by Joe San Agustin
Stephen Glass, 15 years after getting fired from the New Republic due to countless amounts of fabricated stories, has recently been banned from practicing law in the state of California due to not having “the moral character critical to the practice of law,” so reports the New York Times.
For 10 years since graduating from Georgetown Law School,Glass has been trying to practice law. However, after a court hearing, he was no longer allowed to practice law, most likely due to his fabrications in the past, and the judged ruled him as not having a strong moral character.
Also, according to the Chronicle, Glass had “repaid $200,000 to the New Republic and other magazines that published his work.” Which, in itself, is probably a good thing.
So, Glass’s shattered reputation has been put on the back burner ever since. He now works at a law firm in Iowa (except he doesn’t practice law), according to an article from the Des Moines Register. The article cites another article stating, “Glass spoke about his work in a 2014 article by journalist Hanna Rosin, explaining that he develops relationships with clients to better understand their life circumstances and stories. The work helps attorneys better prepare for trials and anticipate issues that might come up during litigation, he told Rosin.”
Now, I honestly don’t care. While the news about him working in Iowa was from an article from 2017 and him repaying $200,000 to everyone was from 2016, the court hearing denying him from practicing law was from 2014. While it was a few years ago, it still sounds like old news to me. Cool, he’s not allowed to practice law. Good. I wouldn’t want him as my lawyer anyway after what he did to his journalism career. He knew exactly what he was doing when he fibbed those stories, and for what reason? No one really knows. Imagine the things he could do as a lawyer. Probably nothing different from other terrible lawyers, but it’s still a good thing he’s not a lawyer.
Despite this, the article that the Des Moines article did have a part in the interview that did say that he was trying to look for forgiveness after all of this.
“It’s not manipulation; it’s caring,” Glass said. “I don’t coach the clients; I help them discover their story. … It makes me anxious to do this. But I work from facts that are indisputably true. Maybe the anxiety comes from being afraid to be accused of lying again.”
So maybe he’s looking for redemption, but Glass’s shattered reputation is still Shattered Glass (wink, wink), so it’s going to take him a long time to pick up those broken pieces.