-line thinking used to be in M.B.A. and JD programs at elite universities: Just focus on your studies, the money will come after graduation to pay off the student loans.

There has been a shift in that mindset.

The new mindset is this: Money may not come after you get the degree to unload the debt. And the amount of that debt has reached the, well, unthinkable.

A survey by Bloomberg found out this: Nearly half of the M.B.A. graduates from top schools graduated with at least a $100,000 student loan nut. The median salary for many was only $125,000.

That isn't a lot of money in a major metro area such as New York City or Boston. So, the loan doesn't get paid off quickly. Interest accrues. The amount due balloons. If there are periods of unemployment, making the monthly payment may be downright impossible. 

Lendedu documented that the student loan debt for those in law school ranged from $24,000 to $170,000. For a recent Harvard Law JD that could be between $297,548, and $322,348.

As for compensation, ZipRecruiter reports that the average for lawyers in the state of New York is $87,502 and in California $80,110. 

Of course, the legal media tracked those boosts of entry-level salary in many BigLaw firms to about $190,000. But those jobs are not easy to get. And, given the up or out system in BigLaw, they are not easy to hold onto.

If a recession comes, 10,000 lawyers could lose their jobs. In the tradition-bound legal sector, those knocked out of the box may never get back in. In a recovery, law firms and in-house legal departments will tend to hire laterals and newly minted JDs.

Therefore, the majority of lawyers will struggle for decades to pay off their loans. There aren't many stories of lawyers shaking those off in 5 years.

In addition to the student loan debt from professional programs, there could also be undergraduate loans.

In the early 21st century, the BigStory had been that of Elie Mystal, now head of legal media outlet Abovethelaw.com. The combination of loans from Harvard undergraduate and Harvard Law totaled $150,000. That was way back around 2005.

His takeaway quip was that when he went to rent an apartment and the property managers looked at his credit rating, their eyes would pop.

But the financial tragedy was that he hated law. He quit his job at BigLaw and defaulted on the monthly repayments until he get set up in his current field of journalism. No, journalism isn't the land of BigMoney.

Reflection: BigDebt doesn't guarantee anything but BigDebt.

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"The Good Fight" - Fun Look at Law Firm Business/Politics, Litigation Financing, Class Actions, False Confessions, and More

"The Good Fight" is the sequel to "The Good Wife."

Tonight it became available network television, on CBS, at 9 P.M. New York Time.

Since 2017, you could view the pile up of the seasons' episodes only through CBS Streaming Service on CBS All Access.

The programming kicks off with Diane Lockhart announcing her retirement at Lockhart & Lee. Of course, the Lee part is jubilant.

But soon Diane discovers her entire nest has been part of the Henry Rindell Alleged Ponzi scheme. An invitation-only investment scam, many powerful players also have lost their money.

When Lockhart asks for her job back, the answer is no. In the legal community, because she had introduced people to Rindell she is poison. No one will hire her.

Salvation comes in the form of an offer to join African-American law firm Reddick, Boseman. She brings along with her Rindell's daughter Maia, who had started out at Lockhart & Lee, but was fired and also is poison everywhere else.

Unlike more traditional firms, Reddick is a raw hustler. They pitch possible class actions to litigation financers who use algorithms. The variables fed in include such matters as what judge would be overseeing the case.

On her first case, Maia encounters the now-popular in the media issue of false confessions. She and a Reddick colleague even attend a seminar on a method to elicit a confession, even if the person interrogated isn't guilty. 

Along side all the legal issues are the emotional, social, and spiritual ones.

Diane can't forgive her estranged husband - Marlboro Man - for his sexual affairs with students. He wants to remain part of her life. She wants that door closed. She files for a divorce. In a sense that is also a generous gesture because divorce means that his accounts won't be frozen during the investigation of the Ponzi scheme.

Meanwhile the only way she can navigate losing both her wealth and her law firm is to be open to change. She's softening around the edges.

Maia, after a charmed childhood and early adult years, encounters extreme adversity. Lots of folks figure she was in on the Ponzi scheme. Her lesbian personal life finds its way onto social networks. She loses her first case and the litigation financers' algorithm tells them to bail out of the class action. 

Henry, who had been Diane's close friends, claims he's innocent. He's in jail. His wife is already in bed with someone else.

The major takeaway from "The Good Fight" is that everyone is imperfect and some of them are more imperfect than others. Watch out for the latter.

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Yet Another Law Partner Blows Up His Career - David Scudieri's Sexual Antics

It's getting to look like law partners have a genius for professional self-destruction. 

The memory of Gordon Caplan's AdmissionsGate caper is still fresh in our minds.

Add now the name of another law partner who went rogue has been added to the list of seeming self-destructs. 

That's David Scudieri who will not be practicing law in New York State, ruled the appellate court, for 18 months.

His misconduct included sexual antics with a client identified only as "Ms. A." The New York Post reports the cartoonish details.

It should be noted that Scudieri denies having sexual relations with that client in a stairwell in 2017 at the 111 Centre St. courthouse. Also, he explained to the appellate court that he had been caught in the emotional wringer of a bitter divorce and home foreclosure. 

Before all this happened Scudieri had been a name partner at Goldberg, Scudieri & Lindenberg. If you click on the law firm's website here you will note that Scudieri is no longer a name partner. Also, he is not included in the attorney profiles. 

It's almost a cottage industry to speculate why so many successful lawyers take a walk on the wild side - and wind up getting caught.

That's both in real life and in fiction.

On long-running television network series "The Good Wife," Will Gardner was suspended from practicing law for six months. He had put his hand in the cookie jar, that is, client funds while lawyering in Baltimore.

Gardner had gambling debts to pay at the time. That's the pickle addicted lawyers frequently find themselves in. More often, it's drugs.

More common, though, is the too-high lifestyle. So, they try to make ends meet by not paying taxes or, again, stealing from client funds or from the law firm through fake invoices from made-up vendors.

Then there are the situations where the derailing seems to be for the thrill of it. Yes, going to work every day, putting in those long hours, and having such little overall control can wear a human being down. It's time to have some fun.

Another scenario is the absolute need to outsmart the system. After all, aren't lawyers the smartest kids in the room.

And there is garden-variety insanity. That happens all the time. On a temporary basis or permanently.

The American Bar Association should make available on a sliding scale fee schedule straightforward coaching which prevents lawyers from unraveling. Usually there are signs of an inner shift. And its direction isn't toward making the world a better place. The coaches can be retired FBI agents. They can hammer how easy it is to get caught.

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