Interesting article in this morning’s Legal Times:  Law School: Make It Optional? Why is a Mercedes Education Necessary for a Lawyer Seeking a Corolla Legal Practice?:

Why are law schools everywhere in the United States basically the same? Why do they all require three years, rather than one or two? Why do they all have big libraries that cost $4,000 or so per student per year? Why do they all hire mainly expensive, full-time faculty, rather than much cheaper part-time teachers?

The answer is that the American Bar Association’s accreditation standards require these conditions, and almost all states demand that students graduate from an accredited law school before they can become lawyers. The ABA responds that all the requirements are necessary to train students properly and to protect the public from law schools producing incompetent lawyers.

The ABA’s standards, however, may protect less the public interest and more the interests of the many law professors, law librarians, and practicing lawyers who serve on the ABA’s accreditation committees. The law professors and librarians have an incentive to extend law school as long as possible so that more professors and librarians must be hired, and to require the hiring of full timers like themselves.