Lawyers have a sworn duty to uphold their clients’ interests and protect the integrity of the justice system as officers of the court. Despite this fact, ethics and justice have taken a back seat recently, as lawyer misbehavior, especially among the luminaries of the plaintiffs’ class-action bar, is on the rise.

Amid the indictments, guilty pleas and lawsuits against lawyers by former clients, the silence of the legal profession’s self-regulators — the American Bar Association (ABA) and state bar authorities — has been deafening.