I have hinted here at various times recently of a major ethics project that I am working on relating to a growing and so far barely recognized scandal in the civil justice system. It is time to reveal a few details.

There are corrupt tactics and practices in the legal world centering on the litigation of mass torts. They are responsible for losses totaling billions of dollars inflicted on the victims of injury, plaintiffs, corporate shareholders, and taxpayers. These have metastasized over the last decade, spread by the opportunities created by too-loosely regulated law firms being allowed to include non-lawyer partners (in D.C., Arizona, and Utah), the rapid explosion of litigation financing provided directly to lawyers and law firms after a century of being regarded as an unethical practice to be avoided, and a tsunami of unethical and deceptive maneuvers that have been largely ignored by or unreported to the legal profession’s ethics watchdogs.

Quite by accident, I became aware of these practices in my legal ethics practice, frequently by being retained by lawyers and law firms who were the victims of them, and whose clients were at risk as a result. I was stunned at the depth of ignorance of this scandal among most lawyers, which, of course, is one major reason why it continues unabated. I began having regular discussions with legal ethics authorities, and, upon finding a whistleblower who had been an architect of many of these practices, began assembling a coalition, still growing, to expose the bad actors, tighten up the laws, regulations and legal ethics rules that have allowed them to thrive, and to overhaul the system itself that is neither trustworthy nor safe.

One of my tasks, a difficult one, is to accomplish this ambitious mission without harming my many good, ethical, dedicated clients in the mass tort field who are enmeshed in this corrupt system, and have no choice but to rely on and work with the very people, lawyers and entities who are perpetuating the corruption. I believe I have come up with a way for them to do this, safely and while meeting their obligations to their clients. They will have to work with me to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. It will involve some faith and sacrifice.

However, I liken what I am seeing to the stories told in “Spotlight,” or “Dark Water.” A large, powerful, wealthy and ruthless cabal has to be exposed, the evidence against it is undeniable and overwhelming, and I have the trail of blood marked and photographed. Many good people are reluctant to oppose the parties responsible. I understand. But this is a serious problem, and it must be fixed.

I am doing this pro bono. If all goes well, I may eventually be compensated for my time and work, but that is not a motive here, as it never is for me: that is why I live in a cardboard box by the docks. Among those in the impressive proto-“Avengers” band I have assembled and am assembling are public interest lawyers, ethics specialists, government lawyers, mass tort specialists, defense firms, lobbyists, legislators, trade associations, and activists. A book that details much of the scandal will be published by a major publishing house in January. This is real. It is happening.

I’m an ethicist: I wouldn’t lie to you.

Among the tactics and corrupt practices this project will expose and eliminate are…

• Law firms controlled by non-lawyers and litigation funders whose goal is profit only, not providing competent and zealous legal representation to clients as required by the legal profession’s core principles.
• Financial organizations that plant their officers as partners in law firms in exchange for their financial support of litigation, a quid pro quo forbidden by the ethics rules.
• Law firms secretly organized and established by financial groups that have no capability of handling cases, whose plan is to purchase cases, refer them to unwitting firms or lawyers in other jurisdictions, then claim as much as 50% of the fees without performing any work on the cases at all, again in breach of ethics rules.
• Law firms that only function as mass tort case aggregators, with neither the skill, experience or intent to handle those cases or contribute to their litigation, whose only motive is to acquire portions of the fees through case referrals.
• Misleading and non-compliant retainers, which deceive clients into believing they will receive legal services one of the firms is incapable of providing.
• Excessive fees, including so-called “common benefit fees,” that violate the profession’s ethics rules while not being disclosed to clients, in the case of common benefit fees, another rules violation.
• Identity theft and the resulting filing of false claims, fraudulently increasing the number of plaintiffs, sometimes by as much as 20%
• Fake or illicit D.C. law firms with financial groups or other entities as partners or owners, which is forbidden by the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct.
• …and more.

You can view today’s post as metaphorical shot across the bow of the bad actors—they know who they are, and so do I—but it is also a call to arms for the ethical lawyers and others out there who may read this. If you feel you have something to contribute to this effort, contact me: you know how. Among other things, I am interested in contacts with honest, trustworthy reporters—surely there are some—who would be interested in breaking this story.

There will be more of this story to come, I promise, even if I hear a click when I try to start my car followed by that tell-tale KABOOM! (I have really been warned about that.) Right now, all I feel comfortable revealing is this brief outline.

Aren’t you glad you read Ethics Alarms?