The topic of too many lawyers is both timely and timeless. The future make up and performance of the legal profession is in contest, challenged by new entrants, technology and the demand for transparency; at the same time, lawyers long have participated in contests over professional boundaries. In this book, we take up several fundamental questions about the question of whether there are too many lawyers. What do we mean by too many? Is there a surplus of lawyers? What sort of lawyers are and will be needed? How best can we discern this? These questions and more are addressed here in scholarly articles presented at the Onati International Institute for the Sociology of Law (Spain) by some of the best researchers in the field. The collection, witha chapter by Prof. Richard L. Abel, addresses methodological, normative and policy questions regarding the number of lawyers in particular countries and worldwide, while connecting this phenomenon to political, social, economic, historical, cultural and comparative contexts. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the Legal Profession.
About the Author: Eyal Katvan Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, College of Law & Business, Ramat-Gan, Israel. Specializes in the fields of bioethics, law & medicine; The Legal and Medical Professions; legal history and the history of medicine.
Carole Silver Professor of Global Law & Practice, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago, Illinois (USA). Research in globalization and the legal profession, legal education, regulation of the legal profession.
Neta Ziv Professor at the Buchman Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University. Teaches Professional Responsibility, Legal Ethics, Law and Poverty and Disability Rights. Her book Who Will Guard the Guardians of Law? Lawyers in Israel between the State market and Civil Society (2015) describes the Israeli legal profession from a historical, critical perspective.
Avrom Sherr is Emeritus Professor and Director at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London, UK. His research focuses on legal education, the legal profession, access to justice, ethics and conduct of professions, and professional competence.
