Mass E-Mail Forgery at Law School Raises Questions, Sparks Debate

Students at Harvard Law School (HLS) are still puzzled over who sent a forged e-mail message to all 550 of the school's students two weeks ago.

Although a Harvard Law Record article suggested that it would be easy for administrators to find the source of the forged e-mails, the Law School's Administrative Board has not released any names, nor has it charged the only student named publicly in the incident.

The Law Record reported in an article last week that the board had refused to bring charges against student Tymothy MacLeod, who followed up the original message by sending his own forged e-mail message.

MacLeod posted a series of forged messages of his own in an attempt to clear his name, according to the Law Record.

All charges are kept confidential by the Administrative Board, and MacLeod could not be reached for comment.

Students at the Law School said they did not know why MacLeod was not charged with forgery.

"It might have been a case of first impression," said Robert B. Jancu, vice president of the Law School Council.

"In a way, he was the victim.... What really needs to be reformed is the administrative policy for dealing with technology," the council vice president said.

Law Record Editor-in-Chief Robert H. Friedman said he doubted MacLeod violated the spirit of the rule, since he did not try to hide his identity.

"His name wasn't anywhere on the message[s] but it was pretty clear that he was sending them," Friedman said.

Jancu noted that this is the first instance of large-scale e-mail forgery at the Law School because unsecured lists of all HLS students' e-mail addresses were first released to students this year.

"There was never such a capacity to [send fraudulent messages] on such a widespread level," Friedman said.

Some students said administrators were not aware that the list was available to students.

"[Administrators] didn't even know their own technology," Jancu said. "That's what started this mess. There has been a history of administrative problems with technology".

"The technology services are split between their own departments and everyone is battling for their own turfs," he said. "This is a real pain in the butt".

According to members of the Law School Council, past e-mail forgeries were executed on a smaller scale and thus did not receive as much attention.

Student Reaction

Students at the Law School said they thought the offense was very serious, and some said they hope that the students involved will be punished.

"I hope that [the Administrative Board] would do something so it would deter future forgery," said George C. Nierlich, president of the Law School Council.

Other students said they believed the offense deserves only mild punishment, especially considering that a student involved in an embezzlement scandal last year was only expelled from the Law School until his class graduated.

"This violation pales in comparison to the embezzlement," Friedman said. "I believe the hearing is more to clarify the usage policy and to say that this is a serious thing more than to actually charge anything and bring about actual punishment".

Yesterday, a working committee under the Office of Technology Services was approved to deal with technological matters.

It is expected to include a few students and some faculty members, according to Nierlich.