School: Yeah, who didn't see that coming?

The Duke lacrosse team prosecutor has been disbarred for ethics violations. This is a punishment the prosecutor actually supported in a good old-fashioned bout of mea culpa. Now the families of the lacrosse team members are pushing for criminal charges.

In this case, the facts are fairly clear (even Nifong himself admitted to them), and they might indeed support criminal charges. Disbarment is a great penalty to a lawyer, to be sure, but my libertarian streak compels me to take this position: any misuse of the machinery of government and the vast forces of the state, in bad faith, must be punished severely. Society should not offer succor to dishonest people, and this goes doubly to dishonest people in power.

One of my friends from undergrad is attending law school at a fairly famous institution right now. When I described P.R., he seemed fascinated and also somewhat surprised. I asked him if he was required to take an ethics course - he said he wasn't. In my experience, taking a legal ethics class in the first year is one of the few great decisions my law school has made. I wonder if Nifong ever took one?...