legal-industrial complex
Legal-industral complex (n): The tendancy for a system of laws to become self-reinforcing and ever-increasingly complicated in order to provide continual employment for legal professionals. The legal-industrial complex is especially prominent in the United States, where a disproportionately high number of educated individuals choose to become lawyers as a default career path and/or attend law school without having much idea of what they actually want to do with a law degree, the result of which is a lawyer for roughly every hundred people.
Joe Bob: "Have you decided what to do with your liberal arts degree yet?"
Mary Jane: "Well, in an economy like this, there are no jobs available for people with my training. So I guess I'll go to law school."
Joe Bob: "Wow, you're going to become part of the legal-industrial complex."
Mary Jane: "Well, in an economy like this, there are no jobs available for people with my training. So I guess I'll go to law school."
Joe Bob: "Wow, you're going to become part of the legal-industrial complex."