Last Tuesday, the Hearing Board of the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (IARDC) issued a report and recommendation for the three-year suspension from the practice of law of an attorney who, over a period of years, answered law school application questions by omitting the fact he had attended medical school and the fact he had been dismissed for academic reasons, provided to prospective employers law school transcripts which he had altered to show markedly higher grades than the ones he had earned, and failed to disclose to the Illinois State Bar's Character and Fitness Committee his fraudulent alteration of transcripts. Though there is much that can be said about this unfortunate series of events, most of it has already been shared, notably by commentators at the ABA Journal, the American Law Daily, the American Lawyer, and the Legal Profession Blog. Thanks to Paul Caron's TaxProf Blog for bringing this update in the story to my attention.

Some of the reports included, without much comment, a reference to one of the tangential facts of the case. In its report, the Hearing Board of the IARDC explained that the attorney in question "is currently pursuing an MBA at the University of Illinois Business College." In his application to that school, he "did not mention the falsified transcripts, the problem with the law school paper, or the omission on the law school application, but he did not believe that information was responsive to any question on the application. He did disclose his dismissal from medical school." The problem with a law school paper refers to an investigation with respect to a suspicion of plagiarism that did not lead to formal charges by the school. The attorney reported that he contacted the assistant dean of student affairs at the University of Illinois Business College before he began the program, to explain the complaint pending before the IARDC, "disclosed the general nature of the allegations, and offered to provide a copy of the complaint, but his offer was declined because the school was only interested in matters of a criminal nature."

If indeed the University of Illinois Business College is interested only in "matters of a criminal nature" when screening applicants, and if that is the general practice among business schools, is it any wonder that a critical mass of business school applicants who have issues with respect to integrity and disclosure are getting into those schools, graduating from those schools, entering the business world, and ending up in positions where the lack of integrity and disclosure causes long-term and serious damage to people, enterprises, industry, and the economy? Ought not business schools, and, in fact, all schools, identify applicants who are in need of integrity counseling, and either refuse admission or make admission and graduation contingent on the student straightening out his or her life? Are not business schools responsible for preparing people to function in the business world, and is not one of the requirements for doing so not only an understanding of what integrity and disclosure require but also a demonstration that a person possesses a character marked by those traits? If schools are unable to "teach integrity," then they ought not admit someone into their programs who lacks that attribute.

Whether, and to what extent, schools need to investigate the background of their applicants are debatable questions. Surely, though, it costs little and perhaps nothing to add to the application questions that reach beyond "only … matters of a criminal nature." Does it hurt to ask applicants if they have ever altered transcripts, submitted fraudulent resumes, plagiarized papers, or violated the Academic Rules or Honor Code of any institution in which they previousl were enrolled? Considering the high rate at which people confess, anonymously in surveys, that they submit false resumes, is it any wonder that people willing to lie to get a job would be willing to commit fraud in order to make money marketing or selling whatever it is they're foisting on an unsuspecting public, be it tainted securitized mortgage loan packages, defective products, shoddy services, or some other junk? Is there not an obligation among business and other schools to require applicants and students to have and follow principles of integrity so that the nation's culture squeezes out practices like these, practices apparently so widespread that the litany of resume fraud committed by specific individuals shared by that particular site is a drop in the bucket of the dishonesty pervasive in "modern" American business culture? The "everybody does it" nonsense hyped by this site is nothing more than an excuse for people unwilling to take responsibility for doing what is right. The attorney who was the subject of the report and recommendation of the IARDC Hearing Board admitted that he did what he did in part because he "wanted to portray an image of being successful" and "felt that he needed to work at a premier law firm to confirm that he was successful." In other words, he went for the appearance rather than the substance of being successful. He admitted he "gave no thought to any harm his actions might cause the university." Does this not resemble the behavorial pattern of financial industry wizards who, giving no thought to the possible harmful consequences of their dealings, did whatever they decided needed to be done in order to achieve success, both in terms of finances and in terms of image?

The law firm that was duped by the false resume altered its practices and now requires a certified resume from the law school rather than a resume transported by the student. By getting the resume directly from the school, printed on special paper and with other mechanisms for preventing alterations, the law firm took steps to remove an opportunity for a person to commit fraud. There is no reason that business and other schools cannot change their admissions process to identify not only applicants with criminal histories but also applicants with a record of engaging in fraudulent and dishonest behavior. There also is no reason for these institutions to be lenient when enrolled students engage in behavior predictive of dishonest practices in the workplace.

Ultimately, the steps that can be taken by employers, such as the law firm that was duped, and schools are nothing more than some form of quarantine process so that those afflicted with dishonesty disease can be kept away from people, places, industries, professions, and economies that can be harmed by manifestations of that disease. The excuse often given by those who object to undertaking a screening process of the sort described is that it doesn't address the underlying problem. That is true, but it doesn't negate the benefits of low-cost, high-yield examination of applicants' records, whether they are applicants to a school, to a profession, or for a job. The truth of the excuse, though, demands that society do more.

The time and place for dealing with dishonesty disease is early in a person's life and in the person's home. By the time a person is old enough to apply to law school, or for a job, that person's character has been formed. Their outlook on life, however acquired, will have been established. Though occasionally someone past adolescence will modify his or her character and acquire a new outlook on life, the fact that when this happens it usually makes the news indicates how rare these transformations are. It is always better to prevent problems than to seek solution, and the best prevention is the instillation of a code of integrity in the minds of the nation's young people. The message must be sent not only in words but by actions. Parents who lie to other people while their children are listening, or who object to disciplinary sanctions for their children's dishonest deeds, are not doing their children, or the rest of the world, any favors. They harm the children by enabling behavior that eventually gets the children in trouble. Persistent and serious dishonest behavior, as evidenced by the attorney in the case, is something that has its roots in the person's early life, years before law firms, bar admissions committees, or employers can intervene.

The recommendation of the Hearing Board of the IARDC is that attorney be suspended for three years. Counsel for the Administrator, who presented the case against the attorney, argued for either disbarment or suspension until further order of the court. The arguments made on behalf of that position, the arguments made on behalf of the attorney for discipline less severe that what the Board recommended, and the Board's reasoning for its conclusion are in the report and recommendation. They're worth reading.

When people ask how so much fraudulent activity, which fuels a significant portion of the current economic turmoil, could occur, a clue to the answer can be found in the apparent disinterest of business schools in the non-criminal fraudulent and other dishonest behavior of their applicants. The advice that must be given to schools and employers, which isn't new and which is beginning to find willing recipients, is to find ways to identify people with these behavorial traits early in the process and to refrain from letting people off the hook too easily. After all, the economic distress generated by the "money and image ahead of all else" culture hasn't let its victims off the hook so easily.

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