All around the world, lawyers generate more hostility than the members of any other profession — with the possible exception of

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问题    All around the world, lawyers generate more hostility than the members of any other profession — with the possible exception of journalism. But there are few places where clients have more grounds for complaint than America.
   During the decade before the economic crisis, spending on legal services in America grew twice as fast as inflation. The best lawyers made skyscrapers-full of money, tempting ever more students to pile into law schools. But most law graduates never get a big-firm job. Many of them instead become the kind of nuisance-lawsuit filer that makes the tort system a costly nightmare. There are many reasons for this. One is the excessive costs of a legal education. There is just one path for a lawyer in most American states: a four-year undergraduate degree in some unrelated subject, then a three-year law degree at one of 200 law schools authorized by the American Bar Association and an expensive preparation for the bar exam. This leaves today’s average law-school graduate with $100,000 of debt on top of undergraduate debts. Law-school debt means that they have to work fearsomely hard.
   Reforming the system would help both lawyers and their customers. Sensible ideas have been around for a long time, but the state-level bodies that govern the profession have been too conservative to implement them. One idea is to allow people to study law as an undergraduate degree. Another is to let students sit for the bar after only two years of law school. If the bar exam is truly a stern enough test for a would-be lawyer, those who can sit it earlier should be allowed to do so. Students who do not need the extra training could cut their debt mountain by a third.
   The other reason why costs are so high is the restrictive guild-like ownership structure of the business. Except in the District of Columbia, non-lawyers may not own any share of a law firm. This keeps fees high and innovation slow. There is pressure for change from within the profession, but opponents of change among the regulators insist that keeping outsiders out of a law firm isolates lawyers from the pressure to make money rather than serve clients ethically. In fact, allowing non-lawyers to own shares in law firms would reduce costs and improve services to customers, by encouraging law firms to use technology and to employ professional managers to focus on improving firms’ efficiency. After all, other countries, such as Australia and Britain, have started liberalizing their legal professions. America should follow.

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答案 放眼世界,可能除了新闻业之外,律师行业是最遭人嫉恨的行业。但是,美国律师的客户最有理由抱怨,鲜有人能出其右。 经济危机之前的十年中,美国民众在法律服务方面的开销的增长速度是通货膨胀的两倍。最优秀的律师赚得盆满钵满,这诱使更多的学生涌入法律院校。但是,大多数法律专业毕业生无法如愿进入大公司。相反,许多人只能接手一些惹人厌烦的诉讼,由此致使美国的司法体系成为收费昂贵的噩梦。 导致这种情况的原因很多。其一是法律教育的成本过高。在美国大多数州,要想成为一名律师,有且只有一个办法:花四年本科时间攻读某一与法律无关的学科,然后在美国律师协会授权的200所法律院校中的其中一所学习三年,获得法律学位,接着还要花一大笔钱准备律师资格考试。这就使得今天普通的法律院校毕业生除本科的贷款外,还欠债10万美金。攻读法律院校欠下的债务意味着他们必须拼命工作。 改革这种体制既对律师有利,也对消费者有利。很早就有人提出了一些合理的建议,但是管理该行业的各州级部门过于保守,未敢实施。有人建议准许学生本科时期就攻读法律学位,还有人建议准许学生在就读法律院校两年后就可以参加律师资格考试。如果律师资格考试对准律师来说真的足够严格,那么就应该允许有能力早点参加考试的学生参加该考试。这样一来,那些不需要额外培训的学生就可以削减三分之一的债务。 费用过高的另外一个原因是法律行业中的所有制结构类似行会性质,具限制性。除首府华盛顿之外,非律师人士不能持有律师事务所的股份。这就导致了律师费用高、服务创新慢。业内人士也有呼声要求改革,但是反对改革的管理者坚持认为:防止外行人进入律师事务所可以确保律师尽职尽责地服务客户,而不用受迫于赚钱的压力。 实际上,允许非律师人士持有律师事务所的股份,通过鼓励其使用技术和雇佣职业经理人来着力提升效益,可以降低成本和提升服务质量。毕竟,其他国家,如澳大利亚和英国,已经开始放松对法律行业的管制,美国也应依此而行。

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