Unlocking the Law: Day 1 Wrap Up
Its been a busy first day of posts. I’ve collected links here for readers who want to catch up for tomorrow’s action when we will feature another full slate of posts. I’ve also created a tab to archive all of the Unlocking the Law posts here. Day 1 featured posts from: Larry Ribstein on After ... Unlocking the Law: Day 1 Wrap Up
Larry Ribstein on After the Fall (Of Regulation)
My previous post in this symposium argued that deregulation is upon us. Here I’ll discuss what that could entail. The legal information expert: I summoned up the specter of computers practicing law. There is in fact no doubt that computers can practice law as that term is defined by some courts and regulators: giving personalized ... Larry Ribstein on After the Fall (Of Regulation)
Eric Rasmusen on Everyday Versus Fancy Law
Let me start with a couple of stories. Story 1. I’m an economist, but I got a chance to be like a real lawyer in filing an amicus brief recently (Barnes v. Indiana– here’s our brief). We had only two weeks to organize, write, and file because of an oddity of the case (a petitition ... Eric Rasmusen on Everyday Versus Fancy Law
Walter Olson on Careful What You Unleash
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
Richard Painter on Litigation Financing and Insurance
Fifteen years ago I published an article urging that non-lawyers be allowed to finance the cost of legal representation in return for a percentage of a judgment or settlement if the plaintiff is successful. Common law prohibitions on champerty were widely believed at the time to prohibit third parties from buying an interest in litigation. ... Richard Painter on Litigation Financing and Insurance
Renee Newman Knake on Corporations, the Delivery of Legal Services, and the First Amendment Part I
Last month the New York Times ran an editorial with the headline “Addressing the Justice Gap,” observing that “the poor need representation and thousands of law graduates need work.” The piece proposed several solutions, but notably absent was the reform most likely to deliver legal services to those in need and to create jobs for ... Renee Newman Knake on Corporations, the Delivery of Legal Services, and the First Amendment Part I
Bruce Kobayashi on Creative Destruction and the Market for Legal Services
Innovation and entry by entrepreneurs is a powerful force for change. Joseph Schumpeter saw these forces as the primary engine for long-term growth, even as the process of creative destruction destroyed existing wealth, including monopoly rents associated with established regulatory regimes. The forces of creative destruction seemingly have their sights squarely on the legal profession, ... Bruce Kobayashi on Creative Destruction and the Market for Legal Services
Eric Talley on Deregulating Lawyers: Comments From a Knee-jerk Skeptic
I have spent the last few days reading the recent study by Clifford Winston, Robert W. Crandall, and Vikram Maheshri, entitled “First Thing We Do: Let’s Deregulate All the Lawyers” (Brookings Institution, 2011, $19.95). In it, the authors marshal a variety of empirical methods to argue that the current practice of state bar admission and ... Eric Talley on Deregulating Lawyers: Comments From a Knee-jerk Skeptic
Thomas Morgan on Realistic Questions About Modern Lawyer Regulation
If this symposium is asking the single question whether U.S. jurisdictions should deregulate the practice of law, my answer has to be no. My problem is that the question itself conflates at least three questions, and the answers to each should be different. The first question is whether people other than licensed lawyers should be ... Thomas Morgan on Realistic Questions About Modern Lawyer Regulation
Gillian Hadfield on Right-Regulating Legal Markets
Although it has the zing of a slogan that I myself have often used, the call to ‘deregulate’ the legal profession is misleading. Yes, most of us who argue that the legal profession is excessively closed to competition—in a way that hampers both access and innovation, as I have argued in recent papers—think that the ... Gillian Hadfield on Right-Regulating Legal Markets
William Henderson on Are We Asking the Wrong Questions About Lawyer Regulation?
The TOTM Unlocking the Law Symposium is designed to raise a host of questions surrounding lawyer regulation, including ending lawyer licensure requirements and the ban on non-lawyer investment. My thesis, for better or worse, is that we may be asking the wrong questions. Despite the stringent regulations placed on lawyers, ingenious entrepreneurs—most of them non-lawyers—are ... William Henderson on Are We Asking the Wrong Questions About Lawyer Regulation?
Robert Crandall on We Need More Lawyers!
Several years ago, when Cliff Winston and I began looking at the incomes earned by lawyers, we were struck by several facts. First, after accounting for age, years of education, experience and various other demographic influences, we found that the income premium earned by lawyers had increased by about 50 percent between 1975 and 2004, ... Robert Crandall on We Need More Lawyers!
