While the American Bar Association certainly dose not use violence the whole system stinks like a protection racket. The fact they pushed states to enact a form regulatory capture is pretty messed up.
Then add the fact apprenticeships are not the norm so these lawyers are not making as much. Overall, it's quite silly and sad.
It’s not really much of a protection racket since the DOJ intervened on antitrust grounds. The ABA isn't allowed to use law school accreditation to limit supply of JDs—hence there is a huge oversupply of graduates compared to available jobs. (What keeps prices for business lawyers high is the same thing that keeps prices for MBA consultants high. There is no legal barrier to entry in that field, but Big Corp. doesn’t want a self-trained consultant, it wants a Harvard MBA who has worked in big projects before. There is a limited supply of those folks.)
Who the ABA hurts is lawyers. Requiring a JD, as opposed to just an undergraduate degree as is common in Europe, allows law schools to capture a lot of the lifetime income of lawyers.
Yes it's terrible the ABA has created a system that rigorously weeds out unqualified individuals, polices it's professional members ethics and uses education and testing to ensure all lawyers have a solid baseline education. Terrible!
I wish software engineerers had an actual equivalent to the ABA, and no the ACM doesn't count.
I was not implying letting unqualified individuals practice law. They still have to pass the bar apprentice. Are we seriously going to claim school is the only way people can learn?
I would also like to see some certification for actual software engineers. Also wish that businesses would not be allowed cheap out and rush software development. Partly, why I prefer hardware. The timelines why still may be fast are more reasonable.
There is a fair bit more nuance to the law than just memorizing some stuff and passing a test. I have a couple close family members that are lawyers and their general thought is law school is:
1.) shaping a person's mind to be critical of presented facts and evidence.
2.) develop good skills in the art of arguing.
3.) develop good skills for legal research and dealing with changing laws.
Personally, I am skeptical someone who has not gone to law school is going to be good at those things and that's why I think law school sets a high baseline and is a good thing even if it is expensive.
There's a software engineering PE exam now, fwiw. I don't know anyone who's taken it though. I took the computer engineering exam the year before the SE exam was offered; I would imagine the two have a lot of overlap.
An exam is useless if nobody hiring uses it. Good luck getting a job as an lawyer if you have not passed the bar exam because the bar exam and the ability to practice as a lawyer are linked by law.
Then add the fact apprenticeships are not the norm so these lawyers are not making as much. Overall, it's quite silly and sad.