The Government must think pretty highly of the American Bar Association. It has chosen the ABA annual meeting at least twice this week to warn of coming Administration changes in corporate accountability.

Today, SEC Chief Harvey Pitt told the assembled lawyers to be careful.

Pitt issued a warning to corporate lawyers that "they will be held to account for business wrongdoing more than ever before under new laws adopted amid a flood of Wall Street scandals."

On Friday, Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson told ABA Criminal Justice Section Council members that the Justice Department's new policies would include indicting the corporations as entities, as well as the individual wrongdoers.

Today SEC Chief Harvey Pitt adds corporate lawyers to the list of of potential indictees.

If the saying is true that good or bad things happen in threes, here's our bet for the next Government warning to lawyers: If your corporate client does wrong, we're coming after your fees as illegal proceeds of the wrongdoing, just like we did with the drug dealers.

And before non-lawyers start cheering at the thought, consider this friendly warning: If the corporations' funds for legal fees are frozen or forfeited by the Government, the indicted corporations, their corporate lawyers and their employees will all be declared indigent and the Government, meaning the taxpayer, will end up footing the bill for everyone's legal fees.

We'll be glad when this ABA meeting is over.