DUI, does anyone care?

Alphaholic:

As long as it's a misdemeanor, then only God cares.

This made me giggle like London does when he gets his shit pushed in training day style.

MoneyKingdom:

You are talking about UBS. Do you mind if I post the link?

I am not talking about UBS. What link?

pedaltodaflo:

I heard it was illegal for companies to discriminate based on past convictions unless it was related to the job?

That's ridiculous, no way does it apply to the securities industry. Any criminal activity speaks to a person's character and intelligence - why would you hire someone who was dishonest enough to commit a crime and/or stupid enough to get caught?

i bet all of them care enough to ask you about it

can you get dinged at lets say MS, JPM, or CS after receiving the offer once they find out?

You might get dinged, but I think most people/employers are willing to forgive one DUI. If you have already received an offer I assumed they ran a background check and you passed. I had a drunken happy hour discussion with a senior trader about what to do and what not do when you get pulled over per his experience. He then gave me his lawyer's name and number.

After receiving the offer?

Sounds like if they could do that it'd have to be in writing some where, otherwise were talking potential law suite...in fact I'm guessing there has been a law suit over this before and there is probably a ruling out there some where.

How did you get an offer and the DUI never come up? Most BB have people do Due-Diligence even on the people coming in for SA Super Days....I know all my BB app's for this summer had a criminal history disclosure E-Sig.

A friend received an offer over the summer and was pulled over last week and is being charged with a DWI, should he disclose it right before the background check or should he call up the HR person who extended him the offer after he goes to court and everything is settled?

I'd keep it to myself unless asked but be ready to talk about it

what do you other guys think?

Well, if you checked "no" on the question "Have you ever been convicted of a crime?" but you have a DUI conviction on your record, then that would be lying and you could definitely be fired immediately if they found out.

he had a background check when he interned in the begining of the summer but hasn't had the one before his start date for FT. When he fills out the paper work for the background check he has to put yes for the section "Have you ever been convicted of a crime" and list DUI? Will his offer get rescinded because of this if he had an offer from let say Citi, JPM, or BofA?

Well, try and extend the court date or something after the background check. As long as it hasn't been settled in court, it's not an felony. To be convicted you have to found guilty. Go and hire a lawyer. For this situation it's definitely worth the dough and advice he/you receive. Maybe the lawyer can plead the case to a misdemeanor or something depending on the circumstances and personal record. Though I doubt it'll help with DWI, but a lawyer is definitely the path I'd recommend to go. Seriously, stop with drinking and driving. A DUI, DWI is not cool and should be taken seriously. That shyt is dangerous, I know a girl that passed away DUI related instance. It was real sad, great girl and life in front of her.

NY State has this nasty little rule that if you get an alcohol related driving offense you cannot plea it out to something none alcohol related. Stemmed from people with enough money getting a DWI and knocking it down to a traffic ticket of some sorts.

Try and delay it, get a good lawyer. Depending on how high the BAC was and the circumstances surrounding the arrest something might be able to reduce it.

I'm pretty sure for first offenders its a misdemeanor, would it take an affect then??

Seems like you made a pretty stupid mistake. Guess that teaches you a lesson. And yes, JPM could possibly pull your offer.

Above advice is great though. Get it delayed as far back as possible.

OP, like I indicated in my pm response to you, I wanted to put my thoughts out there in this thread so it was available to WSO members generally.

first, sorry to everyone to have to do this again... before i give you my advice, realize that I am likely not licensed to practice law in your state, nor do know what state this occurred in, so my thoughts are general in nature and are not to be confused as legal advice (and thus I will not treat this as creating an attorney-client relationship, with all the protections and ethical responsibilities).

second, your situation is generally similar to the poster in this thread: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/criminal-background and my general advice to you is the same as I posted there, namely: be forthright about your history. While not ideal or anything to be proud of, a DUI is not a career ender like fraud, theft, deceit, etc

third, i would like to counter a few points that have been made above: - Not having seen the language of the particular questionnaire you have/will have to fill out, I don't know this for sure, but I suspect that it will ask you if you have ever been convicted of - or charged with - any criminal offense other than minor traffic violations. If this is the case, it won't matter if the court date is delayed, since you've already been charged. - A DUI is the result of a poor decision generally made without any intent to harm/mislead, whereas playing games with the bank regarding disclosure is an intentional and deliberate decision. By extension, a DUI is a much more forgivable act, whether it's this employer or a future one. Your reputation is of the utmost importance and it will follow you wherever you go. Do yourself a favor and start off on the right foot. By demonstrating the maturity and responsibility of owning up to your mistake, you are sending the signal to your employer that you have already learned from this mistake and are likely to continue learning from future mistakes (that you, and everyone else, will make). - While I strongly agree that you should hire an attorney to handle this for you, do not expect to walk away from this without something being on your record permanently. In my experience, DUIs are offenses that courts are very reluctant to expunge due to the negative backlash if the defendant reoffended and hurt/killed someone. - A misdemeanor versus a felony for this is immaterial from the bank's standpoint for the background check (other than knowing how poorly your judgment in that decision was), although it is obviously important for the impact on you personally. Also, dui's are typically only felonies if you had certain "aggrevating factors" present in the course of your offense (i.e. BAC >.2, bodily injury, number/age of passengers, damage to property, etc).

