According to BLS [0], "more students graduate from law school each year than there are jobs available." Sure, part of this is a scam by law schools, who have convinced young people to take big student loans with unrealistic ideas about a career in law. New law schools open all the time, and it's not in order to address a shortage. Mostly, however, lawyers are like the apocryphal firefighters who light their own fires. They need business, and they run the system that determines how much business they get. All of the following questions have only one answer: should such-and-such activity be regulated more closely? does such-and-such crime warrant a more severe punishment? should such-and-such prosecution not involve a jury of peers? should such-and-such type of legal process take longer and be more complicated? Yes, yes, yes, and yes! Who decides these questions? Mostly, judges and lobbyists.
Also, using words like "conspire" or "conspiracy" is a total straw man. When lots of people have the same interests, e.g. increasing the number of times an average citizen must hire a lawyer, they will act in similar ways without needing to communicate. Seeing conspiracy where no one suggested one is a way of ignoring the point.
