Not many Americans think of the legal profession as a monopoly,
but it is. Abraham Lincoln, who practiced law for nearly
twenty-five years, would likely not have been allowed to practice
today. Without a law degree from an American Bar
Association?sanctioned institution, a would-be lawyer is allowed to
practice law in only a few states. ABA regulations also prevent
even licensed lawyers who work for firms that are not owned and
managed by lawyers from providing legal services. At the same time,
a slate of government policies has increased the demand for
lawyers' services. Basic economics suggests that those entry
barriers and restrictions combined with government-induced demand
for lawyers will continue to drive the price of legal services even
higher.
Clifford Winston, Robert Crandall, and Vikram Maheshri argue
that these increased costs cannot be economically justified. They
create significant social costs, hamper innovation, misallocate the
nation's labor resources, and create socially perverse incentives.
In the end, attorneys support inefficient policies that preserve
and enhance their own wealth, to the detriment of the general
population.
To fix this situation, the authors propose a novel solution:
deregulation of the legal profession. Lowering the barriers to
entry will force lawyers to compete more intensely with each other
and to face competition from nonlawyers and firms that are not
owned and managed by lawyers. The book provides a much-needed
analysis of why legal costs are so high and how they can be reduced
without sacrificing the quality of legal services.
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