VOA慢速英语2014 为什么如此多的美国律师离开法律行业?

 

AS IT IS 2014-11-07 Why Are so Many US Lawyers Leaving Law? 为什么如此多的美国律师离开法律行业?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

This is a question adults commonly ask children. Boys and girls usually provide some very interesting answers. One child might want to be “a ballet dancer and a firefighter.” Another might want to be “a circus performer, teacher and pilot.”

But you usually do not hear a lot of children saying they want to grow up to be a lawyer. As it happens, even those who grow up and become lawyers often find out they want to be doing something else.   

In the United States, the road to becoming a lawyer is long. It takes a lot of work and a lot of schooling¹. But it is a safe road that ends with a good job -- a job with a high level of responsibility, respect and a chance to earn a lot of money.

So why then, do many U.S. lawyers decide to go into other fields?

Warren Brown finished law school and once worked as a lawyer. But these days you are more likely to find him preparing a cake at one of his bakeries than arguing a case in a courtroom.

That is because after two years as a lawyer, he wanted out. He left a good job -- an interesting position that gave him authority and responsibility. But he says he was not satisfied.  

“It was a good job -- a lot of authority, a lot of responsibility. I got to practice law, which was interesting. But three months into it, I knew that I wasn’t going to be a happy, satisfied lawyer the rest of my life.”

So he turned to another one of his interests: baking.

This was an extreme move. Leaving a secure, high-paying job to start a business could be a difficult decision. But his friends and coworkers gave him the support he needed to make the jump.

“I brought in cakes to work, I would bring them to parties, I’d show friends what I was doing and people all said the same thing, 'You should build a business around this, you should open a cake shop. You should sell these.’”

So, he did.

Warren Brown opened his first CakeLove bakery in Washington, D.C. in 2002. He soon added another store in nearby Virginia. Today he employs more than 10 assistants. They help him create his popular cakes and cupcakes.

Mr. Brown has also written several cookbooks and recently launched his newest product -- cake-in-a-jar.

“You just put a spoon right in it and go. That’s it!” It’s a mini cake in a jar.”

He is just one of a growing number of attorneys² who are leaving law to become entrepreneurs⁴.

The American Bar Foundation found that almost 20 percent of attorneys who passed Bar exams in 2000 were not practicing law in 2012.

Another group, the American Bar Association, found that 45 percent of attorneys are dissatisfied with their work. That is a lot of dissatisfied lawyers! And those numbers are growing.

In fact, there are so many dissatisfied lawyers that there are even people who work at finding them new careers.

One of those people is Casey Berman, a former lawyer. He is founder⁵ of the blog Leave Law Behind. He told VOA on Skype that he helps unhappy attorneys launch other careers.

“Often times people go to law school, not necessarily for the wrong reason, but they just sometimes don’t think about it critically, and they end up in a job where they really haven’t researched, explored, kind of assessed or optimized⁶ their skills, and there’s that disconnect that I mentioned.”

He estimates that 40 to 50 percent of the country’s nearly one million lawyers are unhappy or have considered doing something else to earn a living.

“I know there’s about a million attorneys in the U.S. I would bet that half of them or 40 percent of them are unhappy or have some inklings of doing something else.”

Warren Brown, for one, says he’s happy to have found a satisfying alternative to being a lawyer. And the people who eat his cakes are happy, too.

Words in this Story

authority – n. the power to give orders or make decisions

responsibility – n. the state of being the person who caused something to happen

satisfy – v. to cause (someone) to be happy or pleased

dissatisfied – adj. not happy or pleased

alternative adj. offering or expressing a choice

entrepreneur³ – n. a person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money

bakery – n. a place where bread, cakes, cookies, and other baked foods are made or sold

1 schooling   

n.教育；正规学校教育

参考例句：

• A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
• Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。

2 attorneys   

代理人，律师( attorney的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The judge granted the condemned man a respite to enable his attorneys to file an appeal. 法官同意缓期执行，以便这个犯人的律师提出上诉。
• At five the attorneys would have gone home. ５点钟律师们就会回家了。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

3 entrepreneur   

n.企业家，主办人

参考例句：

• The entrepreneur has become a news figure.这位企业家变成了新闻人物。
• The entrepreneur takes business risks in the hope of making a profit.企业家为追求利润而冒险。

4 entrepreneurs   

企业家( entrepreneur的名词复数 )； 主办人

参考例句：

• He is one of the entrepreneurs of the concert. 他是这场音乐会的主办人之一。
• Entrepreneurs are free to develop their businesses. 企业家们可以任意发展自己的企业。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

5 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

6 optimized   

adj.最佳化的，（使）最优化的v.使最优化，使尽可能有效( optimize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• We are often asked whether consumer Web sites should be optimized for beginners or intermediates. 我们常常被问到这样的问题：消费类网站究竟应该为新手而优化，还是应该为中间用户而优化？ 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• GOOGLE Advertising optimized sequence, greatly increasing the advertising effect. 优化了GOOGLE广告位排列顺序，大大增加了广告效果。 来自互联网