03 Jan 2014 at 11:19 AM

Crime, Law School Deans, Law Schools, Prostitution, Sex, Sex Scandals

Former Law Dean Arrested On Prostitution-Related Charge

By Staci Zaretsky

Illinois Law has been going down ever since its inflated admissions data first came to light in 2011, and it hasn’t been pretty. The school put forth the “lone gunman theory of admissions fraud,” and Paul Pless, its former assistant dean for admissions and financial aid, was put on administrative leave, before he quietly resigned from his position. Not only did the school drop 24 spots in the U.S. News rankings, but it also got a costly spanking from the American Bar Association.
What’s happened to Paul Pless since then? Today’s news serves to remind us that some law school administrators love to screw — sometimes with numbers, and sometimes with hookers…

Several tipsters notified us about these allegations involving Paul Pless’s possible pleasures:

Paul Pless

On December 30, 2013, members of the Bloomington Police Department’s Street Crimes Division arrested four males in connection with a prostitution sting. The arrests all occurred at a local hotel in Bloomington. …
Paul Pless, 41, of Dewey was arrested for Solicitation of a Sexual Act (720 ILCS 5/11-14.1).
The Bloomington Police Department utilizes various websites and other investigative techniques to disrupt and deter prostitution activity in the City of Bloomington.
Pless [was] booked in at the McLean County Jail.

We wonder if Pless “knowingly and intentionally” attempted to cram everything he could into a prostitute — like he allegedly did with Illinois Law’s admissions stats. Given his apparent obsession with rankings-driven prestige, we’re surprised by these allegations — patronizing prostitutes isn’t exactly a peer activity.
But then again, Pless isn’t the first law school administrator to have been accused of such a crime. Mark Sargent, Villanova Law’s former dean, was implicated in a hooker hullaballoo back in 2009. Even law professors have allegedly been drawn in by the allure of ladies of the night. In 2007 and again in 2011, Professor D. Marvin Jones of Miami Law faced charges relating to the procurement of prostitutes.
We wish Paul Pless better luck fighting these charges than he had at Illinois Law. Let us take pity upon him; the poor man wasn’t even able to add Reema Bajaj as a notch on his bedpost.
Prostitution Sting: Four Men Arrested [City of Bloomington - Illinois]

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Topics

Admissions, Admissions Deans, Crime, Law School Deans, Law Schools, Paul Pless, Prostitution, Sex, Sex Scandals, University of Illinois College of Law

The Most Honest Law School

12 Mar 2012 at 7:03 PMPosted in:


Contests, Law School Deans, Law Schools, Legal Ethics, March Madness, Reader Polls

ATL March Madness (2012): The Most Honest Law School

By Above the Law

Get your brackets ready, March Madness is here! It’s the most wonderful time of the year, at least for those who enjoy illegally gambling with co-workers.

Every year, we here at Above the Law like to put together a little bracket of our own. In the past, we’ve asked you to vote for such things as the coolest law firm or the douchiest law school.

This year, we’ve come up with a question that you don’t hear a lot of people asking when they’re talking about pursing a career in law: Which law school is the most honest?

Don’t start checking you LST transparency index just yet. Sure, being honest to prospective or incoming students can be a factor in a law school’s reputation for honesty. But we want to look at this question in the broadest possible sense….

Whether a law school provides full and fair disclosure of its employment statistics to prospective students would certainly seem relevant to whether the school is “honest.” Whether a law school’s administration is direct and upfront when handling the crises and controversies that inevitably arise (and that we love to cover) would also seem like part of the honesty equation.

But honesty goes beyond the central administration and the career services office. It should show itself in the classroom as well — and beyond.

We expect law schools to shape our next generation of lawyers. We expect law schools to teach their students to think like lawyers. But do we expect law schools to teach people to be honest lawyers? Are some law schools better at emphasizing the moral and ethical standards of the law, while others teach a more, well, ethically aggressive style?

Or maybe the process of being an “honest” law school starts earlier than the first day of classes? It’s possible that some schools try to screen for the most upstanding individuals they can find, while other admission committees are more willing to accept academically qualified applicants with murky pasts.

Practicing lawyers, you must have opinions as well. If you are out there in practice, you’ve run across countless attorneys and judges from all sorts of law schools. Have you noticed any patterns when it comes to the alma maters of the honest and dishonest lawyers you meet?
In the words of Jack Nicholson’s Joker, “Hubba, hubba, hubba, money, money, money, who do you trust?” Which law schools have a reputation for producing graduates who are honest in their professional and personal dealings? Which law schools teach people that rules are made to be broken? Which law schools understand that honesty starts at the top?

We’ve tossed out several ways of measuring honesty. Ultimately, though, the definition of “honesty” is up to you.

Click on the next page to see the bracket and begin voting

Please read complete article and page 2 for voting at link below:


http://abovethelaw.com/2012/03/atl-march-madness-2012-the-most-honest-law-school/

Editor's note: Your ProbateShark finds the fact that this article is even "published" to be frightening and an indictment to the legal profession.  Do the bottom feeders end up in the Probate Court of Cook County? What about the 90% of lawyers found to be less honest?  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com