Our nation is so dependent on its lawyers, that their ethical  problems transform themselves  into public difficulties.  Put simply: the ethical problems of lawyers are social and political problems for the rest of us. . .  It is, indeed, a matter of political concern when a profession —be it medicine, or public administration, or law— has been underregulated, granted too much power and discretion. . . it is a well-known problem that the [attorney] disciplinary system  does not work very well; in 1970, a committee of the American Bar Association, headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark, described self-regulation as a "scandalous" situation," finding that a "substantial number of malefactors" continue to practice law. ¹ There is little evidence suggesting any notable improvement since then.

—D. Luban, Lawyers and Justice (Princeton Univ. Press, 1988) at xviii, xxvi.

¹ ABA Special Committee on Evaluation of Disciplinary Enforcement, Problems and Recommendations (1970), the so-called "Clark Report." pp 1, 3.