There is an over saturation of lawyers in America in many of the legal fields. Making the laws harder to access is a way for lawyers to add value to their jobs because it erodes away the ability for the common person to read, understand, and use the laws. Carl Malamud has pointed out this protectionist racket in the past and actively fights against it.
Law schools lie about the availability of jobs post graduation to keep the student money flowing in. This has been mentioned before on HN here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8180690 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9443739