A. An appeals court has ruled that Adnan Syed — the subject of the season 1 of Serial, the true crime podcast that launched a thousand true crime podcasts — deserves a new trial for his 2000 murder conviction, on the basis of ineffective legal counsel. NPR
B. There’s a huge student loan scandal enveloping Howard University, and at the center of it is a third-year law student … uh, make that an almost certainly former third-year law student. Essentially, financial aid staffers at Howard Law awarded themselves fake grants and scholarships to embezzle nearly $1 mill from student funds. Heavy.
C. Today in They Don’t Teach You This in Your Professional Ethics Class: If you excessively berate an expert witness, or make baseless accusations that said witness forged documents, you’ll get slapped with a $50K fine. ABA Journal
D. Also in Today in They Don’t Teach You This in Your Professional Ethics Class: Apparently you can have a 15-minute minimum billing policy. Legal Profession Blog
E. Allllssooo in Today in They Don’t Teach You This in Your Professional Ethics Class (jeez, lawyers get your act together): You can get thrown in jail for telling a judge she is “disrespectful to the people of Palm Beach” and that “something is wrong” with her. Palm Beach Post
