Law Schools

Law School Dean Accidentally Emails List Of Graduates Who Passed/Failed The Bar Exam To All Students

Yikes! That's a pretty big oopsie for a new dean.

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The 2020 bar exam may go down in history as the legal profession’s most stressful administration of its annual hazing licensing ritual. For those who risked their own health to take the test in person under potential superspreader conditions, the stress was unimaginable. As if taking the test in person during a pandemic wasn’t nerve-wracking enough, one law school dean just added to the chaos by accidentally sharing everyone’s exam results with the entire school.

This is exactly what happened at the University of South Carolina School of Law, where Dean William Hubbard — who formerly served as president of the American Bar Association and worked as a partner at Nelson Mullins — unwittingly sent an email to all current law students with an attachment that listed recent graduates’ names, test scores, and whether they passed or failed the bar exam. Oooooopsie!

Hubbard had received an email from the South Carolina Office of Bar Admissions with a letter about the school’s most recent bar pass rate of 82 percent, an increase of about 4 percentage points from last summer’s exam. In his excitement about the results, Hubbard, who took over as dean just two months ago, sent the email on to all current students, without noticing that graduates’ individualized results were attached as well.

As soon as Hubbard realized what he’d done, he immediately sent out a follow-up email. “Please delete the message I just sent about bar passage,” he wrote. “It was sent with the wrong attachment for which I am very sorry. Please do not open and, if opened, do not reveal any information in that attachment to anyone.” As one can imagine, law students likely opened that attachment with haste after they received the dean’s second email and perused it with great interest.

When the list of those who passed the South Carolina is published online, the names of those who failed does not appear, only their exam numbers. No one’s grades on the exam are published publicly. In accidentally sending this information to all current students at the school, Hubbard did a major no-no. His fervent apologies appeared earlier this week in the Charlotte Observer:

“It was totally an accident, an accident I deeply regret,” said Hubbard, who became dean Aug. 1.

“I’ve sent a personal email to every one of those students, and I’ve had an email dialogue with some of them and some phone conversations and plan to make myself available to any student who wants to meet.”

In those emails, he apologized, Hubbard said. “The vast majority of the former students have been understanding, forgiving and gracious.”

Hubbard spoke slowly, his shoulders were slumped and at times, he bowed his head. “It’s a mistake I deeply regret. I take full responsibility for the error, and I am profoundly sorry for any harm or distress I may have caused.”

Hubbard repeated, “I take full responsibility. It’s my fault, and mine alone.”

Hubbard is truly sorry about his email error. “The last thing I would ever, ever want to do is hurt any of our students or graduates,” he said. “I am deeply, profoundly sorry for my mistake.” How embarrassing. But not to worry, because we’re sure this incident will quickly be forgotten after the school puts into its marketing materials that its bar exam pass rate went up during the coronavirus crisis.

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Email accident: New USC law school dean releases confidential bar exam results [Charlotte Observer]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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