Back to Read This First Table of Contents
8.1 Academic Misconduct
Academic misconduct is a very serious issue for prospective attorneys. This is one reason for the questions on your law school application regarding prior academic misconduct. You will also need to answer questions about academic misconduct when you apply for admission to practice law. The Wisconsin Board of Bar Examiners (BBE) will review your files if you seek admission to the Wisconsin bar: the BBE will expect to see complete disclosure of pre-law school academic misconduct in the files of the school. The BBE will also receive information about academic misconduct during law school from the University.
Academic misconduct, including --but not limited to-- cheating, plagiarism, and falsifying information, may be grounds for discipline during law school. In addition to the Rules of the Law School, students are subject to the Student Conduct and Disciplinary Rules of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. An explanation of the UW campus rules is available at http://www.wisc.edu/students/saja/misconduct/misconduct.html Penalties for academic misconduct range from oral reprimands or lowered or failing grades to university disciplinary probation, suspension or expulsion from the university.
Academic misconduct also is possible grounds for denial of admission to the bar due to the questionable moral character reflected by the conduct. See Law School Rules Appendices A and B and the No Collaboration Policy at Rule 6.11.
8.2 Nonacademic misconduct
The University of Wisconsin-Madison also has a code regarding nonacademic misconduct that applies to Law students. See http://students.wisc.edu/saja/misconduct/non-academic_misconduct.html. Violation of the code may result in penalties ranging from a written reprimand to expulsion. Nonacademic misconduct is also possible grounds for denial of admission to the practice of law. When you apply for admission to practice law you will need to disclose completely all non-academic misconduct incidents, including any that occur during law school.
“He who sacrifices his conscience to ambition burns a picture to obtain the ashes." Chinese proverb
“The most important office is that of private citizen.”
Louis Dembitz Brandeis – US Supreme Court Justice
“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” Peter Drucker (1909- )
“Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at the truth.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
“An excess of law inescapably weakens the rule of law.”
Laurence Tribe
