The paucity of legal jobs for young people just out of law school, coupled with the high cost of law school, has created a perilous situation for many graduates and spurred debate about how to reduce its costs. President Obama recently floated the idea of a two-year degree instead of three. That idea has been greeted enthusiastically, since apparently those who have been through law school know that the last year is mostly a waste.

But George Leef goes further. Why require law school at all? Why not let anyone take the bar exam, regardless of his or her education? In the past, most lawyers learned their craft as apprentices, and one can argue that they still do — that law school itself doesn’t do much to train a lawyer.

Leef points out that “six states permit any individual to sit for the bar exam with or without a law degree in hand (California, Maine, New York, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming).” It doesn’t seem to hurt those states, so perhaps policy should move in that direction.