The coming corporate carnage.

When I was born (1943) lawyers were, for the most part, highly respected and for good reason. To succeed in the community, they had to provide professional services or bear the brunt of public disapproval and penury.

Then in 1976 a new commercial force began slowly closing the doors on small firms and solo practitioners who, though professional and competent in every degree, lacked sufficient finances to enter the advertising arena.

At first this seemed harmless enough, and few were affected adversely in those early years of lawyer advertising. However, Virginia State Bd. of Pharmacy v. Virginia Consumer Council, Inc., 425 U.S. 748 (1976), and its progeny is now rapidly daunting the little guy's hope to compete for clients going forward with only his skill and honesty for sale.

We've not yet seen the full extent of the coming corporate carnage, yet already here in Florida the competition has eliminated all but a very few established firms from the lawyer limelight. Good for the Board of Governors for at least beginning to see the deleterious effect of allowing some firms to "tout past results."

But, terminating the tout will not stem the tide as the rich crowd out the little guy in what was once a...