Anna Alaburda has been unable to find a legal job after ten years of trying
A disgruntled law grad has been defeated in her long-running, well-publicised legal battle against her former law school — dashing the hopes of paralegals everywhere.
The unprecedented legal challenge came to a close last week when the aspiring lawyer’s lawsuit was dismissed by a jury in California by a majority of 9-3.
The claim brought by Anna Alaburda was the first of its kind to reach the courtroom. Despite graduating top of her class — and with $150,000 (£105,000) worth of debt — the disgruntled 37 year-old failed to find full-time work as a lawyer after nearly a decade of searching.
The class of 2008 graduate sued the California-based Thomas Jefferson School of Law, claiming that the school’s post-grad employment stats were misleading. She also contended that she would not have enrolled at the law school had she known this was the case.
A bold claim — but, unfortunately for Alaburda, the court simply wasn’t convinced.
Attorney Michael Sullivan, acting for Thomas Jefferson, did go as far as to acknowledge “isolated mistakes” and “clerical errors” in the law school’s data collection, but explained that there was no evidence that the school lied.
But — in the midst of American presidential race hysteria — even Sullivan couldn’t help using the case as an opportunity to take a dig at controversial Republican and all round hate figure Donald Trump.
This is not, you know, Trump University,’ he said. ‘It is so not that. It is such a really excellent law school.
It not known whether Alaburda will appeal the decision.