Lawsuit of the Day: Pimply-Faced Cooley Law Grad Sues Photo Studio Over Email Blast of 'Embarrassing' Picture

It's not every day that your law school classmates are email-bombed with photos of you that look like before-and-after Proactiv ads, but that's what one recent Cooley Law graduate alleges in a complaint....

Ah, law school graduation. It’s a time for you and your classmates to reminisce about all of the good times you’ve had together, and some of the bad times, too. These people have gotten you through the past three (or four) years of your life, and they’ll always remember you in the most flattering light.

Unless, of course, your complexion is cause for major concern.

It’s not every day that your law school classmates are reportedly email-bombed with photos of you that look like before-and-after Proactiv ads. But that’s what one recent Cooley Law graduate alleges in his complaint against the photo studio that took his senior picture….

Aminur Khan, a Cooley Law grad, claims that he’s “suffered with aesthetic difficulties with the complexion of his face for the majority of his adolescence and adult life.” How embarrassing for him. What’s more embarrassing, however, is the fact that his adult acne was allegedly put on display for his entire class to see, by a photo studio touting its retouching services.

Courthouse News Services has more details about the complaint (which is available in full here):

Khan, a graduate of Thomas M. Cooley Law School, claims Call Photography used his senior picture without permission in its embarrassing before-and-after shots, which “quickly became the subject of conversation throughout Cooley Law School and plaintiff’s colleagues.” …

He says Call photographed him in February 2011, and in November circulated an email to his “entire graduating class” and four other graduating classes “and perhaps others,” featuring his before-and-after pictures, and offered “Complexion retouching” and “Extensive retouching.”

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Here’s a copy of the email blast that was allegedly sent to all of Khan’s classmates:

It seems that Khan’s lawyer, Edwar Zeineh, redacted his client’s photo — perhaps to spare him more of the “[e]xtreme mental and emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment, outrage and other mental anguish” he claims he suffered as a result of his classmates seeing his face. Epic fail alert! Do you seriously mean to tell us that Zeineh didn’t realize this would be publicized even further on Above the Law?

But really, come on, it’s just acne! Celebrities go on TV almost every day to brag about the pimples they once had. It’s not as if this kid looked like the guy with the horrible cranial disfigurement from that ’80s movie Cher starred in (or maybe he did, we don’t know). Bottom line: if the entire law school allegedly had nothing better to do than to whisper in the hallway about their pimply-faced classmate, then they have no lives. Simple as that.

Alas, apparently you need to look the part if you’re a student at the second-best law school in the nation.

Aminur Khan v. Call Photography Complaint [Thirtieth Circuit Court for Ingham County, Michigan]
Law School Graduate Becomes a Plaintiff [Courthouse News Service]

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Earlier: Benchslap of the Day: A Cooley Law Grad’s ‘Epic Fail’ in Court