OPINION

How Tennessee discriminated against a talented Vanderbilt law grad

David L. Hudson
  • Maximiliano Gluzman graduated with an stellar GPA but was not allowed to sit for the bar exam.
  • David L. Hudson Jr. is a legal educator and author from Nashville.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has a pending case that speaks to the essence of equity, equality, and opportunity.

It involves an Argentinian attorney who earned an L.L.M. degree from Vanderbilt only to be denied the ability to even sit and take the Tennessee Bar Exam, the test a law school graduate needs to pass to earn a law license.

David Hudson

For the past three years, I have had the privilege of teaching the L.L.M. students a professional responsibility course at Vanderbilt Law School, my alma mater. The L.L.M. program features students from other countries who come to the United States and specifically Vanderbilt to obtain an additional, one-year law degree.

The students are engaged, disciplined, and intellectually curious. My first year of teaching in the program, I instructed approximately 50 students.

Argentina’s Maximiliano Gluzman, or Maxie as he was affectionately called by his classmates, stood out for his class discussions, analytical ability and passion for learning. He was one of the finest students I ever had the privilege of teaching in my career.

Mr. Gluzman graduated from Vanderbilt with an astonishingly high 3.919 grade point average. In the vast majority of his classes, he competed not only against his fellow L.L.M. students but also against traditional three-year J.D. students, mainly from the United States. He was an outstanding student in class, even helping me convey more difficult concepts to some of his fellow classmates.

Despite these impeccable academic credentials, the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners denied Mr. Gluzman the opportunity to even sit for the Tennessee Bar Exam – though they didn’t give him their final decision until weeks before the exam.

The reason for the exclusionary decision was that Mr. Gluzman’s undergraduate and legal education in Argentina were not considered substantially similar to an undergraduate and legal education in the United States. The current system means that L.L.M. students from most other countries allegedly are not “qualified” to sit for the Tennessee Bar Exam.

In Gluzman’s case, the board ostensibly minimized his 3.919 performance at the state’s top-ranked law school.

I felt so strongly about the case that I testified at his hearing before the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners, as did distinguished Vanderbilt Law Professor Daniel Gervais, who is an expert in legal education programs around the world.

I emphatically told the board members that, if given the opportunity, Mr. Gluzman would pass the Tennessee Bar Exam. He never got the chance. The Board put his life on hold and his finances in disarray by unanimously ruling against him.

I was dismayed at such an unfair result. Mr. Gluzman has appealed the board’s decision to the Tennessee Supreme Court.

By the way, Mr. Gluzman recently took and passed the New York Bar Exam.

Hopefully, one day he will be allowed to take the Tennessee Bar Exam.

David L. Hudson, Jr. is a legal educator and author from Nashville.