9/11, Crime, Screw-Ups

Sidley Austin Rescinds Brian Schroeder's Job Offer

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We wrote earlier today about Brian Schroeder’s Halloween misadventures. On the morning of October 31, the Harvard Law ’09 grad set fire to a chapel housing the remains of unidentified 9/11 victims. He turned himself in that evening.

Sidley Austin has responded to our inquiry regarding Schroeder, who had summered with the firm in 2008. The firm says it officially rescinded Schroeder’s job offer today.

Many have written to us about Schroeder, expressing surprise that he would do something like this. A collection of comments, after the jump.

From an acquaintance:

Brian’s a good guy — a little strange, but i wish you would include something that indicates he is not a crazy leftist — this was a dumb prank but i cant believe this was a political one. his career is done, though. not that i think he wanted to do biglaw anyway but yeah.

Some hearsay from a friend of a colleague of Schroeder’s:

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he was really shocked, said he was a nice guy, really smart, kind of quiet actually. No idea why he would do such a bizarre thing.

From the comments on the original post:

Those of us who know Brian know he is a decent guy and obviously something has gone very wrong for him recently.

And:

I knew Brian vaguely. A little odd… but seemed like a nice guy. This is a shock.

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From an HLS classmate:

Everyone I know here is shocked. We know Brian as a kind, outgoing, thoughtful and funny person. He was really involved at school, and is an incredibly fun person to be around. I can’t defend what he did, and no one here knows what could have possibly possessed him to do it, but he is not the evil, selfish person people are portraying him as. I know bold, entitled, self-involved Harvard types, and Brian is not one of them. It was an indescribably stupid thing to do, but not something anyone at Harvard thought he was capable of.

People here are also concerned about the homophobia and bigotry that animates many of the comments about what happened. There are concerns that the emotions surrounding the 9/11 tragedy will set him up to be crucified. But to those who know him this is extremely surprising, and saddening, because a very talented and usually thoughtful person has probably thrown away his bright future over what was likely a thoroughly stupid drunken mistake.

Earlier: Harvard Law Grad Sets Fire to 9/11 Chapel (and His Future Legal Career?)

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