In a post entitled What Has the World Come To?, lawyer and mediator Phyllis Pollack blogged about an incident that occurred during the administration of the CA Bar exam.
More than 600 soon-to-be lawyers were taking the California State Bar exams in the Pasadena Convention Center when a 50-year-old test-taker suffered a heart attack. Only fellow candidates John Leslie and Eunice Morgan stopped to help the man. They administered CPR until paramedics arrived, then resumed taking the test. Citing policy, the test supervisor refused to allow the helpers any additional time to make up for the 40 minutes they spent helping the victim. Jerome Braun, the State Bar’s senior executive for admissions, backed the decision stating, “If these two want to be lawyers, they should learn a lesson about priorities.
After reading it, I thought that the story just did not sound right. Off to Snopes I went and learned that, indeed, the story is inaccurate. Another sad fact is that a CLE company is using the story as the centerpiece of its marketing for a course. A good lesson in the need to verify before telling stories.
I am most struck by the story's apparent "believability." Your intuitive sense that it was not true and blogging (about both the story and its "retraction") is an important expression of one pathway to reconnecting our profession with its honorable roots. Thanks for your great work!
Posted by: Scott Rogers | December 22, 2009 at 08:28 AM