News
Law Practice
Jun. 20, 2002
Writing Historical Wrongs
Dicta Column - By The Rodent - Recently, there has been much attention in the news about certain people from the sports world embellishing their rsums. Among others, there have been the candidate for head football coach at Notre Dame and the president of the U.S. Olympic Committee who lost opportunities because there were certain items on their rsums which were, well, shall we say, untrue.
Dicta Column
The Rodent
Recently, there has been much attention in the news about certain people from the sports world embellishing their résumés. Among others, there have been the candidate for head football coach at Notre Dame and the president of the U.S. Olympic Committee who lost opportunities because there were certain items on their résumés which were, well, shall we say, untrue.
Like many others, lawyers are outraged by these instances of résumé embellishment. We are outraged because we are the ones who set the standard in creative résumé writing. We are outraged because the spotlight has been stolen by individuals who do not include law degrees, real or made up, on their résumés.
By lawyer standards, the embellishment of one's academic record is really minor leagues. Still, on hearing the news, many lawyers immediately consider their own résumés. The thought of employers checking the accuracy of the items we have on our résumés causes a high degree of panic among those working in the legal profession.
Résumé inaccuracies at The Firm are common when it comes to academic credentials. This may stem from the fact that The Firm automatically refuses to consider applicants whose academic records are below a certain standard. This clearly encourages individuals to take certain liberties in writing their résumés. And I should know. The Firm hired me. I have a pretty good career as a lawyer. And I may never have even attended law school.
Verifying law school grades and LSAT scores can be time-consuming. Some firms have gone to more basic things - such as verification of each attorney's bar number. Legal lore includes many tales of lawyers "forgetting" to update their résumés to reflect one or more disbarments. Others simply decide that studying for the Bar Exam is a waste of time when it takes only a minute to write something on one's résumé.
Some law firms, fortunately not mine, are beginning to crack down on résumé embellishment. They have taken to checking each and every item a job applicant puts down on paper. Despite these efforts, certain sections of one's résumé remain ripe for embellishment, and if you are screening applicants, here are some tips you may find useful.
• Work experience. Accurately interpreting a résumé requires some reading between the lines. The best advice is to think back when you were writing your own résumé. By doing this, one usually can understand better what is being described on a résumé. For example:
Résumé Entry: "Prepared supporting documentation for corporate finance transactions."
Translation: Photocopied and faxed documents for senior lawyers.
Résumé Entry: "Extensive litigation experience."
Translation: Summarized depositions taken by other lawyers.
Résumé Entry: "Expertise in corporate securities, labor law, taxation."
Translation: Never got out of the library doing research projects generally related to each of these fields.
• Missing time. Lawyers reviewing résumés on behalf of The Firm also should look for gaps of time on the résumé. Such gaps may indicate certain indescribable (at least on a résumé) activity taking place in the job seeker's life that he or she, in error of course, forgot to mention. The general rule for interpreting a résumé is that the harder something is to verify, the less likely it is true.
• Personal References. Another part of the résumé begging for embellishment is the section requesting personal references. Law firms should see red flags if the résumé lists individuals as references who are well-known yet difficult to reach for confirmation. Salman Rushdie, Roman Polanski, Jimmy Hoffa, Queen Elizabeth II, recently deceased members of the U.S. Supreme Court and The Rodent are all good examples of people who might be listed as personal references who don't really know the applicant.
• Community honors and activities. It is likely that an applicant's imagination is often more active than he or she actually has been. Interviewing attorneys should look for embellishment indicators such as winner of Nobel Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, discoverer of polio vaccine, member of Baseball Hall of Fame, Purple Heart recipient, Olympic Gold Medal Winner and "Personal Friend of Barbra Streisand."
While law firms attempt to curtail resume embellishment, they also know they can only go so far in these efforts. If the résumé of every lawyer was verified and all those with errors were put on leave, there would be far fewer attorneys left practicing. Society simply thinks too highly of lawyers to stand for such a thing, and the world would be unable to survive without the abundance of lawyers.
