Standing Near the Cliff Edge

What the printing press did to the priest and rabbis when people could read the Bible and make their own conclusions, the Internet will do to lawyers. At the same time, what the bloggers have done to the major news networks' monopoly on the news will affect the way lawyers give advice. The legal profession has operated under a guild culture since the inception of the profession, but the world has changed. Guilds are the association of persons of the same trade or pursuits, formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards within the context of their own production of personal products. The legal profession is a guild. A Wall Street Journal article on the decision to kill the multi-disciplined practice had the following to say:

“Why is the ABA afraid of a little competition?” Tunku Varadarajan, a senior editor, said. “There is a character in 'The Master-Singers of Nuremberg,' an opera Richard Wagner intended as a benign parable, called Sixtus Beckmesser. He is the embodiment of prejudice against change, a nitpicking guild member who abhors a new challenge, a defender of the barriers that keep safe his cozy status. W[ere] he alive today and living in America, it's likely that he would be a member of the American Bar Association.”