Lying law student to look for work as government attorney

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A former law student who lied about his grades on an internship application has set his sights on becoming a lawyer for the federal government.

In 2012, Joshua Jarrett, then a law student at the University of Wisconsin, submitted an application for a summer position at the New York City Legal Department. The paperwork he submitted both listed inflated grades and an inflated GPA and incorrectly reported that he was a member of the Wisconsin Law Review.

He was later put on academic probation for two semesters. Jarrett said in an interview Thursday that he deeply regrets his actions.

“We all make mistakes,” he said. “Mine was a very big mistake and showed a definite lack of character and honesty, but it’s also something I’ve rehabilitated from. In the last four years I’ve done things to show the court and employers that I have lived out a proper and upright life.”

The matter came up again when Jarrett applied for admission to the bar shortly before getting his law degree in 2014. He disclosed that he had listed misinformation two years earlier but did not reveal that he had received some speeding tickets.

When the Board of Bar Examiners, the agency charged with admitting attorneys, rejected his request for admission, it cited both the academic misrepresentations and the traffic citations. Jarrett, representing himself, approached the Wisconsin Supreme Court with an appeal, which was denied last week.

Even so, the Supreme Court, in a 4-3 ruling handed down Wednesday, decided to give Jarrett a second chance, ordering that he be admitted to practice law in the state under certain conditions. The conditions included that he be monitored and mentored by a licensed Wisconsin attorney selected by the Office of Lawyer regulation.

“I appreciate the opportunity to be a superb lawyer and show the court that this was a good risk they took,” said Jarrett.

Jarrett lives in Bethesda, Md., and works as an analyst in Washington, D.C. Once the OLR chooses an attorney to supervise him, he will be admitted to practice in the state. That will give him the ability to apply for government lawyer positions, which require applicants to be licensed in a U.S. jurisdiction.

Jarrett said he will be looking for a job at agencies such as the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Department of Justice. He said he is particularly interested in litigation.

“Hopefully it’s all seamless and I can move on with my life and use this as a learning experience,” he said. Follow @erikastrebel