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Hunger Striker Revealed: Scambloggers Unimpressed

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A couple of weeks ago, we reported on “Ethan Haines,” a law school grad who is allegedly on a hunger strike to support the cause of law school transparency. Today, Ethan has outed herself in USA Today, as Zenovia Evans (pictured).

Here’s the USA Today report about her hunger strike:

One recent grad even went on a hunger strike on Aug. 5. “We have a new crop starting, and no one’s telling them anything about this,” says Zenovia Evans, 28, of Denver, who uses the name “Ethan Haines” on her blog, UnemployedJD.com.

The first in her family to finish college, she says that “no one wants to say, ‘Hey, career office, you failed me,’ ” but “I couldn’t take this lying down.” She says she owes more than $150,000 in loans.

So she’s a girl! Well, that’s one twist.

At least one anti-law-school blogger (aka “law school scamblogger”) who initially supported Haines / Evans now feels like the whole thing is a publicity stunt, maybe even a hoax…

Once Evans’s identity was revealed, the blog Shilling Me Softly did some digging. It turns out Evans and the blogger have some history; Evans had previously been banned from Shilling Me Softly for promoting her book on the site:

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Where had I heard that name before?

I’ll tell you where…from a comment she tried to get published on my blog, but which I rejected because it was pretty clear to me that she was just trying to get traffic to her site, which….wait for it….is devoted to selling her book series entitled, “J.D. Lifeline”.

For frak’s sake.

Here is the comment she left on my blog, which I rejected after I did some Googling and realized that this woman is a pro-law school shill (not an anti-law school shill like me–I am a hypocrite, but I’m honest!)

The blogger who writes Shilling Me Softly sent out a letter of warning to his fellow scambloggers. Other scambloggers have also reacted angrily (check out this post from But I Did Everything Right).

Above the Law asked Shilling Me Softly’s author to expand on his objections to Evans:

[M]y chief concern about Ms. Evans is that her own wish to drive traffic to her unabashedly pro-law school guide book is in direct conflict with her alleged hunger strike for greater law school transparency. It’s very difficult for me to trust that Ms. Evans is actually sincere when she stands to directly profit from this alleged hunger strike.

We still have nothing other than her word that she ever truly embarked upon a hunger strike, which is most likely why, despite the press coverage of “Ethan Haines”, that no law school took her seriously either.

Above the Law has been in contact with Evans since the story first broke two weeks ago (although we learned her true identity right along with everybody else). We’ve been trying to set up a photoshoot, which might help prove the veracity (or lack thereof) of her hunger strike. Now that we know where she is, we can hopefully make this happen.

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But one fundamental issue with this hunger strike still stands: it’s too diffuse to be truly effective. All hunger strikes are essentially publicity stunts; the effective ones bring negative publicity to the people you want to change. Right now, Evans is just bringing publicity on herself. USA Today ran a story on it, and didn’t feel compelled to single out any particular law school. That’s a problem.

Grads taking law schools to task for poor job market [USA Today]
Super Dupe-r Breaking News: I Was Duped By Zenovia Evans AKA “Ethan Haines” [Shilling Me Softly]
‘UnemployedJD’ Reveals Real Name, Says Hunger Strike Continues [ABA Journal]

Earlier: Unemployed J.D. Goes on a Hunger Strike

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