Shark repellent.

One of my disputes with Ralph Nader over the years has concerned his tendency to depict trial lawyers as white knights in shining armor, dedicated to protecting the little guy from corporate abuse. Some of them are knights, but others am more dedicated to lining their pockets with the fat fees that they pick from the little guy's pocket. The class action is a much favored technique for doing the picking. And to realize the maximum take from a class action, it is necessary to be named the "lead counsel" by the court.

Because "the lead final collects the bulk of the fees and controls how the money is doled out to other lawyers," writes Kara Scammel in The Wall Street Journal, these knights in shining armor spend much of their time "elbowing each other." This tug of war, Scammel explains, "is all about money." And, I would add, not about justice.

The result is that the unhappy losers of the tug of war have created a new species of lawyer. Now, in addition to the traditional specialists in real property, trusts and estates, torts and criminal law, we have the "objector." Objectors specialize in protesting the fees given to the lead attorneys, and in seeking a bigger piece of the pie for the other lawyers in the case. The Journal's Jathon Sapsford tells the story of "poor" Lloyd Constantine, who a year ago thought he was going to get a class-action fee of $600 million. But he still hasn't collected. Objectors challenging his fee have the settlement fled up on appeal. I must say that it does not break my heart that the sharks are attacking one another. At least they're not stirring up trouble for the rest of us.