This situation isn't the same as a protection racket. In a protection racket, it's the racketeers themselves that hurt you when you don't pay.
In this case, lawyers are more like mercenaries. Yes, you can pay them for protection, as you can a racketeer. The differences are that they don't come to you demanding money, and if you don't pay they won't turn around and hurt you, nor will anybody they're directly working with.
Some other lawyers may cause you grief; however, they will be working on behalf of some other party, not the lawyers you didn't hire.
You could argue that the legal system as a whole is a racket, but that's a different sense of the word.
In this case, lawyers are more like mercenaries. Yes, you can pay them for protection, as you can a racketeer. The differences are that they don't come to you demanding money, and if you don't pay they won't turn around and hurt you, nor will anybody they're directly working with.
Some other lawyers may cause you grief; however, they will be working on behalf of some other party, not the lawyers you didn't hire.
You could argue that the legal system as a whole is a racket, but that's a different sense of the word.