In this L.A. Times article, the author, a lawyer, correctly observes that there is a large surplus of lawyers in the United States. Law school, like the rest of higher ed in America, has been greatly oversold. For a large number of people, the cost of getting a J.D. is far in excess of the prospective benefits.
The trouble is the author’s solution. “The government should consider taking steps to stop the flow of attorneys into a saturated marketplace,” he writes. No, we don’t need central planning to solve this waste of resources. Supply and demand will do a more effective job of it than could the federal government by stripping the American Bar Association of its accrediting authority and vesting it in the American Association of Law Schools. I’d favor getting rid of law-school accreditation altogether.