The Archives

Everything written by Walter Olson on law, economics, and more

Walter Olson

Walter Olson is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies. He is known as founder and principal writer of the longest-running blog on law, Overlawyered, which ran from 1999 to 2020.

Before joining Cato, Olson was associated with the Manhattan Institute and American Enterprise Institute and was an editor at the magazine Regulation, then edited by Antonin Scalia.

Posts

Walter Olson on Reform Law Schools, Don’t Sue Them

Walter Olson Sep 20, 2011

I’ve expressed doubts previously as to whether the simple model of licensure as incumbent protection adequately explains why our legal system (like all others I know of) limits who can be a lawyer, and in particular who can litigate in others’ interest. But if there’s one sector of the legal system that’s genuinely ripe for ... Walter Olson on Reform Law Schools, Don’t Sue Them

EducationLegal Profession & ScholarshipPlatforms

Walter Olson on Careful What You Unleash

Walter Olson Sep 19, 2011

As a libertarian, I mostly concur in the critique of occupational licensure made famous by (among others) Milton Friedman. For the most part, licensure is a consumer-unfriendly affair that protects incumbent practitioners from competition, locks out promising new methods of service provision, and interferes with voluntary dealings between professional and client. It is dubious enough ... Walter Olson on Careful What You Unleash

EconomicsEducationLegal Profession & Scholarship