Well, perhaps I embellish.
The Rodent is a syndicated columnist and author of "Explaining the Inexplicable: The Rodent's Guide to Lawyers." He can be reached by e-mail at THERODENT@aol.com.
The Rodent
Recently, there has been much attention in the news about certain people from the sports world embellishing their résumés. Among others, there have been the candidate for head football coach at Notre Dame and the president of the U.S. Olympic Committee who lost opportunities because there were certain items on their résumés which were, well, shall we say, untrue.
Like many others, lawyers are outraged by these instances of résumé embellishment. We are outraged because we are the ones who set the standard in creative résumé writing. We are outraged because the spotlight has been stolen by individuals who do not include law degrees, real or made up, on their résumés.
By lawyer standards, the embellishment of one's academic record is really minor leagues. Still, on hearing the news, many lawyers immediately consider their own résumés. The thought of employers checking the accuracy of the items we have on our résumés causes a high degree of panic among those working in the legal profession.
Résumé inaccuracies at The Firm are common when it comes to academic credentials. This may stem from the fact that The Firm automatically refuses to consider applicants whose academic records are below a certain standard. This clearly encourages individuals to take certain liberties in writing their résumés. And I should know. The Firm hired me. I have a pretty good career as a lawyer. And I may never have even attended law school.
Verifying law school grades and LSAT scores can be time-consuming. Some firms have gone to more basic things - such as verification of each attorney's bar number. Legal lore includes many tales of lawyers "forgetting" to update their résumés to reflect one or more disbarments. Others simply decide that studying for the Bar Exam is a waste of time when it takes only a minute to write something on one's résumé.
Some law firms, fortunately not mine, are beginning to crack down on résumé embellishment. They have taken to checking each and every item a job applicant puts down on paper. Despite these efforts, certain sections of one's résumé remain ripe for embellishment, and if you are screening applicants, here are some tips you may find useful.
• Work experience. Accurately interpreting a résumé requires some reading between the lines. The best advice is to think back when you were writing your own résumé. By doing this, one usually can understand better what is being described on a résumé. For example:
Résumé Entry: "Prepared supporting documentation for corporate finance transactions."
Translation: Photocopied and faxed documents for senior lawyers.
Résumé Entry: "Extensive litigation experience."
Translation: Summarized depositions taken by other lawyers.
Résumé Entry: "Expertise in corporate securities, labor law, taxation."
Translation: Never got out of the library doing research projects generally related to each of these fields.
• Missing time. Lawyers reviewing résumés on behalf of The Firm also should look for gaps of time on the résumé. Such gaps may indicate certain indescribable (at least on a résumé) activity taking place in the job seeker's life that he or she, in error of course, forgot to mention. The general rule for interpreting a résumé is that the harder something is to verify, the less likely it is true.
• Personal References. Another part of the résumé begging for embellishment is the section requesting personal references. Law firms should see red flags if the résumé lists individuals as references who are well-known yet difficult to reach for confirmation. Salman Rushdie, Roman Polanski, Jimmy Hoffa, Queen Elizabeth II, recently deceased members of the U.S. Supreme Court and The Rodent are all good examples of people who might be listed as personal references who don't really know the applicant.
• Community honors and activities. It is likely that an applicant's imagination is often more active than he or she actually has been. Interviewing attorneys should look for embellishment indicators such as winner of Nobel Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, discoverer of polio vaccine, member of Baseball Hall of Fame, Purple Heart recipient, Olympic Gold Medal Winner and "Personal Friend of Barbra Streisand."
While law firms attempt to curtail resume embellishment, they also know they can only go so far in these efforts. If the résumé of every lawyer was verified and all those with errors were put on leave, there would be far fewer attorneys left practicing. Society simply thinks too highly of lawyers to stand for such a thing, and the world would be unable to survive without the abundance of lawyers.
Well, perhaps I embellish.
The Rodent is a syndicated columnist and author of "Explaining the Inexplicable: The Rodent's Guide to Lawyers." He can be reached by e-mail at THERODENT@aol.com.
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