Wealth, power, and attorney regulation in the US states: License entry andmaintenance requirements

This study examines the effect of economic power on state regulation of att orneys. Following the economic theory of regulation, the effect of various attorney wealth and power measures is analyzed in an attempt to explain the variance in attorney regulation throughout the 50 states. Using OLS regres sion, attorney wealth and power are found to be positively related to more regulation regarding entry barriers, but power and wealth bad to less state -sponsored regulation when such regulation has a negative economic effect o n licensed attorneys.