Racist Lawyer Case Puts Fair Representation To the Test

A Massachusetts inmate says he deserves a new trial because his lawyer was racist, and the justices on his state's highest court aren't sure what to make of this argument.

That was the takeaway from last week's oral argument in the closely-watched appeal of Anthony Dew. Dew is a Black Muslim man who says the discovery of extremely racist Facebook posts from his court-appointed lawyer should invalidate his 2016 guilty plea.

Bloomberg Law's Allie Reed is covering this first-of-its-kind trial. She joins our weekly legal news podcast, On The Merits, to talk about what it would mean if an attorney's personal animus toward their client could, by itself, create a conflict of interest.

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