Earlier this month College Guide wrote about the strange case of Ethan Haines, an unemployed recent law school graduate who decided to go on a hunger strike to try and force law schools to be more transparent about debt and employment information for their graduates.
While his tactic appeared a little ridiculous, many of the issues Haines attempted to confront appeared legitimate and timely. Some of Haines’s goals, of course, were quite good. It would be a little easier to take these goals seriously, however, if Haines weren’t a huge liar.
Haines is not actually a man, he’s not unemployed and, ah, well it’s not really a hunger strike. According to an article on the Huffington Post:
USA Today revealed “his” true identity yesterday to be Ms. Zenovia Evans, an employed 28-year-old graduate of fourth-tier Cooley Law School.
…Evans says she owed “more than $150,000” in student loans. But Volokh Conspiracy did the math: “Cooley’s current annual tuition is $30,644, with discounts of 25-100% available for students with high LSATs (starting at 149, with an additional 10% discount for Michigan residents),” VC writes.
A commenter on VC scoffed at Evans’ hunger strike, which apparently allows V8 juice and smoothies: “Fruit juice breaks a hunger strike; it’s full of sugar. You don’t starve to death while consuming calories.”
Evans (image above) also apparently earns about $600 a week as a contractor for a personal injury law firm.
In addition, despite maintaining a blog that argues that law schools are deceptive and that says she has “been disillusioned by law school employment statistics, commercial school rankings, and antiquated career counseling programs,” Evans is apparently the author of a rather interesting book about legal careers.
In the book (well e-book or whatever) Evans wrote earlier this year, J.D. Lifeline: A Law School Guide For The New Legal Economy, she says:
Think law school is just for the smart, rich, or connected? Think again!
Born in poverty and raised on the streets of New York, Zenovia Evans put herself through law school, graduated with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree with a specialization in International Law, and has built a very successful career utilizing her law degree. She did it, and so can you!
Wait, a “very successful career utilizing her law degree”? Well did she really “do it” or not? I’m confused. [Image via]
