Lawyers traffic in and profit from and come close to all that is vile and reprehensible in human behavior, all the while proclaiming to themselves and the world that they are justified by their profession and their work in trodding the paths they follow. But lawyers are, one suspects, always in danger of crossing the line, becoming tainted, eating of the forbidden fruit of the tree that sustains their livelhood. It also makes him or her a figure to be suspected, gossiped about, feared, and the subject of sacrifce. The shaman can also be feared for his ability to engage in the black magic of negative transformation, making good bad, the eatable to spoil, crops to fail, settled matters fall into great confusion, and the decided and determined become unimaginable anxiety, uncertainty, and chaos. One doesn't have to dig too deep or look too far to see that lawyers and the legal profession are in something of a mess.
Anecdotal evidence abounds.
Journalistic accounts confirm it. We see it on lawyer television dramas. And, they assume, the claim cannot be proven because it is not true. Most boldly presented, this claim involves a fair amount of denial. Some folks don't like to be reminded of a troublesome condition.