As an adjunct law professor at three law schools, I've seen the future of our legal profession at their very best, as well some of their not-so-finer moments. I've seen students get published in national journals, win prestigious moot court competitions and earn prized judicial clerkships. But I have to admit, none of my students have wound up in the spotlight like the following future lawyers—and that's probably a good thing.

For starters, I've never had a student liven upon a graduation ceremony quite like 22-year-old Hiram Yahir Salas Romero did breaking from the strict “suits only” dress code at his graduation from the law program at Mexico's Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez. Romero traded his business suit for a Spiderman costume he wore underneath and accepted his diploma dressed as the web-slinging superhero. Romero was chided by unhappy school administrators for breaking the “solemnity” of the occasion, but fellow students seemed to enjoy it and even posed for selfies with “Spidey.” Just remember this as you start practicing, Hiram—with great power comes great responsibility.

And while law students may become enthusiastic or even passionate about their chosen practice areas, few take it to the extreme that University of Santa Clara Law 1L Jess Miers did in 2018. Ms. Miers is so enamored of internet law and the importance of U.S.C. Section 230 for protecting against internet censorship that she got a Section 230 tattoo on the inside of her left wrist, complete with a mouse cursor hovering about the inked statute citation. Miers views it as a conversation starter. “I want people to ask me about my tattoo so that I am an advocate for less emotional and more informed decision-making about our internet.” Just remember this, Jess: tattoos are permanent, while practice specialty areas can be subject to change.

Of course, Miers at least has a shot at practicing internet law, while the law students at Kolkata, India's National University of Judicial Sciences will have a hard time applying the lessons they learned about enslavement of house elves and prison conditions inside Azkaban. In December 2018, the school began offering a class entitled “An Interface Between Fantasy Fiction Literature and Law: Special Focus on Rowling's Pottersverse” in which students are expected to apply both Indian law and wizardry legal principles to topics like an alleged murder by Sirius Black, “unforgivable curses” and the rules of Quidditch. The course's 40 slots filled in record time, but one does have to wonder how much value this will be when the students graduate and embark upon practice in the “muggle,” er, real world.

And the online world offers law students like everyone else, endless ways in which to get into trouble. In October 2018, former University of Texas law student Ho Ka Terence Yung pleaded guilty to cyberstalking after launching an online harassment campaign against a Georgetown Law alum who interviewed him for admission to the D.C. school. After being rejected by Georgetown, Yung begin to harass the interviewer and his family online, posting statements falsely connecting him to child sexual abuse claims and even fake Craigslist ads for the victim soliciting violent sexual activity at the interviewer's home. David Weiss, U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware, called Yung's conduct “a disturbing example of the destructive potential of the Internet and social media.” Needless to say, Yung (who was recently sentenced to four years in prison) is no longer a law student at UT.

At the University of California Irvine School of Law, a first-year law student last fall posted a video on Instagram that school officials investigated as a “potential threat.” The video showed the student holding a gun above highlighted pages from his casebooks with the caption “Which one of you Californian nerds wants to learn about the [Second Amendment] tomorrow?” Campus police and the UC Irvine administration investigated before issuing a “stay away” order to the student in question—not an impressive way to begin one's legal education.

In fact, according to a recent Kaplan Test Prep study, law schools are more concerned than ever about students' social media activities. Fifty-six percent of the law school admissions officers responding say that they have looked at applicants' social media presences. As Jeff Thomas of Kaplan explains, “An applicant's digital trail can be an indicator of whether or not he or she possess [good judgment].”

Perhaps Canadian law schools should follow suit. Recently a Canadian lawyer was disciplined for failing to adequately supervise an “articling student” (a recent law school graduate completing an internship while awaiting licensure) with his firm. Unbeknownst to this lawyer, the student had made numerous postings on social media (including the law firm's Twitter account) that badmouthed judges, prosecutors and others. According to the court, the student's social media communications “demonstrated contempt and derision towards participants in the justice system,” “served to erode the public's confidence in the profession,” and “raised serious concerns about her awareness of her ethical obligations.”

So, law students, remember that while a prank like dressing up like a superhero at graduation is harmless and fleeting, what you post on social media can be devastating and permanent, and not just for others but for you as well.

John G. Browning is a shareholder at Passman & Jones in Dallas, where he handles a wide variety of civil litigation in state and federal courts.