It was Good Week for …
Proving detractors wrong, after the University of Massachusetts School of Law in Dartmouth received provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association. When it was first proposed that former Southern New England School of Law donate itself to the state, other schools argued it could cost taxpayers $100 million to get accreditation. The school achieved the important approval in two years for less than $15 million in operations costs over those years — none of that money from taxpayers.
It was Bad Week for …
Forging a law school degree, after Southern Methodist University police began investigating whether a Texas woman created a fake diploma and lied about attending Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law.
Michelle Fyfe, 43, is suspected of having or producing a “fraudulent, substandard or fictitious degree.” Fyfe has never been enrolled as a law student at SMU.
The allegedly forged diploma includes an August graduation date that never occurred and includes forged signatures of a SMU president that didn’t exist and law school dean. Co-workers and friends told the newspaper that she often talked about attending law school and, in addition to showing off her fake diploma, reportedly hired an event planner to celebrate her “graduation.”
The Dallas Morning News also reported that Fyfe claimed on her résumé that she had served as both a spring and summer associate at a large law firm in Texas. The firm told the newspaper that Fyfe had never been employed there.
