There aren't too many lawyers, there are too many laws. I would bet that if the study had correlated the number of laws and its effects, it would find the same

There aren't too many lawyers, there are too many laws. I would bet that if the study had correlated the number of laws and its effects, it would find the same result. After all, when a complex set of laws is passed, some lawyer must become a specialist in it. There were no personal injury attorneys until products liability laws were passed in the twenties. Likewise, there were no securities lawyers until the SEC was formed and securities laws were passed in the thirties. Patent lawyers, bankruptcy lawyers, etc. Obamacare was 2000 pages of law alone. The resulting regulations and case law will be tens of thousands of pages dictating the actions of people who will need a lawyer to know it all, analyze it, and apply the law to their clients' situations.