"I think it's a, I've come to believe it's a very serious problem," he says. "You just don't seem to have that culture in that profession where they're really sort of saying, what exactly is patent policy?" He adds: "We could save billions in transactions cost and efficiencies if we change things."
Clifford Winston of the Brookings Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the market for lawyers and the role of lawyers in the political process. Drawing on a new co-authored book, First Thing We Do, Let's Deregulate All the Lawyers, Winston argues that restrictions on the supply of lawyers and increases in demand via government regulation artificially boost lawyers' salaries. Deregulation of the supply (by eliminating licensing) would lower price and encourage innovation.