fourth, my general advice would be as follows: 1. hire a good attorney... note that i said good, not expensive. being expensive is not indicative of being good - in fact for DUIs, I'd argue that the inverse might be more true. 2. conclude the court proceedings, pay the fine, learn from this mistake 3. gather all the documents you received (or should have received) relating to this matter (this should include all court documents, police reports, arrest reports, witness statements, correspondence, etc... the more the better) 3. write a nice, professional, letter to HR at your future employer informing them of this matter and stating that you realize the severity of this charge and believe that is important that they are aware of it (do this soon after the court stuff is done). Also note that, while you have not yet been asked to authorize a background check for FT yet, you wanted to proactively handle this with the bank, as you understand that they may rightfully be concerned and you are willing to prove to them that you have learned from this and have committed yourself to making better decisions in the future 4. send them the letter and enclose copies of all the documents you tracked down (with a summary of the documents and a short version of your story so they aren't guessing what happened) 5. a week to two weeks later, give the person you sent the materials to a call and just - nicely - ask if they have any questions and, even if they don't, that you are happy to answer any questions at their convenience as they arise 6. learn from this and realize that, as long as you stay out of trouble moving forward, this is recoverable - just don’t shy away from it (you need to be proactive about how you handle this...)

Long story short, defer the court proceedings or not, the bank will find out about this in a background check, and they will not be comfortable if you do not proactively talk with them about this. Just think about it from their situation… if you were going to hire a nanny for your kids, would you be more at ease with someone who was upfront with their history, demonstrated their knowledge of the lessons learned and is able to provide specific examples of how they will avoid making the same/similar mistake again, or with someone who you had to confront about the incident to learn the details and to gain an understanding of what, if anything, they learned from it? Man up, take responsibility and view this as a learning experience, regardless of what the bank may decide in regards to hiring you.

They did decide to hire you after a SA stint, right? They obviously liked/tolerated you enough to extend the offer, so they at least have a basis for overlooking this.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions/concerns and how this turns out for you. Good luck.

What about "possession of alcohol by underage person" charge. It was in a national park so it was a federal charge and the park ranger told me it was a "petty charge like a traffic ticket" and played it down. He said since it was a federal charge it would be difficult to find, but I would still have to check yes to "have you ever been charged with an alcohol related offense?" Is this as detrimental as a DUI?

Thanks reformedatty, for that detailed response, it def... helped

Once they found out what did they say?

touchme... your experience is why i gave the advice i did. and yes, they probably know you better than your parents, at least about your post-high school career.

cyoung33... i got your pm and just sent you a reply. i'll get back to you with my thoughts in the next few days, but i'm currently on the road and don't have much time to put into WSO as I usual like to.

reformed atty, how can you claim to be an attorney and not know the difference between charged and convicted? unless the application specifically asks "have you been charged with a crime, and if yes, what was the outcome?", he doesn't need to "come clean", and if his offer doesn't specifically say that he needs to alert the HR in case he acquires a conviction, then he is not doing anything wrong by withholding the information. If HR runs another background check a year later and finds out - well he'll have had a year's worth of headstart on his money making ability, or whatever he is getting hired for, and HR will be more apt to "forgive" it, and if they don't, he'd still have an easier time interviewing at other places with a beefed up resume.

You're pretty much fucked.

Just be honest about it. Could hurt, probably won't. I know people at MBB with DUIs.

I don't know.. since they didn't ask I'm guessing they aren't too worried about it? It will probably be more of a hurdle in getting whatever securities licenses you need.

Don't disclose it until you absolutely have to and definitely do not talk about it in the interview

Best of luck man. Got one two years ago. It's not a fun experience. Don't talk about it though. Roll with the punches after you get the job.

Don't they ask you if you've been convicted? Since you haven't been convicted yet, you don't need to disclose it at all.

yeah, don't say shit until you're convicted, which should be at least a month or two (at least around here, not sure about other areas of the country)

until then, you're innocent