In an earlier post this month, I related the story of Ethan Haines, an unemployed, newly-graduated lawyer who was staging a hunger strike, he said, to protest the fact that law schools misled their recruits about the employment prospects of their graduates. I was not sympathetic, and concluded:

“Law degrees still are valuable credentials, as is a good legal education, and if Haines got a good legal education, he received everything a law school is obligated to provide. Turning the degree into a career is his responsibility, and it is wrong for him to claim that anyone but himself is accountable for his present unemployed state.”

His stunt was more than an avoidance of responsibility and accountability, however it was a lie. The Wall Street Journal revealed that “Ethan Haines,” pictured on the site as a slim, white male, is in fact an African -American woman named Zenovia Evans. She is not a lawyer fresh out of law school…in fact, she has yet to take a bar exam.  She isn’t unemployed, either. U.S.A. Today reveals that she works for a personal injury law firm as a consultant.

The Journal charitably describes her deception by saying she is “blogging as” Ethan Haines. That’s an understatement, bordering on obfuscation. Here is what her blog says about “Ethan”:

“My name is Ethan Haines. I stand in place of countless law students and recent graduates who have been disillusioned by law school employment statistics, commercial school rankings, and antiquated career counseling programs. I designated myself class representative since these students are not able to come forward themselves, for fear that vocalizing their concerns will negatively affect their careers. On August 5, 2010, I began a hunger strike to bring awareness to the concerns of my classmates, as detailed in the Notice I forwarded to law school administrators at ten of the nation\’s top law schools.”

The paragraph is nearly completely made up of misrepresentations and deceit, particularly since she has said that her “hunger strike” consists of “subsisting on water, V8 juice and smoothies.” I don’t recall that Gandhi slurped fruit smoothies. This is commonly known as “a diet.”

.  There is more reason to question her veracity, not to mention her integrity. As blogger David Kopel points out, Evans owes $150, 000 in student loans, yet is not pursuing  law career and currently planning to get another, non-legal degree. Despite the fact that her hunger strike alleges misrepresentation by law schools and lack of assistance from law school career counselors, she has no complaints about her own law school or its career office. Most remarkable of all, given that she is (supposedly) starving herself to protest the intolerable employment travails of new lawyers, Surprisingly, Evans operates the J.D. Lifeline website, which sells a book for pre-law students and proclaims, “now is the perfect time to go to law school.”

Like many frauds and charlatans in an undemanding culture, Evans has succeeded in being accepted by the media as a serious critic of a genuine problem, using lies as an attention-getting strategy.  (Wouldn’t you think the Wall Street Journal and U.S.A. Today would be reluctant to highlight an advocate for “law school transparency” who has not been transparent about her own identity or career status?) Though lawyers should not lie, engage in public hoaxes or fake blogs, Zenovia cannot be said to have violated any professional conduct rules, because she is not practicing law and is not yet a lawyer. With any luck, she never will be. When and if she seeks bar membership, I hope the admissions committee looks hard at this episode and concludes that using such extensive misrepresentation to draw attention to even a legitimate issue shows exactly the kind of flawed character and trustworthiness that the legal  profession can do without.