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Comment by luma | Hacker News Reader

Lawyers have organized their licensing so well that they are the ONLY profession in America not being overrun by PE consolidation because they had to foresight to not allow it. The capital class was eventually going to run up against them to try and break down that wall.

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Accenture, E&Y, PWC and Deloitte all have a law division; not as much in the US but overseas and slowly creeping here because these firms are joined at the top and fueled by public money. The consolidation was set back by more than a decade because of Enron and the prosecution of Andersen, but now they're back. These hybrid firms, because of the requirement of annual tax filings, offer something big law firms simply cannot. Very few law firms have set up consulting arms and those who have done so have stumbled, e.g. Greenberg Traurig.

None of the orgs you listed provide direct "lawyers for hire" style legal services in the United States. They'll have partner orgs which are lead by lawyers, they'll have international arms with international lawyers, they'll offer legal-adjacent services, but show me and example where, say, Deloitte will put a lawyer into a US courtroom who is directly being paid on W2 by Deloitte.

You can't, because they can't legally operate like that in the US.

Deloitte: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/tax/solutions/legal-bu...

> The Deloitte US firms do not practice law or provide legal advice. Deloitte Legal refers to the legal practices of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited member firms (or their respective affiliates) that provide legal services outside of the United States.

PWC: https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/tax/legal-business-soluti...

> PwC US does not provide legal advice or opinion in the United States

Lawyers in the US, through the state Bar Associations, have done a damn fine job of protecting their industry against capital. Doctors in the US now answer to MBAs, Lawyers only answer to other Lawyers.

Can you provide more details on why they and not doctors can resist?

What would the motivation be for them to do that? Restricting access to law & order to the wealthy is working out great for them.

Extracting money. Delta between billed rate and minimum wage is pretty massive. There is lot of money to be extracted from that gap. And from pushing the billable rate and hours up at same time.

They are getting something for that money: exclusive access to the legal system. That is power they wouldn't sell.

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