American Notes LOS ANGELES

When Morgan Lamb took the California bar exam for the second time in July 1985, he finished third in a field of 7,668. Pretty impressive for someone who had failed the bar just a few months earlier, scoring among the bottom 20% of those tested.

In fact, the turnaround was too good to be true. Suspicious examiners had noticed that the "Morgan Lamb" taking the test was a pregnant woman, although she resembled a man in her exam ID photo. Nine months later, police arrested Lamb, who by that time was working at a prominent firm, and his wife, Laura Salant, a promising Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer. Police had found Salant's fingerprints on the exam booklets and discovered that she posed for the exam ID photo wearing men's clothing.

Now divorced, Lamb, 34, was convicted of forgery and false personation, and faces up to four years in prison. Salant, 32, was put on three years' probation, lost her job and may be disbarred.