"Practicing law" is not well-defined. I argue that the most common interaction that U.S. citizens have with federal law is the tax code.[0]<p>Tax professionals (unlicensed as well as EAs, CPAs, and attorneys) often have to read the actual laws to figure out the correct position to take regarding various tax matters, including numerous court cases, where intepretations of the law are legion. Of course, many of them don't, even when they should, and probably make countless errors which are never caught by the IRS due to lack of 3rd-party information and scarcity of audit resources.<p>Fortunately, the IRS offers hundreds of publications and form instructions that present about 90% of tax law in layman's terms (i.e. high-school level textbook).<p>Further, many tax pros offer financial planning, estate planning, and business entity formation/dissolution advice, even when the issues involved are clearly legal and not strictly tax-related.<p>This then is an example where there are effectively no barriers to entry to practicing law. It seems to work our adquately, errors and all.<p>[0] I am assuming there are more taxpayers than vehicle drivers, and that tax law is much more complex than vehicle laws, which exist mostly at the state level.