IN HIS Oct. 19 letter “More lawyers?’’ James Tierney, a student at University of Chicago Law School, alleges that a public law school at University of Massachusetts would increase the glut of lawyers, who are having difficulty finding work. But, at the going litigation fee of $200 per hour, or more than $400,000 per year per attorney, it is not surprising that lawyers are having trouble finding work. Who can afford to pay such high fees? Increased competition among attorneys would help lower this unit cost, making civil justice more accessible to the public while employing more lawyers.
Economics teaches that gluts are caused by artificially high prices. Some are left unemployed in the legal profession because its fees are higher than what the market is willing to pay. Maintaining exclusivity to law school, as advocated by Tierney, is intended to restrict the supply of lawyers and resultant competition among them so that their fees are not bid downward. Yet the benefits of a free marketplace to the general public are obvious in the computer industry, where competition has resulted in declining costs and cheap, widely available computers. The judicial system exists for the benefit of the people, not the lawyers, and should be managed accordingly.
J. Matt Frost
Burlington 
