> Honest question: can you point to some examples where such professional discipline lead to a meaningful impact on the plaintiff's firm (it would seem that attorneys are not so scarce that censuring one or two at a large firm would do much damage), or another kind of meaningful reform?
Large firms are repeat players with the court system. A sanction that's even nothing more than a note in a file is a scary thought when that firm will have to go in front of that same court in other cases day after day. For a large firm, it's not worth it to toe that line. That said, it still happens, e.g. http://abovethelaw.com/2012/08/benchslap-of-the-day-judge-co....
The situation is somewhat different for other lawyers. A single sanaction for a frivolous suit is unlikely to get you disbarred. That said, the threat of disbarment isn't illusory: http://www.calbar.ca.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=DPQeNI9Fz.... The California Bar disbarred or suspended 394 lawyers in 2011.
Note that sanctions can include financial penalties for both the lawyer and the client. To pick an example out of a hat: http://valawyersweekly.com/2012/12/21/baseless-suit-nets-san.... If a patent troll is bringing clearly frivolous suits, nothing stops a court from recognizing a pattern and imposing significant monetary sanctions. The problem is, the bar for "frivolous suit" is pretty high in order to avoid deterrming meritorious litigation.
Out of 242,000 members only 89 where actually disbarred in 2011. On top of that misconduct often has more to do with what happens at trial/pretrial than which cases are brought to court. So, while in theory there is a downside the reality is it's vary week.
PS: Also of note 2011 was an unusual peak for example only 17 people where disbarred in 2008.
There is no reason to limit the scope to only disbarred attorneys. Being disbarred is an extremely harsh penalty. It may mean finding something else to do with your life after decades of practice. Suspensions are also serious. They can be for years, and almost invariably mean the end of one's career at a large firm. Imagine a programmer being told he wasn't allowed to program for two years. What does he go back to after two years of working retail?
Comparing to other professions, the threat of licensure revocation is less in law than in say medicine, but not by so much where I'd argue the threat is "very weak."
In 2011, 365 doctors had their licenses revoked or restricted in California, out of 131,696 (0.28%). That's about twice as high as for lawyers (0.16%). See: www.fsmb.org/pdf/2011-summary-of-board-actions.pdf
Also, note that courts typically impose monetary penalties on lawyers and clients to sanction conduct that doesn't warrant suspension or revocation of license. Such monetary penalties are not common for doctors, but are also a source of deterrence.
Large firms are repeat players with the court system. A sanction that's even nothing more than a note in a file is a scary thought when that firm will have to go in front of that same court in other cases day after day. For a large firm, it's not worth it to toe that line. That said, it still happens, e.g. http://abovethelaw.com/2012/08/benchslap-of-the-day-judge-co....
The situation is somewhat different for other lawyers. A single sanaction for a frivolous suit is unlikely to get you disbarred. That said, the threat of disbarment isn't illusory: http://www.calbar.ca.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=DPQeNI9Fz.... The California Bar disbarred or suspended 394 lawyers in 2011.
Note that sanctions can include financial penalties for both the lawyer and the client. To pick an example out of a hat: http://valawyersweekly.com/2012/12/21/baseless-suit-nets-san.... If a patent troll is bringing clearly frivolous suits, nothing stops a court from recognizing a pattern and imposing significant monetary sanctions. The problem is, the bar for "frivolous suit" is pretty high in order to avoid deterrming meritorious litigation.