Easing licensing restrictions, or eliminating them, would certainly open up the field in our information age for large companies to offer services more easily to broader numbers of people at lower prices.<p>For example, many on this forum have undoubtedly used online incorporation services to some advantage. But such services truly are limited in what they can do precisely because they would otherwise come under fire for illegal "practice of law." Thus, such outfits cannot in any way perform legal services but can only facilitate the filing process and provide customers with canned kits that consist solely of standard paperwork suitable for the generalized case on and not for any specific situation. This makes such services helpful for the right cases but highly limited. And the same applies to any other area (contracts, trusts, etc.) where entrepreneurs try to set up enterprises whose aim is to provide easy-to-use, low-cost legal services for specific areas.<p>The trade-off here is that loosening restrictions would of course make it easier for unscrupulous or incompetent types to prey upon unsuspecting clients - this problem is what gives impetus to the current system.<p>I personally think that we should strike the balance in favor of easing the restrictions and trusting in clients to make good judgments about whom to hire for what purpose. But I am a working lawyer in the trenches and have not given much thought to the particular form such easing might take. An abolition of all licensing would certainly make it all more "free market" and lead to a significant lowering of prices but I can just imagine the collective gasp that would arise from all sorts of quarters were such a proposal to be floated seriously. So, I think we are stuck with the current system, with all its limitations, for some time to come.