Someone just needed to come right out and say it.
There are still law schools out there insisting on going forward with grading as if there’s anything normal about this situation and we’ve heard from some overly nervous students afraid that a blanket pass/fail option will undermine their precious GPAs.
So we needed someone to inject some perspective and Justice Brett Busby of the Texas Supreme Court was up to the task.
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I would not hesitate to hire law clerks with pass/fail grades for Spring 2020. My $.02: focus on staying healthy and continuing to learn and develop your skills remotely. https://t.co/qKDDgEHGWj
— Justice Brett Busby (@BrettBusby) March 26, 2020
Yes. Obviously. It’s a damning indictment of the profession that anyone out there might think otherwise. Or, probably more accurately, the damning indictment is that attorneys have such a dim view of humanity that they assume there must be people who will be tossing Columbia résumés in the trash because they have pass/fail marks for the semester when American society broke.
More judges and firms need to follow Justice Busby’s lead and make clear, unequivocal statements on this. It probably still won’t get Chicago to embrace reality, but you can’t win them all.
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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.