P.S. A blog reaction from Tom Freeland.

“‘I’ll take care of it’ — with five words, a billionaire transformed into a felon” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

More from Kevin LaCroix:

An earlier WSJ.com Law Blog post reported (here) that Cauley was in fact a protégé of Bill Lerach. Today’s article on Bloomberg (here) about Cauley’s criminal sentencing notes that Cauley joins a growing list of plaintiffs’ securities class action attorneys who have “been jailed for felonies,” including Bill Lerach himself and his former law partners, Mel Weiss, Steven Schulman and David Bershad, and including even Marc Dreier.

These gentlemen of course made their living for many years accusing corporate officials of fraud. Ahem. Yes, well…isn’t ironic, don’t you think?

Gene Cauley gets seven years is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Mississippi: Judge DeLaughter sentenced to 18 months is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Two books set to hit on Scruggs scandal is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Attorney toppled diet-drug case Goliaths” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Gallion gets 25 years, Cunningham 20 in fen-phen fraud case” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

At a barbershop in 1994, [Cauley] says, he picked up Forbes magazine and saw a profile of Lerach; it was the famous article, where the attorney was quoted as saying, “I have the greatest practice . . . I have no clients.”

Cauley approached Lerach and was soon launched in a thriving class action practice (“His usual way to deal with things was to yell and bang things and threaten,” said a fellow plaintiffs lawyer, Glen DeValerio of Boston.) It came crashing down under revelations that the Little Rock, Ark.-based lawyer took $9 million from clients’ settlements to spend on firm overhead and unrelated investments. [Koppel/WSJ, ABA Journal, interview-based WSJ Law Blog story first, second]

The rise and fall of Gene Cauley is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Prominent Arkansas Lawyer Probed Over Missing $9 Million” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Grand jury probes John Edwards-Rielle Hunter payments is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

A former television presenter who became one of Britain’s highest-earning solicitors has been struck off for “disgraceful” misconduct in his handling of sick miners’ compensation claims.

Andrew Nulty, who earned £13 million from the claims in one year, joins a growing list of solicitors punished for their role in the coal health scandal, exposed by The Times.

Earlier: Feb. 3, 2009; Feb. 19 and Dec. 12, 2008; May 8, 2007.

U.K.: Another miners’-health lawyer disbarred is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system