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Pledge of the Protester is the tenth episode in the Star Trek: False Vacuum series, launched on August 10th, 2015.

Summary[]

Dunames Lopez receives a letter from an old friend in university telling her that he passed the bar exam. She reveals that they both signed the 0L Pledge for European Law School Transparency and that she broke it. She was invited to talk about the Pledge on Live from the Lyran Frontier alongside Dylan O'Connor, another signatory of the Pledge, on the Curio of the Day feature, revealing how competitive it was and whether law school ethics changed as a result of the Pledge (and other actions taken alongside the Pledge). Tortis gets into an argument with Ugohr back on the USS Antechrist about Dunames' suitability for the practice of law.

She announced on the stage of Live from the Lyran Frontier that she would apply to law school once again, even going so far as to start an application to Washington University in St. Louis and re-take the LSAT out of fear the old score was going to be outdated, while having an anxiety crisis in front of her fellow pilots. She ended up scoring 175 on the LSAT, which led her to consider WUSTL as a safety and to apply to several elite schools, including three Ivy League law schools, ultimately deciding to attend the University of Chicago after being confronted by a psychiatric patient to whom Dunames advised to pursue law part-time. Her decision-making party consisted entirely of Chicago-area food, at the end of which Catherine Mouranger revealed that Dunames is her half-sister.

Quotes[]

"My claim to fame is that I am the only signatory of the Pledge not to have attended law school. Was I to apply to law school for the current cycle, my signature on the Pledge wouldn’t carry the weight it once did, however."
— Dunames Lopez, on the Live from the Lyran Frontier set
"Many civilian law firms care about prestige when hiring newly-minted lawyers. It's considered as a skill onto itself."
"How important is law school prestige as a skill?"
"You’d be lucky if, as a skill, prestige really was the same as any other law-relevant skill. It really depends on the firm. As an example, the law firm I interned at, Hutz, Sanchez & Van Phuoc, would rather hire a middling WUSTL graduate over a Cogley Law graduate in the top 15%, or a bottom-15% UChicago graduate over a top-15% Cogley Law graduate, regardless of any real substantive legal skill. And these are actual class ranks of the three lawyers at that particular firm with American law degrees, and all three practice private interplanetary law."
— Dunames Lopez and Kenza, discussing the role of prestige on the legal job market
"Good luck, half-sister!"
"I have a half-sister?"
— Catherine Mouranger, implying that Dunames is her half-sister

Production notes[]

This episode is inspired by the writer's motivations to go to the University of Minnesota in an attempt to protest contemporary Canadian civilian scientific policy at the time of writing.

External link[]

  • Pledge of the Protester on the False Vacuum boards 
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