Law Students Don’t Think Ethics Professor Did The Right Thing After Bumbling Grading For 80% Of Class

// Mistakes happen. When making amends, the usual course of action is to try to return things to the way they would have panned out if things were done correctly. Unfortunately, trying to do right can still piss people off — especially when their law school transcripts are on the line. From the ABA Journal:

Two students at the University of Toledo College of Law have filed a complaint with the American Bar Association against the school for a grading error that affected the majority of students in a fall 2023 legal ethics course taught by professor Llewellyn Gibbons…According to an email Toledo Law interim Dean Rebecca Zietlow sent to students on Jan. 31, which the school provided to Law.com, Gibbons “discovered a large-scale error in the entered grades for the course, likely arising due to a record keeping/data entry problem.”

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After receiving their grades, the students made reasonable decisions based on them. Some dropped the class and took a different one. Other students who thought they passed discovered they had to retake it because their actual grade was too low. Understandably, students are pissed and suspicious of the new grades they’ve been given:

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“I do not believe our current grades are accurate,” Volk said, adding that the students haven’t received an explanation about how the new grades were determined in light of the laptop being lost. Additionally, she was told there were issues with “mismatched” IDs, and she isn’t sure whether that is a separate issue.

Volk said her grade went from an A- to a B+, which she admitted isn’t significant, but she said she isn’t fighting this because of her own personal impact.

“I’m fighting it for future law students,” she told Law.com Tuesday. “I want to see more standardized policies in place in the future” for grading procedures and oversight.

At least two of the students complained about the grade snafu on Ratemyprofessor. It would be one thing if this was one — admittedly large — blight on an otherwise stellar record, but it looks like Prof. Gibbons has a history of “organizational errors.” Take this one from 2020:

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Was irritated when students asked questions. Unclear throughout, used powerpoints with walls of texts on them. It was almost impossible to tell what deadlines were what and etc. Left his mic on twice during class breaks while using the bathroom. Avoid.

Or this one from 2007:

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Very smart guy, can be unclear. Taught an entire class with his fly open.

You’d think a professor would improve between about 20 years of reviewing. And the bathroom shenanigans? Get caught with your fly down, that’s fine. Getting caught livestreaming your piss break, that’s okay. But the third time?! According to the Good Charlotte principle, that’s playing with yourself.

If another grading or bathroom mishap comes about, Toledo should start thinking about the ethicality of keeping Gibbons around.

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Toledo Law Students File Complaint With ABA Over Legal Ethics Grading Error [ABA Journal]

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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

Topics

Grading, Law Professors, Law School Grades, Law Schools, University of Toledo College of Law