Professor Deborah L. Rhode is quoted in The Wall Street Journal about the ethical issues raised in Merck's Vioxx settlement:

The provision improperly "stacks the choice for the client," says Deborah Rhode, an ethics professor at Stanford Law School. "If the price of exercising what should be their right to reject the settlement means they have to forfeit their representation from the lawyer actually familiar with the case, it's not exactly an uncoerced choice."