Weekend Nov 2 2014
Recent events surrounding admissions to the UT Law School do justice to a JOhn Grisham thriller.
Former U S Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison is on the committee to find the next president of UT Austin. A President of the Texas Exes and longtime writer of requests for admission of the children of her friends, this raises a few questions.
Watchdog.org uncovers three scandals involving UT President Bill POwers
OVerstated donations that infalted fund raising totals
a $1 millino contract awarded to Accenture without Board Knowledge
Abuses in 'forgivable loans' athe law schoool
;Powers resigns effective june 20185.
UT Regent Wallace Hall has rvealed improper admission procedures at the UT Law School. Unable to find any real wrong doing on the part of Hall, there are calls for his impeachment. No unpaid appointee in Texas has ever been impeached.
Now connect the dots. Texas politicians solicit admissiont to the UT Law school for candidates that cannot qualitfy on their own.UT Law School pass rate on the Bar Exam falls to 59%, the lowest in the state.
UNderstand that the reason so amny want into UT Law is the perception this is a ticket to employment at the most presitigious law firms in the state.
Here is an excerpt form the article.
Two recent UT Law grads already were elected officials when they were admitted.
State Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, like Zaffirini a Democrat from Laredo, who was first elected in 1992, failed the bar exam in 2007 and 2008, and is not a member of the Texas bar.
State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, first elected in 2002, failed the bar three times between 2010 and 2012, and is not a member of the bar, either. One of Rodriguez’s senior staffers, also a UT Law grad, failed the bar three times between 2009 and 2010.
Rodriguez works for the law firm of Brown McCarroll, which dove deep into lobbying during the 2008 election cycle. When Straus led a post-election coup to unseat Republican Speaker Tom Craddick with his “Gang of 11” Republicans and the support of the Democratic caucus, Brown McCarroll was one of the biggest beneficiaries, according to Capitol Inside.
Thanks to the former Straus staffers and the Democratic officeholders it employed, Brown McCarroll was suddenly the second most influential law firm lobby shop in town. Among its other employees were state Sen. Kirk Watson, a critic of Regent Hall, and former state Rep. Pete Gallego, now a congressman.
Gallego was instrumental in organizing the Democrats to support Straus, and Straus made him chairman of the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee in return.
AS always we will not lack for discussion topics in the Ethics class this fall.
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