Penalty for Ethics Violation? Forum

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MC1986

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Penalty for Ethics Violation?

Post by MC1986 » Sat Feb 11, 2017 6:36 pm

Before the inevitable TLS hate starts: I know this is an ethics violation. I am interested in similar experiences / guesses as to the penalty. Here's the story:

Student falsified part of a reference letter - not the content but the name of the addressee because the hiring coordinator at the firm changed and the prof who wrote the letter did not respond to a request to provide a new letter with the right addressee in time for the application deadline. The entire rest of the letter was unchanged. What is the likely penalty by the school if the school finds out?

lavarman84

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Re: Penalty for Ethics Violation?

Post by lavarman84 » Sat Feb 11, 2017 6:54 pm

Seems like something a professor would normally ask you to do to save them the effort. :lol:

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jchiles

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Re: Penalty for Ethics Violation?

Post by jchiles » Sat Feb 11, 2017 6:56 pm

Thats an ethics violation? Just send the letter to the right addressee and include a note explaining that the letter was originally directed towards the prior person in the same job.

MC1986

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Re: Penalty for Ethics Violation?

Post by MC1986 » Sat Feb 11, 2017 7:38 pm

@jchiles: Yes, that would have been the much better choice. Was stupidly worried about looking unprofessional.

@lawman84: The prof had already signed the letter. Altering a signed letter is an ethics violation.

Fed_Atty

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Re: Penalty for Ethics Violation?

Post by Fed_Atty » Sat Feb 11, 2017 7:44 pm

No matter how hard you try, this is not an ethics violation

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rpupkin

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Re: Penalty for Ethics Violation?

Post by rpupkin » Sat Feb 11, 2017 7:49 pm

Fed_Atty wrote:No matter how hard you try, this is not an ethics violation
No one is going to care (or find out) about what the OP did, but I do think it's pretty stupid to modify a printed, signed letter—even if the modifications aren't substantive.

And OP: hiring coordinators—like other positions at law firms—change all the time. I'm sure the new hiring coordinator will get mail addressed to the old coordinator for months. It's a total non-issue. There was nothing to "fix" here.

MC1986

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Re: Penalty for Ethics Violation?

Post by MC1986 » Sat Feb 11, 2017 8:19 pm

Thanks for your comments everyone! I was totally freaking out about having been so stupid.

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