I feel like I'm caught is some weird, warped time loop — reliving, again and again, spectacular lawyer self-destructions. The last few weeks brought press reports of guilty pleas from several of our brethren. Change the names, and they could be any one of many, many I've seen before.

One involved a bankruptcy practitioner who allegedly took a bundle of money from clients involved in workouts to finance an unsupportable lifestyle that supposedly included flying to his yacht in Miami, Florida, every weekend. Another was involved in a scheme to fund the purchase of life insurance policies by frail elderly folks, producing a windfall for the investors when the inevitable happened. The third was a fellow who facilitated a foreclosure rescue scam, promising distressed homeowners relief from the burden of crushing monthly payments and foreclosure suits.

All of this has a numbing aura of deja vu, echoing not just cases I have been involved in during past decades but also celebrated implosions and explosions going back generations. When I wore the badge of one who was supposed to ride herd on the bar, more than a few judges — justices and bar leaders, when faced with the latest scandal — told me that something had to be done or bad consequences would follow for us all. Looking back, I can say that while a lot of smart people tried to stem the tide, the inescapable conclusion is that, despite best efforts, we are doomed to relive the embarrassment and cost when yet another of us crashes and burns.