In just over a month, corporate America has seen the downfall of three of its most vilified legal opponents.

　　Bill Lerach, the former securities class action king, was sentenced to two years in prison on February 12; Eliot Spitzer, the one-time scourge of Wall Street, announced his resignation as New York's governor on March 12; and Richard Scruggs, the master of giant tobacco and asbestos cases, pleaded guilty today to one federal count of "conspiracy to corruptly influence a state circuit court judge." He faces up to five years in federal prison.

　　Spitzer's tumble was the most dramatic. After all,Spitzer had graduated from his role as prosecutor.