Disgraced journalist makes his case to Calif. court

[January 04, 2012]  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Attorneys for an ex-journalist who became the subject of a Hollywood film said Tuesday that a state bar committee was demanding "sackcloth, ashes and a vow of poverty" in order for him to become a lawyer in California.

Stephen Glass, whose ethical missteps at The New Republic in the late 1990s were recounted in the film "Shattered Glass," is challenging a decision by a committee of the State Bar of California to deny him a law license. He left journalism after he was caught fabricating magazine articles.

An independent state bar court has ruled in his favor, saying the bar committee incorrectly concluded that Glass had not proven he was trustworthy.

In a brief filed with the California Supreme Court, Glass' attorneys said the committee was wrong to suggest that he should have foregone profits from his book chronicling his conduct as a reporter.

Glass used $140,000 in net income from his book, "The Fabulist," to pay for three years of living expenses in New York City, which was "a significant amount of legal fees, and the therapy he needed so dearly," the brief said.

Glass attended law school at Georgetown University and passed the state bar exam in 2009. The 39-year-old works as a law clerk at a Beverly Hills firm.

[Associated Press]

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