WashULaw professor examines the effect of alternative licensure policies on lawyer labor supply

A recent study by Kyle Rozema, an associate professor at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, explores how the labor supply of lawyers would be affected by various occupational licensing requirements.

The study, titled How Do Occupational Licensing Requirements Affect Labor Supply? Evidence From the Legal Profession, uses data from the American Bar Association and other sources to analyze the impact of policies such as bar exam cut scores, law degree requirements, and admission delays on the number of lawyers in the market.

The study finds that:

• Eliminating the bar exam as a condition for attorney licensure would increase the labor supply of lawyers by 16%.
• Adopting the most lenient or the most strict bar exam policies across states would increase or decrease the labor supply of lawyers by 8% or 14%, respectively. Leniency and strictness are measured by how high or low a bar exam cut score is on a 200-point scale.
• Eliminating the law degree requirement and allowing law office study under the supervision of a lawyer or a judge would have a negligible effect on the labor supply of lawyers, mainly because it is hard to find a supervisor for this option.
• Reducing the time lag between taking a bar exam, getting the results, and being admitted to practice law would increase the labor supply of lawyers by up to 3%. The average lawyer can get a law license five months after graduation.

According to Rozema, more research on how licensing affects the diversity of lawyers is needed to determine how licensing requirements should be structured.

“In addition, although research documents the effect of eliminating the bar exam on the quality of legal services, more research is also needed to understand how other reforms—including changing the difficulty of the bar exam or eliminating the law degree requirement — affect the quality of legal services,” said Rozema.

The study provides empirical evidence on how alternative licensure policies could alter the lawyer labor supply and potentially affect access to justice and public interest.