diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index c1480a44e4..8c52f34b52 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 3.11.6
+ * Fix LegacyLayout to have same behavior as 2.x when handling unknown column names (CASSANDRA-15081)
 Merged from 3.0:
  * Minimize clustering values in metadata collector (CASSANDRA-15400)
  * Avoid over-trimming of results in mixed mode clusters (CASSANDRA-15405)
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/LegacyLayout.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/LegacyLayout.java
index bbef11d418..09f9cfabb3 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/LegacyLayout.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/LegacyLayout.java
@@ -1213,10 +1213,10 @@ public abstract class LegacyLayout
             // but we don't do this here and re-throw the exception because the calling code sometimes has to know
             // about this happening. This does mean code calling this method should handle this case properly.
             if (!metadata.ksName.equals(SchemaConstants.SYSTEM_KEYSPACE_NAME) && metadata.getDroppedColumnDefinition(e.columnName) == null)
-                throw new IllegalStateException(String.format("Got cell for unknown column %s in sstable of %s.%s: " +
-                                                              "This suggest a problem with the schema which doesn't list " +
-                                                              "this column. Even if that column was dropped, it should have " +
-                                                              "been listed as such", metadata.ksName, metadata.cfName, UTF8Type.instance.compose(e.columnName)), e);
+                logger.warn(String.format("Got cell for unknown column %s in sstable of %s.%s: " +
+                                          "This suggest a problem with the schema which doesn't list " +
+                                          "this column. Even if that column was dropped, it should have " +
+                                          "been listed as such", metadata.ksName, metadata.cfName, UTF8Type.instance.compose(e.columnName)), e);
 
             throw e;
         }
diff --git a/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-CompressionInfo.db b/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-CompressionInfo.db
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3793e50417
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-CompressionInfo.db differ
diff --git a/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Data.db b/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Data.db
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..94c6f93cf0
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Data.db differ
diff --git a/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Digest.sha1 b/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Digest.sha1
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..60bd60d7f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Digest.sha1
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+718738748
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Filter.db b/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Filter.db
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..00a88b4c70
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Filter.db differ
diff --git a/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Index.db b/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Index.db
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c3b42d8525
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Index.db differ
diff --git a/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Statistics.db b/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Statistics.db
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d708358871
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Statistics.db differ
diff --git a/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Summary.db b/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Summary.db
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6bfc8aa164
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-Summary.db differ
diff --git a/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-TOC.txt b/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-TOC.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5ece1a1f6d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/data/legacy-sstables/ka/legacy_tables/legacy_ka_15081/legacy_tables-legacy_ka_15081-ka-1-TOC.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+Digest.sha1
+Data.db
+Statistics.db
+Summary.db
+Index.db
+TOC.txt
+Filter.db
+CompressionInfo.db
diff --git a/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/LegacySSTableTest.java b/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/LegacySSTableTest.java
index a08e7daa1f..e665f8664f 100644
--- a/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/LegacySSTableTest.java
+++ b/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/LegacySSTableTest.java
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ public class LegacySSTableTest
     public static void defineSchema() throws ConfigurationException
     {
         String scp = System.getProperty(LEGACY_SSTABLE_PROP);
-        Assert.assertNotNull("System property " + LEGACY_SSTABLE_ROOT + " not set", scp);
+        Assert.assertNotNull("System property " + LEGACY_SSTABLE_PROP + " not set", scp);
         
         LEGACY_SSTABLE_ROOT = new File(scp).getAbsoluteFile();
         Assert.assertTrue("System property " + LEGACY_SSTABLE_ROOT + " does not specify a directory", LEGACY_SSTABLE_ROOT.isDirectory());
@@ -436,6 +436,17 @@ public class LegacySSTableTest
         assertExpectedRowsWithDroppedCollection(false);
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void test15081() throws Exception
+    {
+        QueryProcessor.executeInternal("CREATE TABLE legacy_tables.legacy_ka_15081 (id int primary key, payload text)");
+        loadLegacyTable("legacy_%s_15081%s", "ka", "");
+        UntypedResultSet results =
+            QueryProcessor.executeOnceInternal(
+                String.format("SELECT * FROM legacy_tables.legacy_ka_15081"));
+        assertRows(results, row(1, "hello world"));
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testReadingLegacyTablesWithIllegalCellNames() throws Exception {
         /**