It was a BAD week for …
Simple causation claims, after a third-year law student sued Philadelphia’s largest law firms because they did not hire him. William Hanrahan, a third-year at Drexel University, who says he is number 4 in his class, claims the big firms hire disproportionately from schools that place well in U.S. News & World Report, and this is improper because it screens out disabled students. Hanrahan suffers from “Asperger’s Syndrome, an Autism Spectrum Disorder, and a concomitant non-verbal learning disability.”
Hanrahan said U.S. News relies too heavily on LSAT scores, and that LSAC, which administers that exam, has a history of unlawful discrimination against disabled examinees.
So, in a nutshell, Hanrahan claims his disability led to a lower LSAT score, which led to him not getting into a top U.S. News school, which led the big firms to ignore him. It will be hard for Hanrahan to prove that big law firms don’t take other factors into consideration, like ability to make concise and clear arguments or ability to work well with others.
