[bobman0330]

I'm just a law student, but my instinct is that the barriers to entry in the legal profession aren't really that high. El Cheapo law school + self-study for the bar takes some time, but isn't really expensive. To start a grain farm, you'd need tens of millions of dollars, and that industry is perfectly competitive. In addition, even in a free market, starting an effective legal practice would presumably require some sort of 3rd party certification that would likely mimic a lot of bar requirements.

I'd guess the true source of the problem is that most pro bono-type cases simply aren't worth a lawyer's time. My gf worked in a clinic last year, and a lot of her cases involved tenants who were being evicted because they just couldn't afford their rent, and a guy who was defending a civil suit on the grounds that a guy whose name he didn't know had been driving his car at the time of the accident and then fled the scene. Those sort of defenses just aren't going to worth paying a lawyer to carry them out, no matter what. And, of course, poor people are unable to afford a lot of things they would like, not because of market failure, but because they just can't afford them.