What's in an inflated grade? (and Ostrau's Law)

There's lots of blawgospheric commentary on the New York Times article about retroactively bumped-up law school grades.  Back when I was a hiring partner, as far as I was concerned, grades were about the 4th or 5th best information you could get about a candidate.  And the only absolutely reliable information coming from grades is negative.  As my law partner, Mark Ostrau, used to say (which is why it's Ostrau's Law), "if you got good grades from a top school, you can't be both stupid and lazy."  Other than that, it's hunches, probabilities, and guess work.