Attorney disciplinary proceedings - a way for prosecutors to get rid of competition?

In New York, Appellate Division 3rd Department, the attorney disciplinary committee consists of 21 members, 18 out of 21 are practicing attorneys.

How tough the market for legal services in the country really is may be seen in the news of an attorney who was turned from a paralegal position as "not meeting the minimum requirements" - for a paralegal.

Now, the members of the disciplinary committee, including attorney members, are unpaid.

Their income, unlike the income of other public prosecutors, does not come from a salary, it comes from their practice of law.

In other words, the disciplinary prosecutors depend on their practice of law for their livelihood, and in that practice of law they are direct competitors to attorneys they investigate and prosecute (for free) on behalf of the Committee.

In my husband's case it already resulted in the situation where three attorney members of the committee had pending cases with Mr. Neroni while prosecuting him, and one attorney, John Casey, chose to not prosecute attorneys who Mr. Neroni turned in for John Casey's prosecution, accept those attorneys as paying clients and instead prosecute and disbar Mr. Neroni, the whistleblower against those paying clients.

So, the fight for the shrinking market of legal services causes unpaid attorney members of the disciplinary committee to accept financial incentives in exchange for a certain exercise of their prosecutorial discretion and a certain outcome of a disciplinary case.

At least, what it appears to be.

And the public is supposed to be protected by such process?  What a travesty.