Last Friday William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr. were found guilty of stealing millions of dollars from their own clients in a Fen-Phen case in Kentucky.

The crux of the charges against the pair involved whether they had distributed enough of a $200 million fen-phen settlement to their 440 clients. Prosecutors argued that the two men tried to keep well over half of the settlement, an amount that far exceeded the one-third provided by contracts made with the class members.

This verdict and today's decision to disgorge $30 million wrongfully gained, and "$20 million they put in a non-profit fund and then paid themselves to manage," should send a message to some in the plaintiffs' bar that justice is about putting their clients' interests first, not about advancing their own self-interest.

Unfortunately, many class action lawsuits, which are routinely originated by lawyers with little or no consultation with their clients, are very vulnerable to this type of fraud and abuse. In just over the past year, some of the biggest names in the plaintiffs' bar have been convicted or pled guilty to criminal acts that have benefited them financially to the detriment of shareholders, their clients and even other plaintiffs' lawyers.  Last Friday's conviction and today's decision will hopefully send a message that justice is never served when lawyers are enriched at the expense of their own clients.