South Texas College of Law, Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 6, No. 5, December, 1977 Page: 2 of 5
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1303 San Jacinto St.
Houston. Taxaa 77002
ANNOTATIONS
Volume VI, Number 5
December 1977
Reflections on the Beginning
Tale of Jeremy
by Douglas M. Durham
mid-law student at STCL
On the eve of the summer
solstice, Jeremy faced an obstacle
of such magnitude that he lost all
hope and in this way he met
Fides.
The seeds of disillusion had
been planted several years ear-
lier, when to his dismay he
observed a contradiction in the
ideals and realities of America.
He told his history teacher, in a
manner that characterized his
revelation, "How does that make
sense? Thomas Jefferson gets
down on the King's back for
'injuries and usurpations' while
his slaves keep the plantation
running!"
He had always been idealistic,
naive rather than shrewd, and in
the style of the very young, had
not yet faced his illusions. The
son of a petroleum engineer, who
through hard work and dedication
had climbed the corporate ladder
to a position of responsibility,
Jeremy was impressed with the
belief that if you want something
badly enough and work hard —
you will eventually get it. He
worked very hard in college to get
good grades and upon graduation
started waiting on tables to save
money for law school. About the
only difficulty he imagined in
attaining his goal was financial;
his real problem came later when
he scored poorly on the law school
admissions test. Upon application
to all law schools he had been
requested to include his test score
and for the first time felt serious
trepidation.
Early in June he received a
reply to one of his letters which he
greeted with a queasy stomach. It
was from the admissions office
and was waiting when he got
home from class. For ten agoniz-
ing minutes he had been afraid to
open it, "I'm afraid I won't get
accepted," he told his roommate
a bright-eyed geology student
from Alberta, "and law school is
so important to me. I want to be a
lawyer and fight for noble
causes."
When he finally opened the
letter he found nothing but a
computer typed statement: "Your
application for admission to the
faculty of law has not been
approved by our committee for
the following reason; your LSAT
score is too low to be considered
competitive. In view of this we
recommend you retake the test
and apply again next fall." No
other explanation was given.
Even though Jeremy had grad-
uated in the top ten percent of his
class, his acceptance to law school
was tenuous. The post-war baby
boom had made competition
his
particularly for entrance to the
professional schools of law, den-
tistry, and medicine. The law
schools to which he had applied
were not of the aristocracy like
Harvard or Yale, but a potpourri
of solid institutions in both
Canada and the United States. In
spite of his good academic
credentials the. dictates of com-
petition required the universities
to use a standardized test score as
part of their admission criteria.
It was this that engendered
Jeremy's total disillusion. Several
events accumulated over a short
period of time. They gnawed at
him, could not be dismissed;
individually each was transitory,
a thing that would not motivate a
man towards perseverance. Now,
in the face of his failure they
coalesced to form a powerful
vision.
The first event was accidental.
A girl, who sat in front of him in
one of his classes, had mentioned
Jeremy's problem to her boy-
friend, a third year medical
student, who offered his advice.
"Don't let this minor setback
distract you from your goal. I
applied to medical school three
times before I got accepted. I
screwed up my entrance exam
first time around so I took it
again." He looked Jeremy in the
eye and repeated his admonition.
"If the LSAT is standing in your
way take it again."
"I've already taken it twice,"
Jeremy stated.
"So take it again, you may have
had a couple of bad days."
"What if I don't improve my
score, they say the chances of
improvement on the test are very
doubtful."
"Theii apply to a school that
doesn't require the test."
"What if they all do?"
"They won't. The test is
merely a screening device. I'm
sure not every law school has
such a heavy volume of applica-
tions that you can't get in some-
where. Try applying to a second
rate school."
"Yeah, and get a second rate
education," Jeremy commented.
Later Jeremy thought over
what the med student had said
and decided it may have some
merit. He went to the library and
did some investigating. Only one
law school in North America did
not require the LSAT. It was in
Quebec, the catch; all applicants
must be fluent in French and
English. All other law schools not
using the test in the admissions
process were unaccredited by the
various bar associations. Jeremy
recalled a professor's warning,
"If you graduate from an unac-
credited law school, you'll never
be eligible to take the Bar exam."
The second event was disgust-
ing. One afternoon Jeremy's door
burst open wtih a bang and Tony,
the son of a State Senator who
also did poorly on the LSAT,
rushed in with obvious triumph.
"I just got accepted into law
school. My father had a chat with
the Dean."
"Of the law school?"
Yep. He gave him a phone call.
About a week later I got a
personal letter from the Dean
himself saying I had been ac-
cepted. I enroll this fall."
Other students came in to con-
gratulate him, and he said
modestly, "Turns out my father
and the Dean were old class-
mates. I knew it was rough to get
in these days so I talked to the old
man and he said he'd pull a few
strings. Hell, let's face it, it's not
what you know in this world but
who you know. Besides who will
care in five years how I got into
law school?"
One of the guys asked, "What
if you flunk out?"
"I won't," chided Tony.
"Everybody knows once you get
your foot in the door, the rest is a
piece of cake."
"What about the other appli-
cants who are better qualified?"
someone asked.
"They are victims of a world
that smiles on people with in-
fluence."
