Electronic Trail Reveals Lawyer Resumé Lies, Costing Job Opportunities
Wrong dates or an inflated work history has cost more than one lawyer a shot at a new job.
Legal recruiters Deborah Ben-Canaan and Martha Fay Africa say resumé fraud is easier to catch in the electronic age, according to their article in the Recorder. “The old paper trail has become a much more easily followed cybertrail,” they write.
“Candidates may think that stretching the truth a little bit is not a big deal, but it is,” the article says. “We have heard lawyers tell us that they only worked in a job for a few months, so they left it off their resumé, or they had a bad experience in that job, so it was left off the resumé and then dates were stretched to cover any resumé ‘gaps.’ This is deceit, plain and simple.”
Africa and Ben-Canaan say they decline to represent lawyers if they discover their resumé fraud. They cite these recent examples:
• A candidate was a finalist for a general counsel position until a review revealed different law firms on different resumés, inconsistent employment dates, and a wrong date for passing the bar.
• A candidate who wanted an in-house position added a year onto his law firm experience by failing to mention that the year was spent as a summer clerk, and didn’t disclose that another job was an internship.
• A solo practitioner who did work for a computer company falsely claimed he was an in-house counsel for the company.
