> There’s a reason you can’t buy legal services from Walmart.

Well, actually...

"The Law Store offers fast, face­-to­-face legal services in convenient Walmart locations."

I looked briefly and, correct me if you know better, but I believe The Law Store is a business partner of Walmart rather than being owned by it. So when you pay them you are not paying Walmart shareholders but its owners (who are lawyers)

Yeah, fair enough :) I wasn't making a serious rebuttal, sorry for not being clear.

No, the reason lawyers make so much is that they have knowledge and skills that are in high demand and that most people don't have.

Software developers don't have any trade union at all, and we're paid well.

The reason you can't buy legal services from Walmart is the same reason you can't buy software development from Walmart. It's just not their business.

In Poland, lawyers got deunionized to a large degree around 10 years ago, and the result is that most lawyers with private practices are no longer making great money, or are plain struggling. The only ones who make a very good living are those in niche specialisations, handling corporate interests.

In the UK at least, a lot of lawyers (particularly partners of small firms) make a lot less money than people might think.

Can you imagine how much more software developers would earn if we were unionized as lawyers are? If you couldn't practice without a license? If you needed to go school for $$$ before being licensed?

Lawyers typically don't make all that much money until they a bunch of years and experience under their belt.

You're not paying for legal representation. You're paying for all the time and effort the lawyer spend establishing their professional reputation.

You or I would get laughed out of court. A professional lawyer could show up, say the same things and get taken seriously.