"Could your father pull a few
strings for me?" Jeremy asked
sardonically. Tony looked at
Jeremy, started to hand him a
wisecrack, reconsidered, and
said, "I'm afraid he has pulled all
the strings he can."
The third experience was in-
furiating. On the floor above was
an arrogant jerk named Randy
who studied seldom, had medio-
cre grades and no intention of
attending law school. The son of a
wealthy businessman, he had ac-
quired a deep seated desire for
social prestige. In his last year of
school he had decided on a whim
to take the LSAT test, "just for
the heck of it".
"I don't want to practice law,"
he would remark, "all that
tedious reading would be intoler-
able."
His father had arranged for him
to take over the family business,
but Randy was looking for more.
When his test score came back he
had ranked in the top two percent
of all those tested. This opened
the door to many of the more
prestigious Eastern law schools;
Randy suddenly became en-
amoured with the idea of law
school. At the prospect of this
new opportunity Randy paraded
through the dormitory looking tor
someone who would ue interested
in shaking hands with a future
Senator.
"If you look at the biographies
of most Presidents," he ex-
plained, "at some point in their
career they attended an Eastern
law school."
It was a very shallow motiva-
tion, but after a late application,
Randy received the good news.
He was accepted. His political life
was unfolding. He would attend
law school in Washington, D.C.
next fall. His parents came in to
congratulate him, and in the
privacy of his room, gave him
their admiration.
"You know there is always
room in the business for a cor-
porate attorney," his father re-
marked encouragingly.
The fellows talked a good deal
about Randy and came to the
conclusion that if ever a man
should not get accepted to law
school it was him. An older law
student said, "How would you
like to be an indigent unjustly
accused of murder and have him
assigned to the case in your de-
fense? In between a golf and
tennis game with some of his in-
fluential colleagues he may even
find a moment to tell you to plead
guilty!" Another said, "It's
criminal to pick law students on
the basis of one lousy three hour
test." But Jeremy offered a
philosophical correction: "The
crime begins when law schools
fail to interview applicants to gain
a deeper understanding of the
student's motivation for studying
law."
When the crowd broke up,
Jeremy and his roommate con-
tinued the discussion well past
midnight, and for the first time
Jeremy was convinced the entire
admissions policy was unjust. He
argued, "To use influence to get
accepted to law school is unethi-
cal, but it's caused by a greater
inequity. The inequity of the ad-
missions process."
"What do you mean? his room-
mate asked.
"Take a look at the questions
on the LSAT exam. You are
expectcd to: read a series of
essays under very stressful con-
ditions, answer questions that are
by nature subjective and am-
biguous, compute statistical in-
ferences from bar and line
graphs, make quantitative ap-
proximations . demanding math
skills that have no relation to a
skill required in law school, all
under very limited time frames
that increase the pressure and
likelihood of silly errors that
distort the candidate's true abili-
ty. Furthermore, I'm convinced
undergraduate grade point aver-
ages are a better reflection of an
individual's capacity to excel in
legal study. They reflect habits
and long term dedication that is
essential to success in law
school."
"So what can you do about it?"
"That is what is so frustrating
— nothing!"
It was the fourth experience
that crystalized his already incor-
rigible ambition. Jeremy had
always had a deep compassion for
people. One day he confronted a
situation that appalled him, a
case cited in volume 391 of the
United States Reports, page 145,
read as follows:
"Gary Duncan, while driving
down a highway in Louisiana,
spotted two of his younger
cousins engaged in a conversation
by the side of the road with four
white boys. Knowing his cousins,
Negroes who had recently trans-
ferred to a formerly all-white high
school, had reported the oc-
curence of racial incidents at the
school, Duncan stopped the car,
got out, and approached the six
boys. In an effort to avoid another
incident, Duncan convinced his
cousins to break off the encounter
and enter his car, and in the
process slapped one of the white
boys on the elbow. Under Louisi-
ana law simple battery is a mis-
deanor, punishable by a maxi-
mum of two years' imprisonment
and a $300 fine. Duncan sought a
jury trial, but because the Louisi-
ana constitution grants jury trials
only in cases in which capital
punishment or imprisonment at
hard labor may be imposed, the
trial judge denied the request.
Duncan was convicted and sen-
tenced to 60 days in the parish
prison and to pay a fine of $150."
That was the end. Jeremy could
not get Gary Duncan out of his
mind, day after day the horrible
fact that our state courts incar-
cerate human beings for such
innocent acts as touching an
elbow. It was indecent, immoral,
revolting, and everything ever
written about due process simply
exacerbated the basic wrong.
Jeremy was disgusted by it, he
wanted desperately to spend his
life amid the shams of justice
such as this, giving voice to our
basic rights.
Late in June Jeremy received
word from the final law school
that all his hopes had rested
upon. He had not been accepted.
To Jeremy the world had ended,
and with it all of life's illusions.
Suddenly Jeremy realized that
judges are not always just; that
influence is paramount to merit;
that most law students are only
interested in the law for its
pecuniary rewards; that the ad-
versary process is inquisitorial;
that most politicians probably are
corrupt; that professors probably
do live in ivory towers; that
happiness is of course a myth;
love a fleeting relationship tied to
on page 4J
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South Texas College of Law, Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 6, No. 5, December, 1977, newspaper, December 1977; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth144367/m1/2/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting South Texas College of Law.