Choosing vice

Since I am already a member of the State Bar, I cannot say that I am outraged by the news that the score required to pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) will be raised from 79 to 86 (January). Most legal rules regarding ethical conduct are easy to memorize, so the rule change will likely not present an insurmountable hurdle for law students; however, the application of legal ethics is another matter entirely.

I suspect that until there is a universal and objective test for moral courage and vigilance, the MPRE will still remain a small hurdle for attorneys determined to choose vice over virtue.

Kenneth Michael White
Upland

Slap on the wrist

For using county investigators on, essentially, a personal matter of his own; for aiding and abetting, before and after, conduct that the unsophisticated might apprehend as perilously close to — at least — false imprisonment and extortion; for taking what those same unsophisticates might regard as a bribe in lieu of prosecution from illegal, unlicensed, essentially hit-and-run Mr. Quiroz (January).

For all of this, the State Bar consigns poor, put-upon, but unrepentant and certainly unbowed Ernest LiCalsi to . . . public reproval?

Are we meant to understand the discipline arm of the bar to be bragging about this disposition by highlighting it in an inset box? Are we meant to feel proud of this?

D. Zara
Winnetka