Clark: Not Too Many Lawyers

Dean of the Law School Robert C. Clark defended the growing number of lawyers in America in an essay published last month, arguing that the burgeoning lawyer population actually reflects healthy social trends.

In an article titled "Why So Many Lawyers? Are They Good or Bad?" in the November issue of Fordham Law Review, Clark wrote that America's large number of lawyers results from trends like internationalization, demographic diversity, higher living standards and larger, more complex corporations.

"There are important long term social and economic trends that have greatly increased the demand for normative ordering and, therefore, the demand for law and lawyers," Clark wrote.

Clark acknowledged the steady growth of law and lawyers since the 1960s.

But he added that this trend "is in principle a value-increasing service, not a parasitic or pointless activity."

In a section called "Armchair Comparativism," Clark discussed the flaws in many well-publicized comparisons between American and Japanese lawyer populations.

According to Clark, studies counting Japanese lawyers usually count the relatively small number of bengoshi, the lawyers licensed to practice in court.

In Japan, legal study occurs primarily in undergraduate education. Thus the total number of law students is greater than in the U.S., despite Japan's smaller population, Clark wrote.

Although only a small minority of Japanese law majors become bengoshi, many go on to work in large Japanese organizations, doing much of the same work done by lawyers in the U.S.

Clark also said the accusation that lawyers create work for themselves--and therefore are somehow "Wealth destroying"--is a hard one to defend.

"[The idea that] lawmakers create regulations out of desire for legal work per se rather than to meet some other, deeper, independently valid purposes [is] far-fetched," Clark said.

Clark also said the increased reliance on lawyers is a worldwide trend, not just an American phenomenon. Nor is it altogether a bad thing, Clark said.

"No doubt there is much about the legal profession that ought to be changed," he wrote.

"But the profession appears already to be a useful one, for the whole modern world is demanding its services. And it can properly aspire to be noble, for at its best its members' services can augment the sum of human welfare."