Has the Beverly Stayart Saga Ended?

Devoted Reader(s) will recall Beverly Stayart's lawsuits against various companies seeking redress for alleged damage to her online reputation.

We last covered this saga back in February. At that point, dismissals of her latest federal claims were awaiting affirmance at the Seventh Circuit, but her remanded state law claims were still pending in Wisconsin. The state law claims had been brought to my attention by a rude anonymous commenter to the earlier post:

Judge Randa authorized Stayart to go forward with her lawsuit in state court, which is exactly what she did. You apparently make up the "facts" as you go along. Your posts are riddled with lies.

Too many lawyers–or not enough?

An op-ed in the New York Times by Clifford Winston of the Brookings Institution proposes doing away with the barriers to entry–namely, law school and the bar exam–to becoming a lawyer:

What if the barriers to entry were simply done away with?

Legal costs would be reduced because non-lawyers, who have not had to make a costly investment in a three-year legal education, would compete with lawyers, who in many states are the only options for basic services like drafting wills. Because they will have incurred much lower costs to enter the field — like taking an online course or attending a vocational school — and can operate as solo practitioners with minimal overhead, these non-lawyers would force prices to fall. The poor would benefit from the lower prices for non-criminal matters, and poor litigants, who might be unrepresented in criminal matters like hearings because they could not afford a lawyer and because of dwindling state legal aid, would be better off.

This is not a new idea, of course. But I thought Mr. Winston stated the case against lawyer regulation rather well.  Any thoughts in response, Mr. Gillette?

Phony lawyer

WGN reports that Tahir Malik, a Skokie, IL man -- and convicted burglar -- has been arrested for falsely posing as a lawyer for some five years.  "No one suspected anything for years because he did everything right -- except obtain a law degree," said Thomas Dart, the Cook County Sheriff.  Indeed, according to the Evanston Patch, many of his clients were happy with his work, which mostly consisted of representing people in traffic court.  More here.

Some thoughts:

1)  The most famous Illinois lawyer -- arguably the most famous lawyer, period -- also did not have a law degree.  Talking about Abraham Lincoln, of course.  Of course he did study the law on his own and was admitted to the Illinois bar. 

2)  Are any of Malik's communications with his former clients protected by the attorney-client privilege?

ADDED:

3)  There's been a lot of talk about the horrible job market for new law graduates -- with the insinuation that law school borders on a scam.  But this convicted felon has apparently been making a go of it as a lawyer without any legal education at all.  I guess his big advantage over the new law graduates is the lack of crushing debt.