Ribstein: Compulsory Licensing of Attorneys is Doomed

Larry Ribstein has been writing about the "death of big law" and other changes in the profession for some time.  This week he is debating compulsory licensing of lawyers at a Federalist Society event in Los Angeles.  Ribstein comments, "This is one of the big regulatory issues of our time.  It’s not just about who makes how much money, but access to justice.  The current system of compulsory licensing for the practice of law is doomed.  The question is not whether it will end, but when and how. "

Gary Rosin comments on the importance of this issue for law schools:

If state licensing, and state licensing (Bar) exams, go the way of the dodo.  What does that do to law schools?  In most states, only graduates of ABA-approved law schools are qualified to take the Bar exam.  With no Bar exam, what happens to the demand for ABA-approved legal education, or to the demand for ABA accreditation?
At that point, formal legal education would be, at best, a matter of branding, of distinguishing a lawyer from mere providers of "servicios notarios."  So, too, would accreditation become a way of branding, with the ABA only one of several law-school accreditors. But would the ABA retain its power if it no longer controlled the gates to the profession?