Self-governance and self-regulation are defining characteristics of all professions. The preamble to the American Bar Association (ABA) Model Rules of Professional Conduct acknowledged why professions claim such authority: “To the extent that lawyers meet the obligations of their professional calling, the occasion for government regulation is obviated”. But these core powers are ambivalently asserted, expediently exercised, and constantly contested. This chapter traces the institutional history of lawyer discipline in California in order to show how the system's capacities and limitations influence the way it constructs lawyer deviance.